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To try and make this post as succinct as possible, I am a URM who is very interested in providing meaningful, if anecdotal, data to future minority classmates/law students about where they can potentially get in the door given certain GPAs/interviewing strategies/etc. There is a dearth of such information available, at least to my knowledge.

That being said, is it a worthwhile endeavor to wait on pending firms that I don't particularly care about, simply in order to gather more (anecdotal) data? In other words, there is no real chance that I will accept an offer at these firms, but I don't want to withdraw my application without receiving a response, for the sake of advising future years.

So, while I will immediately decline any received offer, I am curious as to whether this strategy could have a potentially damning effect on current job-seekers. I realize that firms will inevitably fill their summer class, regardless of when I decline/withdraw my application, and I also realize that every outstanding decision might be a no. However, even with all that, I'd really just like to know if anyone believes this is ultimately a harmful strategy to those still actively seeking an offer at a firm. I do not want to intentionally hurt anyone's chances.

I would make this a poll, but it would be more helpful if you could provide reasons for why you believe whatever you believe.

Thanks.

In my experience, URM status mattered little if at all in the big firm hiring context. Your anecdotes likely won't be all that meaningful, especially considering all the noise (how much of an offer can you attribute to race? gender? grades? school? interviewing skills? who you interviewed with? extracurriculars? random interests? other factors?).

I think you're way overthinking this (and way overvaluing the possible data you could add). Getting a job is not like law school admissions. It's not some formulaic process where having a bunch of data can paint a perfect picture. There are just too many factors to know for sure.

Your strategy doesn't sound worth doing (if you wouldn't accept an offer, just withdraw now). That said, there is little to no damning effect since the only people that could conceivably be "hurt" by this would be people who already have offers that are expiring who would then hear later than they otherwise might have. Though even that's not guaranteed since firms do a decent job of predicting their yield and may not even have to extend additional offers.