Northwestern OCI Forum

[Anonymous User]

Just got my 1L grades back and did a lot better than last semester, ending up with a 3.43. However, I had just over a 3.1 last semester so that only brings me to a 3.27. I know median is 3.3ish so I'm just wondering--how screwed am I for OCI?? I'm planning on going to diversity fairs this summer/mass mailing/doing whatever else I need to do.

[kennethellenparcell]

All is not lost young grasshopper although it will not be easy. What are your market ties? What is your area of interest? Current plan of hustle? Do you have one?

[Cobretti]

Are we making this the 'all things NU OCI' thread?

If so:

Last Year's Thread

[penguin1]

original anon - pm me.

[Anonymous User]

All is not lost young grasshopper although it will not be easy. What are your market ties? What is your area of interest? Current plan of hustle? Do you have one?

well ideally i'd like to go back to CA but i understand how difficult that is gonna be in my situation. so i guess i'm open to NY as well. i have ties to SF and LA. i know a number of Bay Area attorneys and plan to reach out to all of them this summer. other than that, my plans are to attend all of the career fairs i can find, including the Bay Area diversity career fair, to start mass mailing in July, and to bid well at OCI. anything else i should add to the list?

[Anonymous User]

I have pretty much the exact same grades as OP. 3.1 to a 3.48 for 3.28 overall. Had a C+ first semester which kind of bothers me as a B- would have put me over 3.3. But I guess there are a lot of ways I could have eeked out that .02, and it's really my fault for sucking so much first semester. Significant ties to the Chicago area and some OK business/finance work experience. Leaning toward doing transactional stuff preferably in Chicago - but with my GPA, do I have to soley target NY?

(Sorry, not trying to take over your thread OP, just thought I might chime in as we're similarly situated).

[Anonymous User]

I have pretty much the exact same grades as OP. 3.1 to a 3.48 for 3.28 overall. Had a C+ first semester which kind of bothers me as a B- would have put me over 3.3. But I guess there are a lot of ways I could have eeked out that .02, and it's really my fault for sucking so much first semester. Significant ties to the Chicago area and some OK business/finance work experience. Leaning toward doing transactional stuff preferably in Chicago - but with my GPA, do I have to soley target NY?

(Sorry, not trying to take over your thread OP, just thought I might chime in as we're similarly situated).

OP here. No worries. It sucks to see a 3.4 and then have it go down so much because of that first semester...hopefully we can both figure something out.

[cookiejar1]

Hi all! I'm only a 1L and this is also my first time going through this process but I'll share some of what I've been doing lately.

I've spent the last couple of days just leisurely putting together a massmailing list for some secondary markets I was interested in. I now have a spreadsheet of 100+ firms per secondary market with all their class sizes and main practice areas listed. I started with a simple NALP search. NALP isn't comprehensive though and they miss some firms that otherwise were mentioned on Chambers and other resources (Vault / Am Law / etc). I think this is because sometimes firms don't list particular city offices on their NALP forms and so when you search by region through NALP you miss some firms. Just a heads up. It's pretty mundane work but you go get through it really quickly especially if you're like me and have that QUALITY entry-level data-entry work experience....

[Kikero]

I have pretty much the exact same grades as OP. 3.1 to a 3.48 for 3.28 overall. Had a C+ first semester which kind of bothers me as a B- would have put me over 3.3. But I guess there are a lot of ways I could have eeked out that .02, and it's really my fault for sucking so much first semester. Significant ties to the Chicago area and some OK business/finance work experience. Leaning toward doing transactional stuff preferably in Chicago - but with my GPA, do I have to soley target NY?

(Sorry, not trying to take over your thread OP, just thought I might chime in as we're similarly situated).

Chicago could be tough with those numbers, although it might sort of be a blessing. With a 3.28 there are only a handful of Chicago firms where you'd likely be competitive, so you can probably split Chicago and NY. By split though, I mean I'd recommend focusing on NY and taking a couple of Chicago interviews where you think you have the best shot. You don't want to end up with too few interviews in both markets because of a poor bid strategy.

