Firm Grade Sensitivity for Cornell Law School Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hey guys - would love to get some input.

I'm slightly above median at Cornell and our AJF schedules just came out. For some reason, most of the interviews I got ended up being at firms that have higher medians than mine - I didn't get most of my "safeties" (only got around 10 interviews despite bidding only NYC in lottery). I do plan on picking up left over slots for each day.

Are firms like White and Case, STB, Debevoise, Weil, and Millbank super grade sensitive for Cornell. Also, how soon should I reach out to firms and ask for a screener given that I struck out with OCI lottery?

Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

Hey guys - would love to get some input.

I'm slightly above median at Cornell and our AJF schedules just came out. For some reason, most of the interviews I got ended up being at firms that have higher medians than mine - I didn't get most of my "safeties" (only got around 10 interviews despite bidding only NYC in lottery). I do plan on picking up left over slots for each day.

Are firms like White and Case, STB, Debevoise, Weil, and Millbank super grade sensitive for Cornell. Also, how soon should I reach out to firms and ask for a screener given that I struck out with OCI lottery?

Thanks!

Some people on TLS have crazy opinions for these types of questions. Might be better to search for Cornell associates on firm websites and see what proportion have latin honors or equivalent. You'd want to note which associates are in lit v. corp. It'll likely take 30 min to go through the five firms you have listed.

[Anonymous User]

Not from Cornell, but doesn't career services track interviews/CBs/offers by GPA band? You mention median GPAs, so can't you judge based on that?

[Res Ipsa Loquitter]

In today’s pretty soft market, I’d hammer every single one of those screeners and I’d email for additional interviews tonight. Be friendly and easygoing in interviews, rather than intense/serious, but be aggressive about process

Any v20 will be a reach at Cornell median this year, but depends how far above you are. You’ll prob get biglaw but don’t halfass OCI.

[Anonymous User]

Hey guys - would love to get some input.

I'm slightly above median at Cornell and our AJF schedules just came out. For some reason, most of the interviews I got ended up being at firms that have higher medians than mine - I didn't get most of my "safeties" (only got around 10 interviews despite bidding only NYC in lottery). I do plan on picking up left over slots for each day.

Are firms like White and Case, STB, Debevoise, Weil, and Millbank super grade sensitive for Cornell. Also, how soon should I reach out to firms and ask for a screener given that I struck out with OCI lottery?

Thanks!

Weil might be the least grade-selective among them. But I have heard last year they cancelled a bunch of screeners at Cornell based on grades since they already gave too many offers during pre-OCI, but the people I know whose screeners got cancelled had median/below median grades. Milbank seems to care a lot about undergrad grades. It varies for White & Case year by year since they don't give out a lot of callbacks at Cornell, but their CB GPA were usually around 3.6. Deb and STB seems to be more grade selective in general, but people who got in with 3.5~ GPA are not unheard of, they usually had work experience tho.

[existentialcrisis]

Hey guys - would love to get some input.

I'm slightly above median at Cornell and our AJF schedules just came out. For some reason, most of the interviews I got ended up being at firms that have higher medians than mine - I didn't get most of my "safeties" (only got around 10 interviews despite bidding only NYC in lottery). I do plan on picking up left over slots for each day.

Are firms like White and Case, STB, Debevoise, Weil, and Millbank super grade sensitive for Cornell. Also, how soon should I reach out to firms and ask for a screener given that I struck out with OCI lottery?

Thanks!

Weil might be the least grade-selective among them. But I have heard last year they cancelled a bunch of screeners at Cornell based on grades since they already gave too many offers during pre-OCI, but the people I know whose screeners got cancelled had median/below median grades. Milbank seems to care a lot about undergrad grades. It varies for White & Case year by year since they don't give out a lot of callbacks at Cornell, but their CB GPA were usually around 3.6. Deb and STB seems to be more grade selective in general, but people who got in with 3.5~ GPA are not unheard of, they usually had work experience tho.

I didn’t go to Cornell, but the Milbank undergrad grades thing sounds very wrong.

[Anonymous User]

Cornell alum here. Besides grades, interviewing skills, work experience, any unique background, and some luck can really make a difference here. I would not rule out any of the firms, except STB maybe, with 3.5 from Cornell.

