Duke 3.51- What range to bid for first 15 firms? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Any idea what range of firms I should aim for in the first half of my bids? Ideally want to go to DC, but not opposed to NYC given GPA ranges. Bid acceptances are done on a lottery system at Duke

3.51 GPA (3.3 is median), main journal, moot court, mock trial, 1L SA.

Thank you all.

[filibuster]

What range? You might or might not get DC....

[sflyr2016]

Just accepted at Duke as a transfer from UF. I am struggling with this decision. One big factor for me is their OCI list. But right now I cannot access it. Anyway to pm a list of the Fl, specifically Miami firms who are attending? This would help me so much with this decision. Sorry to detract from the topic.

[fallingup]

Anonymous isn't really effective if you out yourself via your activities.

outed for anon abuse!

[Anonymous User]

OP, I had a similar resume at Duke (minus moot court). For NYC, V10 will be tough, but not impossible - focus on firms with larger class sizes that hire lots of Duke kids (Skadden, Weil, DPW, and Latham are good picks). DC is risky, and I knew people with better grades than yours who had trouble finding work there. I would suggest ranking some less selective NYC firms higher up to hedge against the possibility of striking out in DC (Cadwalader, Shearman, JD, Willkie, etc).

[soj]

Anonymous isn't really effective if you out yourself via your activities.

nor is it effective if you get yourself outed for abuse

[Genthree]

Does anyone know what the rough percentile breaks are at Duke? Top 10%, Top 25%, Top 1/3?

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know what the rough percentile breaks are at Duke? Top 10%, Top 25%, Top 1/3?

I have heard, off the record (hence the anon) that 3.7 is ~top 10, 3.55 top 25% and 3.45 top 33%. Not sure how accurate that is, if it holds up every year. Honestly, it's probably not worth all that much, since it's going to vary year to year, and since we don't even know a median for our class, just that it's somewhere between 3.2 and 3.4 (if I'm reading this right) (http://law.duke.edu/about/community/rules/sec3/).

Numerical Grade

Percentage of Class
4.1-4.3 0-5%

3.5-4.0 20-40%

3.2-3.4 30-50%

2.8-3.1 20-40%

2.0-2.7 0-5%

[Anonymous User]

Any idea what range of firms I should aim for in the first half of my bids? Ideally want to go to DC, but not opposed to NYC given GPA ranges. Bid acceptances are done on a lottery system at Duke

3.51 GPA (3.3 is median), main journal, moot court, mock trial, 1L SA.

Thank you all.

Based purely on grades, Cravath, SullCrom, Simpson, Debevoise, Paul Weiss and Cleary will be tough. However, if you are a strong interviewer, I would probably still bid Simpson and Cleary.

Your grades are over the magical 3.5 threshold, which means they are sufficiently high enough for most firms where you likely will not be auto-dinged due to grades but not high enough where they will unequivocally guarantee you a job almost anywhere. Interviewing skills will be important.

Good luck!

[Anonymous User]

Any idea what range of firms I should aim for in the first half of my bids? Ideally want to go to DC, but not opposed to NYC given GPA ranges. Bid acceptances are done on a lottery system at Duke

3.51 GPA (3.3 is median), main journal, moot court, mock trial, 1L SA.

Thank you all.

Also, I would probably avoid DC for the most part.