[kennethellenparcell]

CA is not out with your grades OP. Of course, NY will be better just because it has so many more job openings. For the other poster, Chicago is also not impossible. At this point, for you guys, it will really come down to interviewing skills and how much you hustle between now and OCI. There are firms that will definitely look at you with that GPA and I know people who had numerous callbacks with that GPA.

In addition to the mass mailing, make a list of firms that you would like to work at in the markets you want to be in. Research these firms, figure out what practice areas interest you and reach out to attorneys who are alums of NU or that you somehow have connections with (this is where networking during the 1L events really comes in handy) for more information to help you refine your story. Do as many of these informational interviews as possible and FOLLOW UP. If you have an interest in a particular area, use those informational interviews to understand the landscape of law firms in that area in your chosen market (an in-depth knowledge of this can really help during OCI, shows you did your research). For me, I set up a ton of informational interviews in CA and flew out on my own dime - got a few callbacks from this effort outside of OCI.

If you are eligible for diversity fairs, sign up for the Bay Area diversity fair, sign up for CCBA and use OCI to target NY and perhaps a few firms that you did not get screeners with through the diversity fairs. These will help you get more screeners. Informational interviews might also help you get more firms that don't come to OCI and that you didn't get through the fairs.

Most of all, have hope and don't give up. This can be a really discouraging time. People might not respond to your informational interview requests. You will probably feel frustrated. Just don't be afraid to ask for something (tactfully of course) and run down any lead you possibly can.

[kennethellenparcell]

Adding on to let you guys know how the informational interview situation ideally plays out cause I had no idea going into the process. Just a disclaimer that most of the time, it will not play out this way. But if even 10% of the time it does, then it was worth the effort.

You meet with attorney X for coffee and ask them specific questions about their practice area, the landscape of law firms in their geographic area, how they chose their practice area, interesting cases they are working on, advice for the job hunt process, and other questions that demonstrate you did your research prior to the meeting both on the attorney and the firm. Best outcome: Attorney X offers to pass your resume along to the hiring committee. This occasionally happens, but don't count on it. Either way, definitely make sure to follow up with a thank you note.

OR after you meet with attorney X, you bid for the firm highly and get it through OCI or through pre-select at some other fair. During the 20 minute screener, they will likely ask you why you are interested in their firm. You then talk about meeting with attorney X and all the specific information they told you about the firm that demonstrates you really did your research and you're really interested in the firm. I think a strategy like this may work best with firms that have a lower GPA cutoff and not many summer slots. So for example in Chicago - Drinker Biddle, Bryan Cave, Sheppard Mullin.

I once met with a partner who I asked what really made him offer one student a callback over another, given that they both met the firm's hard GPA floor. He told me that the biggest factor was if he felt the student was likely to accept a callback. You can do this by demonstrating your interest in the firm.

[zugzwanger]

What's a reasonable minimum GPA range to be relatively safe to be able to target Chi in OCI?

[Anonymous User]

What's a reasonable minimum GPA range to be relatively safe to be able to target Chi in OCI?

It's more important to have a compelling story for why you'd like to be in Chi. If you have ties, I'd say that a 3.5 is safe; of course, I know students who've gotten top firms with lower.

[Anonymous User]

At 3.6x is it worth bidding Kirkland and Skadden(chi) high?

[Anonymous User]

At 3.6x is it worth bidding Kirkland and Skadden(chi) high?

Depends if you're an amazing interviewee. It's a stretch, unless you have LR.

Also, Kirkland gives a ton of slots, so I can't imagine that you'd need to bid them as high as you might think.

[09042014]

At 3.6x is it worth bidding Kirkland and Skadden(chi) high?

Depends if you're an amazing interviewee. It's a stretch, unless you have LR.

Also, Kirkland gives a ton of slots, so I can't imagine that you'd need to bid them as high as you might think.

This shitty advice. Bid Kirkland pretty high. It's a Northwestern favorite. 3.6 is a bit low for them, but not really.

If you are aiming for corporate (which would explain why you are asking this), you have to bid those two firms.

[Anonymous User]

3.79. Do I go hard on Kirkland at CCBA and compete with the other pre-selects (if selected, of course) or do I bid Kirkland at OCI?

