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I'm curious about this, because I've never seen schools compared by how you get clinics.

Georgetown has long been ranked #1 in clinics, but there are only 325 clinical spots for 450+ applicants every year. As a result, about 100 3Ls every year bid for clinics but don't get anything. Some of these clinics have competitive applications, but others are pure lottery. In all of them 3Ls are given preference. In contrast to this I think 1Ls can do clinics at Yale, so even though Georgetown is #1 you have a much better chance of getting a clinic at other schools, mainly because Georgetown is as big as fuck.

If you want to leave your school and the proces in the comments that would be even better.

Alabama has a clinic guarantee for everyone if they want one

At Northwestern it seems like if you want any clinic, you can probably get one. Maybe not your first choice, because some of them are more popular and do fill up. But not all of them fill all their slots every term.

The website says that "more than 200" students work in the clinics every year, and that 90% of each graduating class does clinic at some point. There are "20 clinics in 14 centers," whatever that means. I don't really know the difference between the different clinics within one "center".

And I think you just bid on them like classes. I don't think 3Ls have preference, but 3Ls might have more bid points(?).

rinkrat19 wrote: The website says that "more than 200" students work in the clinics every year, and that 90% of each graduating class does clinic at some point.

Interesting. With 200+ students in a clinic every year and a class size of about 250, 90% makes sense.

At Georgetown it is slightly less than 50%, which is is surprising given how hard they sell themselves on being a PI school and how corporate NU is perceived as being.

dead head wrote:Georgetown has long been ranked #1 in clinics. . .

Someone ranks clinics? Why?

dead head wrote:As a result, about 100 3Ls every year bid for clinics but don't get anything.

Not really accurate. At Georgetown, many of the clinics accept students who have finished 1L. Most of the people who do not get into a clinic are non-graduating students. Also, some students who do a clinic in 2L apply to a different clinic for 3L and are rejected because preference is given to those students who have not yet had a clinic. I only know of one person who wanted a clinic and did not get one before graduating, but she was only willing to do one of two clinics.

..

We have more spots than people who want them

Codicil wrote:

dead head wrote:As a result, about 100 3Ls every year bid for clinics but don't get anything.

Not really accurate. At Georgetown, many of the clinics accept students who have finished 1L. Most of the people who do not get into a clinic are non-graduating students. Also, some students who do a clinic in 2L apply to a different clinic for 3L and are rejected because preference is given to those students who have not yet had a clinic. I only know of one person who wanted a clinic and did not get one before graduating, but she was only willing to do one of two clinics.

What I said is 100% accurate. Here's the actual quote from page 15 of the 2014 clinic registration guide:

If past application statistics are predictive, almost 100 students who are entering their final year of law school will not obtain a clinic seat in any of their choices.

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/academics ... ine-v2.pdf

2014 wrote:We have more spots than people who want them

Just going to make it clear that this is for U Chicago.

One clinic is required. Almost everyone gets the clinic they want for the required one (. They have 40 spots a semester for 110 students). The other clinics are more competitive and a couple people every semester are left out.

I don't know of a T14 where getting a clinic is going to be a real issue. One thing that I didn't consider as a 0L but would now (and think is a more important question) is access to term time internships and externships. And by "access" I mean both
1) Are there agencies and organizations I would work for in the same city as the law school? (There's no SEC office in Ann Arbor.)
2) Does the school have a liberal policy about allowing internships for credit? (NYU wouldn't have let me do the externship that I think was most valuable to my eventual practice.)

spleenworship wrote:One clinic is required. Almost everyone gets the clinic they want for the required one (. They have 40 spots a semester for 110 students). The other clinics are more competitive and a couple people every semester are left out.

What's your school?

IAFG wrote:I don't know of a T14 where getting a clinic is going to be a real issue.

Well, obviously Georgetown is one where it's a real issue.

They have really extended the amount of externship credit available, though.

dead head wrote:

spleenworship wrote:One clinic is required. Almost everyone gets the clinic they want for the required one (. They have 40 spots a semester for 110 students). The other clinics are more competitive and a couple people every semester are left out.

What's your school?

It's a T2. PM if you still want details.

dead head wrote:

rinkrat19 wrote: The website says that "more than 200" students work in the clinics every year, and that 90% of each graduating class does clinic at some point.

Interesting. With 200+ students in a clinic every year and a class size of about 250, 90% makes sense.

At Georgetown it is slightly less than 50%, which is is surprising given how hard they sell themselves on being a PI school and how corporate NU is perceived as being.

The more I learn about Gtown the more I think this "we care about PI students" is complete bullshit.

I don't know anyone who didn't get into the clinic they wanted at Berkeley, although if you applied as a 2L you might have been told to apply again next year. I did a clinic, a practicum, and an externship and it seemed like they were all pretty accessible.

.

At BU there are always plenty of available spots in the less popular clinics. We get emails the first week of class every semester reminding us that there are still spots, please sign up! So if you're not too particular, you can definitely get something. Some of these clinics don't even require any pre-reqs or applications, you can just register online like any other class.

Regulus wrote:

2014 wrote:We have more spots than people who want them

(This is about UChicago.)

I mean, this depends on timing and the clinic though, doesn't it? If you're talking about throughout the school year during 2L and 3L then it might be a different story, but for 1L summer I know a lot of people who wanted to do the transactional corporate clinic and didn't get it because there are only like 2 or 5 or some insanely small number of spots, as well as another highly-competitive clinic where you do public-defender-like stuff that only accepted 2 people for this summer.

Yep there are more spots during the year than there are over the summer.

My school falls into the general trend above: competitive interviewing process, but some clinics are more competitive than others. If you're not particular about which clinic you do, you can probably get into something, but there are other clinics that you won't get into unless you have a demonstrated commitment/background in that particular area and your interview with the clinic prof goes well.