[Lacepiece23]

Cornell alum here. Besides grades, interviewing skills, work experience, any unique background, and some luck can really make a difference here. I would not rule out any of the firms, except STB maybe, with 3.5 from Cornell.

I mostly agree with this. But it can also go the other way too.

[Anonymous User]

Another Cornell alum here. Interviewing skills are almost as important as grades, imho. With a 3.5 most firms are obtainable from Cornell. Spend as much time as possible practicing interviewing.

I had slightly below median grades at AJF and struck out. Several people with worse grades than me received multiple offers. I was a terrible interviewer. Don’t be like me.

[Res Ipsa Loquitter]

Another Cornell alum here. Interviewing skills are almost as important as grades, imho. With a 3.5 most firms are obtainable from Cornell. Spend as much time as possible practicing interviewing.

I had slightly below median grades at AJF and struck out. Several people with worse grades than me received multiple offers. I was a terrible interviewer. Don’t be like me.

What do you do now? Did things work out

[Anonymous User]

Another Cornell alum here. Interviewing skills are almost as important as grades, imho. With a 3.5 most firms are obtainable from Cornell. Spend as much time as possible practicing interviewing.

I had slightly below median grades at AJF and struck out. Several people with worse grades than me received multiple offers. I was a terrible interviewer. Don’t be like me.

What do you do now? Did things work out

Yeah things ended up working out. I did a state clerkship and now I’m at an AmLaw200 firm.

[Anonymous User]

White and Case and Weil would be your safest bets from these but I'd definitely try to pick up some less sensitive firms than the ones you listed. I'd try to get some pre-OCI traction at like Willkie, Cahill, SRZ type firms to feel a bit better. If you only have 10 screeners and the listed firms make up a good portion of it, I'd 100% be applying down through the v100 in advance of OCI

[Anonymous User]

White and Case and Weil would be your safest bets from these but I'd definitely try to pick up some less sensitive firms than the ones you listed. I'd try to get some pre-OCI traction at like Willkie, Cahill, SRZ type firms to feel a bit better. If you only have 10 screeners and the listed firms make up a good portion of it, I'd 100% be applying down through the v100 in advance of OCI

Not OP, but would Shearman Sterling be a good bet too?

[NYC2022]

Hey guys - would love to get some input.

I'm slightly above median at Cornell and our AJF schedules just came out. For some reason, most of the interviews I got ended up being at firms that have higher medians than mine - I didn't get most of my "safeties" (only got around 10 interviews despite bidding only NYC in lottery). I do plan on picking up left over slots for each day.

Are firms like White and Case, STB, Debevoise, Weil, and Millbank super grade sensitive for Cornell. Also, how soon should I reach out to firms and ask for a screener given that I struck out with OCI lottery?

Thanks!

I'm a recent Cornell alum that got a couple of offers from the firms mentioned at slightly above median. I would recommend casting as wide a net as possible sooner rather than later but getting an offer from some of those firms is definitely possible.

[Anonymous User]

White and Case and Weil would be your safest bets from these but I'd definitely try to pick up some less sensitive firms than the ones you listed. I'd try to get some pre-OCI traction at like Willkie, Cahill, SRZ type firms to feel a bit better. If you only have 10 screeners and the listed firms make up a good portion of it, I'd 100% be applying down through the v100 in advance of OCI

Not OP, but would Shearman Sterling be a good bet too?

Yes, Shearman is also a prime landing spot for slightly above median at Cornell. I'll say something about the way Cornell publishes info on mean GPAs which is that the number is good for telling you where you're safe, but the number does get inflated by those with 10+ offers

[Anonymous User]

White and Case and Weil would be your safest bets from these but I'd definitely try to pick up some less sensitive firms than the ones you listed. I'd try to get some pre-OCI traction at like Willkie, Cahill, SRZ type firms to feel a bit better. If you only have 10 screeners and the listed firms make up a good portion of it, I'd 100% be applying down through the v100 in advance of OCI

Not OP, but would Shearman Sterling be a good bet too?

Yes, Shearman is also a prime landing spot for slightly above median at Cornell. I'll say something about the way Cornell publishes info on mean GPAs which is that the number is good for telling you where you're safe, but the number does get inflated by those with 10+ offers

Agree that it would be worth throwing a safety bid/app at Shearman. IIRC, Shearman is pretty GPA friendly, even for median/slightly-below median at Cornell.