Top Law Schools

I'm around top 33% at USC/UCLA. Grew up in NY and attended college there, came out to USC/UCLA for law school (my ties to LA are 1-2 summers interning out here). Given my ties to LA, I don't think coming from NY is going to affect my bidding there. I'm more concerned about applying to Nor Cal, other SoCal besides LA, and NY.

Given my approx. ranking, should I bother with any of those three? I believe other SoCal areas - OC, Irvine, etc. won't be too much of an issue, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm doubtful about SF, since I have no ties there although I do currently attend in CA. I really do just want to work in CA, but I think I may have trouble getting that across there.

NY is really my main issue, given that they will barely take anyone from my school. However, I'm one of the very few people in my class with authentic NY ties, so I think it may be worth a shot. But I also don't want to waste a bid.

So basically, should I only focus on LA and SoCal, or put more bids into SF/NYC? Out of my bids, I was originally thinking 75% LA, 15% SoCal, and 10% NY. Note that I intend on mass-mailing NYC regardless, it's just wasting my OCI bids that I'm concerned about.

Thanks in advance!

Just wondering. What's a 33% GPA?

I take it you go to USC and not UCLA but I'll comment generally. SF will be tough with just top 1/3, ties aside. You should bid NY firms because they have larger classes. Very few of your classmates will be shooting for them, as opposed to Cali firms which will be much more competitive. UCLA/USC are limited in their national portability, but I don't think New York should be a problem.

Not to usurp your thread, but what about top 25%-33% at Vandy/Wustl? Should be ok for NY if mass mail widely and bid reasonably?

Anonymous User wrote:Not to usurp your thread, but what about top 25%-33% at Vandy/Wustl? Should be ok for NY if mass mail widely and bid reasonably?

No

rad lulz wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Not to usurp your thread, but what about top 25%-33% at Vandy/Wustl? Should be ok for NY if mass mail widely and bid reasonably?

No

No as in "no chance", "50/50 toss up", or "not a lock"?

So is SF not good because of the ties or the class sizes? Some SF locations of firms had higher numbers. I love LA but the low class numbers are scary (they either were not as bad for 2013 when I first applied to ls on the nalp firms, which seems to be the case, or I just looked at the firms w/ higher GPA requirements before). But I'm assuming LA chances >>> SF even if the class sizes in SF are like 2-3 more.

rad lulz wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Not to usurp your thread, but what about top 25%-33% at Vandy/Wustl? Should be ok for NY if mass mail widely and bid reasonably?

No

I think what Rad is trying to say, as he has said many times about Vandy and similar schools is that relying on OCI and a mass mailing of only one market is not enough, by any means, to get you a job.