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Hello,

I am looking to apply for jobs in the forthcoming 1L summer and was wondering am I totally out of luck as a top 40% URM male at a T30 school? I have strong ties to the state where I am attending school and want to stay in the state.

Also, should I leave off that I am in the top 40% and just put my GPA on my resume? Looking for some helpful advice thanks!

Use your strong ties to your advantage and a firm gig won't be impossible. Depend on your connections more than your grades (because they aren't going to help too much).

I would just list GPA and not the percentage.

heymom wrote:Hello,

I am looking to apply for jobs in the forthcoming 1L summer and was wondering am I totally out of luck as a top 40% URM male at a T30 school? I have strong ties to the state where I am attending school and want to stay in the state.

Also, should I leave off that I am in the top 40% and just put my GPA on my resume? Looking for some helpful advice thanks!

Thanks for the advice. You think if I leave off the percentile it wouldn't be looked upon worse than actually putting it on the resume? Just wondering if employers would think it is worse than 40% or not.

heymom wrote:

heymom wrote:Hello,

I am looking to apply for jobs in the forthcoming 1L summer and was wondering am I totally out of luck as a top 40% URM male at a T30 school? I have strong ties to the state where I am attending school and want to stay in the state.

Also, should I leave off that I am in the top 40% and just put my GPA on my resume? Looking for some helpful advice thanks!

Thanks for the advice. You think if I leave off the percentile it wouldn't be looked upon worse than actually putting it on the resume? Just wondering if employers would think it is worse than 40% or not.

I don't think it will make that much of a difference. I don't believe that listing it will be too much of a negative, either. I think employers just assume when you don't have a rank listed (eg 1 out of 150) that you aren't ranked that high and that's the end of it. Use your connections and you could likely land a gig without anyone even looking at your grades (happened to me).

I don't think it will make that much of a difference. I don't believe that listing it will be too much of a negative, either. I think employers just assume when you don't have a rank listed (eg 1 out of 150) that you aren't ranked that high and that's the end of it. Use your connections and you could likely land a gig without anyone even looking at your grades (happened to me).

Alright I think I will just put the GPA on there without class rank. Also, when you say "connections" you are referring to the connections w/the region or state or are you implying network connections. As I really don't know anyone in the legal field and the don't think the few network contacts I've made can provide me with a boost in employment

Just apply. Can't hurt.

I'd leave off "top 40%" because this isn't really close to the top of the class anymore. You're teetering toward the middle now. Just put your GPA.

gdane wrote:Just apply. Can't hurt.

Yup.

I think OP actually has pretty good odds depending on race. Data shows that 1L performance of URM students is generally worse than other students, and it is likely that firms will prefer an above median t-30 student over a bottom quartile t-14 student (which over 1/2 of URM's are). I don't want to get into discussing the merits of the system, but utilizing the system that is in place OP objectively has a better chance than many might assume.

Thanks for the advice guys I think I will just list the GPA. Also, one more clarification my school does GPA out of 100 points so it isn't the traditional out of 4.0 Scale, will that cause confusion or is that ok?

heymom wrote:Thanks for the advice guys I think I will just list the GPA. Also, one more clarification my school does GPA out of 100 points so it isn't the traditional out of 4.0 Scale, will that cause confusion or is that ok?

Same AP as above. Firms normally have GPA graphs they take for each school. Depending on your school and whether it's in a school's region it may make sense to include evidence of your class rank if your school permits this. For instance, many schools don't "officially rank" so it's a violation of school policy to guesstimate your rank (even conservatively). If you're Notre Dame for Chicago or Fordham for NYC then all the firms will calculate your points. If not it may be slightly troublesome because it's uncertain how much work they will put in to identify one applicant's class rank when they probably have thousands of applications for every available slot.

Any firm in your state is going to have attorneys from your school since it's a T1 in that market. They know how your grades work. List your GPA, not your rank, and just apply.