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URM with 3.044 at a T20.A, B, B-, C+(Still in shock abt this one). Any chance at biglaw or dropout?

What does your school curve to?

How much debt are you going to end up with?

Would you be okay without biglaw?

Etc.

Abt 50k in debt from law school and 25 from undergrad. I might be ok without biglaw and I have no clue what my school curves to.

jackson wrote:Abt 50k in debt from law school and 25 from undergrad. I might be ok without biglaw and I have no clue what my school curves to.

At 75k total debt, you will most definitely be okay without biglaw. If you want to be a lawyer, I see no reason to drop out.

bk187 wrote:

jackson wrote:Abt 50k in debt from law school and 25 from undergrad. I might be ok without biglaw and I have no clue what my school curves to.

At 75k total debt, you will most definitely be okay without biglaw. If you want to be a lawyer, I see no reason to drop out.

+1

I'm only a 0L, but from my understanding if you go to a school in the t20s and are not in the top third of the class you don't have a real shot at biglaw (and wasn't that the conventional wisdom before the economy fell through the floor?).

There are more things to life than biglaw.

How bad is this Gpa?

jackson wrote:How bad is this Gpa?

Without knowing what your school curves to and grade distribution, it's hard to tell.

For example, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_la ... GPA_curves (and not sure if this is current), you'd be lower in rank at USC/UT than you would at Vandy.

Ask other students from your school to get that info, though I'd hazard a guess that you are definitely below median.

Check NALP to see if your school lists the distribution.

http://nalp.org/nalpdirectoryoflawschools

jackson wrote:Abt 50k in debt from law school and 25 from undergrad. I might be ok without biglaw and I have no clue what my school curves to.

Is that 50k total or 50k from this year? Relevant.

how do you not know wht your school curves to

delBarco wrote:

jackson wrote:Abt 50k in debt from law school and 25 from undergrad. I might be ok without biglaw and I have no clue what my school curves to.

Is that 50k total or 50k from this year? Relevant.

50k Total. I am in-state and had money saved for school so I am not borrowing much.

goosey wrote:how do you not know wht your school curves to

I don't really want to know;). It will add to the depression.

jackson wrote:

delBarco wrote:

jackson wrote:Abt 50k in debt from law school and 25 from undergrad. I might be ok without biglaw and I have no clue what my school curves to.

Is that 50k total or 50k from this year? Relevant.

50k Total. I am in-state and had money saved for school so I am not borrowing much.

Stay.

jackson wrote:

goosey wrote:how do you not know wht your school curves to

I don't really want to know;). It will add to the depression.

i think the point of the question is how did you manage to go the entire semester without either hearing it from someone else, or looking it up yourself because you wanted to know what grades you'd need in order to finish at whatever rank you were aiming for

however i can totally see the wisdom in not doing so, it's not like knowing what the school curves to would really change anything about your effort or your exam prep; you'd want to study as hard/smart as you can either way

TigerBeer wrote:

jackson wrote:

goosey wrote:how do you not know wht your school curves to

I don't really want to know;). It will add to the depression.

i think the point of the question is how did you manage to go the entire semester without either hearing it from someone else, or looking it up yourself because you wanted to know what grades you'd need in order to finish at whatever rank you were aiming for

however i can totally see the wisdom in not doing so, it's not like knowing what the school curves to would really change anything about your effort or your exam prep; you'd want to study as hard/smart as you can either way

yeah...and even professor's talk about it on occasion. Im shocked you went an entire semester AND exams AND grades without knowing the curve.

goosey wrote:

TigerBeer wrote:

jackson wrote:

goosey wrote:how do you not know wht your school curves to

I don't really want to know;). It will add to the depression.

i think the point of the question is how did you manage to go the entire semester without either hearing it from someone else, or looking it up yourself because you wanted to know what grades you'd need in order to finish at whatever rank you were aiming for

however i can totally see the wisdom in not doing so, it's not like knowing what the school curves to would really change anything about your effort or your exam prep; you'd want to study as hard/smart as you can either way

yeah...and even professor's talk about it on occasion. Im shocked you went an entire semester AND exams AND grades without knowing the curve.

I have an idea but really it wasn't going to make a difference to how hard I preped.

goosey wrote:how do you not know wht your school curves to

Huge +1. How does anybody not know their school's median?

But I agree with all the other posters. Don't drop out now. You are probably out of biglaw, but with such low debt, you might be alright finding something else.

eh. Some schools don't post medians (like Columbia). The only thing I've been able to find is Stone Scholar cutoff (3.41 for top 30% or so). Kind of annoying, but it also provides a nice measure of opacity about what your grades actually mean. I can live with that, though (provided I get my grades sometime soon!)

romothesavior wrote:

goosey wrote:how do you not know wht your school curves to

Huge +1. How does anybody not know their school's median?

But I agree with all the other posters. Don't drop out now. You are probably out of biglaw, but with such low debt, you might be alright finding something else.

does the fact that I am interested in IP and have a masters in engineering make a difference?

jackson wrote:

romothesavior wrote:

goosey wrote:how do you not know wht your school curves to

Huge +1. How does anybody not know their school's median?

But I agree with all the other posters. Don't drop out now. You are probably out of biglaw, but with such low debt, you might be alright finding something else.

does the fact that I am interested in IP and have a masters in engineering make a difference?

It helps. As to how much it helps, I can't really tell you because I'm not IPSECURE. Did you find out what your school curves to? I would think above median would give you a fighting chance at some IP places, but again, I really dunno for sure.

jackson wrote:

romothesavior wrote:

goosey wrote:how do you not know wht your school curves to

Huge +1. How does anybody not know their school's median?

But I agree with all the other posters. Don't drop out now. You are probably out of biglaw, but with such low debt, you might be alright finding something else.

does the fact that I am interested in IP and have a masters in engineering make a difference?

You at GWU?

Desert Fox wrote:

jackson wrote:

romothesavior wrote:

goosey wrote:how do you not know wht your school curves to

Huge +1. How does anybody not know their school's median?

But I agree with all the other posters. Don't drop out now. You are probably out of biglaw, but with such low debt, you might be alright finding something else.

does the fact that I am interested in IP and have a masters in engineering make a difference?

You at GWU?

Nope..we curve to a 3.1

you are a URM! And one that attends a T20. You will be eligible for minority job fairs that many many biglaw firms recruit from. A 3.0 GPA + from a T20 school + URM status still puts you in a good position for biglaw/ prestigious midlaw.

Improve your grades second semester. You can explain away the C+ in interviews as first semester jitters. Even biglaw lawyers have a C+ every now and then. Just improve your overall GPA and hit up minority job fairs. You will be fine.

treeey86 wrote:you are a URM! And one that attends a T20. You will be eligible for minority job fairs that many many biglaw firms recruit from. A 3.0 GPA + from a T20 school + URM status still puts you in a good position for biglaw/ prestigious midlaw.

No, no it doesn't. Minority job fairs are meh at best. It seems like most firms are there just to say they go there.

goosey wrote:how do you not know wht your school curves to

it's not always clear