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How many internships/jobs did you apply to for your 1L summer?

I don't want to overdo it but I also don't want to be left empty handed come May. I'm thinking 10-12 for good measure. Or does that sound low?

Thanks all

It depends what you’re shooting for a ton. If SAs, you’d want to do a ton. I think I applied to upwards of 100 as a 1L. If judicial internship, you’ll probably be more limited due to limited number of judges in the areas that interest you. So I’d put that number somewhere around 25 at various levels of state and federal (unless you really want federal and just apply broadly to federal judgeships, in which case this number could balloon easily). If other government work, it depends how many agencies, both state and federal, interest you. This number could range from 10-50 easily.

More realistically, you should just apply to jobs that interest you until you have an offer at a job you want. That could be 5 applications, or it could be north of 100. There is no objective math to determine the “right” number of applications.

UVA2B wrote:It depends what you’re shooting for a ton. If SAs, you’d want to do a ton. I think I applied to upwards of 100 as a 1L. If judicial internship, you’ll probably be more limited due to limited number of judges in the areas that interest you. So I’d put that number somewhere around 25 at various levels of state and federal (unless you really want federal and just apply broadly to federal judgeships, in which case this number could balloon easily). If other government work, it depends how many agencies, both state and federal, interest you. This number could range from 10-50 easily.

More realistically, you should just apply to jobs that interest you until you have an offer at a job you want. That could be 5 applications, or it could be north of 100. There is no objective math to determine the “right” number of applications.

This is pretty much right. It entirely depends on you, your connections, and your goals. If you're gunning for a specific thing, then you might want to apply more broadly. I'd also suspect your school plays a big role in it. I applied to 3 SAs, 1 judge I was interested in, 4 USAOs, and maybe 2 main justice divisions? So maybe around 10 total applications? I had PI focused friends who sent 2-3 total applications and friends who applied to 1 division of the justice department. But I know others who applied to like 15 total USAOs and every division of the DOJ. I don't know anyone personally who applied that broadly to firms, but I can tell you from years on TLS that plenty of people send out hundreds of mailings to firms to snag an elusive 1L SA.

So without knowing more, it's impossible to tell you. Most of our professors advise sending out your top 10 applications or so on December 1, and then more if you don't get any of your top choices. But of course, YMMV.

Just to add anecdote: I was like UVA2B, I applied to maybe 150-200 firms ranging from biglaw to small, another 50ish in-house positions, and then maybe 20 non-paid positions. It all depends on what you want to do your 1L year. If you want a firm job or a paid position, you will need to cast a wide net because those jobs are harder to come by. If you just want to work and don't care where, with decent grade you may only need a handful of apps.