[09042014]

3.79. Do I go hard on Kirkland at CCBA and compete with the other pre-selects (if selected, of course) or do I bid Kirkland at OCI?

Do you get the preselect results back before OCI bids are due?

[Anonymous User]

3.79. Do I go hard on Kirkland at CCBA and compete with the other pre-selects (if selected, of course) or do I bid Kirkland at OCI?

Do you get the preselect results back before OCI bids are due?

I'll get my preselect results on or before July 7. OCI bidding ends on July 28. So if I don't get preselected I can still bid on K&E for OCI.

[09042014]

3.79. Do I go hard on Kirkland at CCBA and compete with the other pre-selects (if selected, of course) or do I bid Kirkland at OCI?

Do you get the preselect results back before OCI bids are due?

I'll get my preselect results on or before July 7. OCI bidding ends on July 28. So if I don't get preselected I can still bid on K&E for OCI.

I'd apply for CCBA, and if not, select at OCI

[Anonymous User]

At 3.6x is it worth bidding Kirkland and Skadden(chi) high?

Depends if you're an amazing interviewee. It's a stretch, unless you have LR.

Also, Kirkland gives a ton of slots, so I can't imagine that you'd need to bid them as high as you might think.

This shitty advice. Bid Kirkland pretty high. It's a Northwestern favorite. 3.6 is a bit low for them, but not really.

If you are aiming for corporate (which would explain why you are asking this), you have to bid those two firms.

My year you did not need a top 10 bid to get a KE interview (c/o 2014). We had something like 100+ slots. They also screwed things up; originally the number was 160, so pretty much everyone got an initial interview, until they cancelled a few. Even then, though, KE had a suite.

I've found that Skadden is a bit more grade selective? Others should comment on this, but in my experience and others I've seen, KE seemed to be much more lenient with grades.

[Anonymous User]

3.79. Do I go hard on Kirkland at CCBA and compete with the other pre-selects (if selected, of course) or do I bid Kirkland at OCI?

Do you get the preselect results back before OCI bids are due?

I'll get my preselect results on or before July 7. OCI bidding ends on July 28. So if I don't get preselected I can still bid on K&E for OCI.

I'd apply for CCBA, and if not, select at OCI

I'd recommend saving your bids at CCBA for some other firms. KE is much more stingy at CCBA than at NU OCI, and your gpa is stellar so you have no problem being compared as a statistic to your classmates.

If there really aren't any other interesting firms at CCBA for you, bid KE.

[Micdiddy]

I don't really have much advice as I am also a rising 2L who knows nothing about OCI bid strategy. Basically tagging in case this thread become all things NU OCI.

Eta: btw to op and the anon a few below him, improving by .33 and .37 is pretty great so feel good about that!

[Anonymous User]

I've found that Skadden is a bit more grade selective? Others should comment on this, but in my experience and others I've seen, KE seemed to be much more lenient with grades.

This isn't true at all. Skadden will go pretty far down in the class because it has spots to fill and (whether fair or not) it's seen as less desirable than KE.

If you have middling grades it's not necessarily bad to bid Skadden, but the same can't really be said about KE.

[Pokemon]

At 3.6x is it worth bidding Kirkland and Skadden(chi) high?

Depends if you're an amazing interviewee. It's a stretch, unless you have LR.

Also, Kirkland gives a ton of slots, so I can't imagine that you'd need to bid them as high as you might think.

This shitty advice. Bid Kirkland pretty high. It's a Northwestern favorite. 3.6 is a bit low for them, but not really.

If you are aiming for corporate (which would explain why you are asking this), you have to bid those two firms.

My year you did not need a top 10 bid to get a KE interview (c/o 2014). We had something like 100+ slots. They also screwed things up; originally the number was 160, so pretty much everyone got an initial interview, until they cancelled a few. Even then, though, KE had a suite.

I've found that Skadden is a bit more grade selective? Others should comment on this, but in my experience and others I've seen, KE seemed to be much more lenient with grades.

We had 80 slots, but incompetent CSO assumed somehow it was 160 slots. And then to save face after half of the school lost their KE interview, they made up the whole, well at least there is a suite.

I would bid KE high... everybody and their grandma at NU who wants to stay in Chicago bids on KE.