Lack of Preselects Help Forum

[Anonymous User]

Just got schedules for OCI and I got 14 interviews, though only 3 of these were preselects, the remaining through lottery. I go to a t20 school and the firms preselct 1/3 of bids. Should I be worried about the fact that most of my interviews are through lottery? Is my best option to start emailing more "safety" schools that I did not get interviews with? For reference I am around T25% and on LR at my school. Thank you!

[WheatThins]

Safety Firms? You should be hustling pretty hard at this point.

[Zero99]

Safety Firms? You should be hustling pretty hard at this point.

+1

You hustle until you have an offer. There is no safety.

[OutoftheWoods]

USC? if so, PM me, may be able to help. I think 3 is a bit low for your stats. Sounds like you aimed too high?

[Anonymous User]

What is bad about interviews being through the lottery?

[sandwhich]

What is bad about interviews being through the lottery?

I think it's because, if you're someone below their cutoff, there's not much to stop them from tossing your resume in the trash the second you leave the room (assuming you didn't somehow them with your baller interview skills).

OP you're not in a great place but not in the weeds yet. 3 preselect is good a good thing. It means 3 firms are likely willing to take you as long as you're a good fit. Practice-practice-practice your interviewing skills and mass mail like crazy. I think the two T20 schools with that lottery/preselect split are USC and UT, both of which feed into large markets. You have good stats. You'll do fine with some hustle

[Anonymous User]

really preselects are that good of a sign?

[A. Nony Mouse]

Preselects mean the employer has seen all your stats and still wants to interview you. Lottery means the employer doesn't know anything about you besides that you attend that school and they got assigned you. So yes, preselects are a better result. Obviously you still want to go in to lottery interviews and knock it out of the park, and you can certainly get jobs off of lottery interviews, and it depends where you go to school/your GPA & resume generally. But all else equal, preselects are likely more promising.

I will note, though, that I went to a regional school that was all preselects, and a lot more people got preselected for screeners than actually got CBs/offers. This may not apply to OP's school, but it's not unheard of for firms to preselect however many candidates from the local OCI, but primarily fill their classes with T14 mass mailers. (It's probably not that dire for OP because their school is better/they're probably in a bigger market than I was, but I thought I'd just mention it.)

[Glasseyes]

GULC does the 70/30 split too, but we don't find out which firms are preselects and which are lottery interviews, which I find deeply annoying. I'd say the fact that you got some preselects is pretty sweet, but hustle hustle hustle is the name of the game either way.

[registering]

How'd you bid? For your "safety" firms, these firms are probably aware that they're your safeties, assuming your CSO has historical offer data. I think some of them at least may have not wanted to waste their precious few preselects knowing full well that you'd pick another firm if you could.

As I'm understanding it, firms are much stricter in trying to control for SA class size than law schools. After all, the firms are paying you, not vice versa. One offer being extended is probably one offer they're much more reluctant to extend to a second choice candidate. In the mean time, the best candidates are getting snagged by other firms. This is more so true in smaller offices in secondary markets, which usually have smaller classes.

You should probably mail the firms that were your "safeties" or "matches" and see if they'd be willing to give you another shot. An actual interest/tailored letter would probably help a lot to dispel the concerns they have about your interest.

[chuckbass]

I honestly think you should be hustling a lot more and not looking at any firm as a "safety." There are no safety firms when you're at a T20.

[LitttUp]

I'm putting my money on the fact that OP goes to UCLA.

3 pre-selects is not bad. Remember that some of the firms you bid on had 150-200 people bidding on them. If the firm had 20 spots, then they got to pick 6 of those 150 resumes. They likely went to people who had already reached out to them/had a connection/had better paper credentials than you. Don't fret.

[Anonymous User]

I honestly think you should be hustling a lot more and not looking at any firm as a "safety." There are no safety firms when you're at a T20.

This. I'd say even CCN on down, there are not really safety firms at this point in your search.

[OutoftheWoods]

I'd say there aren't any safeties for anyone below top 10% in any school CCN down. I honestly don't get the whole gpa floors thing below top 10% if you dont have things like stone, since order of the coif is the only graded honor you'll see on the profile.