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I've applied to approximately 95 district court clerkships but haven't been asked for a single interview. Am I just SOL?

Stats:
lower T-14 slightly above median; published; law journal; involved in clubs
transferred from TTTT, ranked top 1%, invited law review, competed on to moot court, book awards for 8 out of 8 1L classes
1 year experience working as attorney advisor for DOJ
senate internships, DOJ internships and DHS internships
previous law firm summer associate (non-vault, focused on civil rights)
research assistant for 2 professors
some volunteer experience

Is the median from lower T-14 what's killing me? How could I become more competitive? Where else would I be competitive (mag.?)

Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks

Wait you copped DOJ honors and you still want to clerk? What in the world could motivate this choice

How long have you been applying for? I suspect you're right that median at lower T14 may be an obstacle for some judges (that will probably matter less the further out of law school you get), but I also think that if you apply to enough judges you'll eventually get at least an interview. 95 would also be too few applications for some applicants, so you may need to sweep even more broadly than you're applying now; I don't know if you're limiting yourself to particular markets.

I assume you are applying to start in 2018, right? If so, it is still quite early - many DC judges in flyover districts won't begin to seriously consider applicants until later in the spring, or even into the summer/fall.

I think you're right that your median grades are the biggest prohibiting factor here, but you have some fairly prestigious post-grad experience which should help offset that to some degree. IMO - I don't think you are SOL, but with your grades, you're also not a shoe in.

mjb447 wrote:How long have you been applying for? I suspect you're right that median at lower T14 may be an obstacle for some judges (that will probably matter less the further out of law school you get), but I also think that if you apply to enough judges you'll eventually get at least an interview. 95 would also be too few applications for some applicants, so you may need to sweep even more broadly than you're applying now; I don't know if you're limiting yourself to particular markets.

I've been applying for approximately 4 months. I have applied to 95 on OSCAR as of right now ... physically mailed out about 10. Not limiting myself to any market... I've applied to the virgin islands, Oklahoma, Washington, Florida ... literally anywhere and everywhere.

Anonymous User wrote:

mjb447 wrote:How long have you been applying for? I suspect you're right that median at lower T14 may be an obstacle for some judges (that will probably matter less the further out of law school you get), but I also think that if you apply to enough judges you'll eventually get at least an interview. 95 would also be too few applications for some applicants, so you may need to sweep even more broadly than you're applying now; I don't know if you're limiting yourself to particular markets.

I've been applying for approximately 4 months. I have applied to 95 on OSCAR as of right now ... physically mailed out about 10. Not limiting myself to any market... I've applied to the virgin islands, Oklahoma, Washington, Florida ... literally anywhere and everywhere.

Yeah, that's not a huge amount of time (or a particularly large number of applications) and, like the poster above me said, it's not peak hiring season right now. You may just need to give it some additional time.

Anonymous User wrote:

mjb447 wrote:How long have you been applying for? I suspect you're right that median at lower T14 may be an obstacle for some judges (that will probably matter less the further out of law school you get), but I also think that if you apply to enough judges you'll eventually get at least an interview. 95 would also be too few applications for some applicants, so you may need to sweep even more broadly than you're applying now; I don't know if you're limiting yourself to particular markets.

I've been applying for approximately 4 months. I have applied to 95 on OSCAR as of right now ... physically mailed out about 10. Not limiting myself to any market... I've applied to the virgin islands, Oklahoma, Washington, Florida ... literally anywhere and everywhere.

Just keep at it. Don't get discouraged. My story was very similar to yours, TTTT transfer to T20 and ended up with median grades. I wasn't able to land anything as a 2L or 3L but then applied after a few months of work experience, for a judge in a flyover district with an immediate opening, and landed it with ease. Keep looking for openings, and just keep applying. There are a ton of judicial vacancies as well, so keep an eye over the next year to see when someone gets appointed and might be hiring.

I would be surprised if you aren't able to land a clerkship with your background eventually. However, I think you are probably out of running for the "prestigious" clerkships, just because so many judges use GPA as a screening mechanism.

I'd try to find judges to apply for that don't post on OSCAR, try the federal judiciary hiring page. I don't have data to back this up, but I feel like judges who go this route for applications are usually less gpa/school focused. They also tend to be hiring only 6-12 months in advance.

Anonymous User wrote:I'd try to find judges to apply for that don't post on OSCAR, try the federal judiciary hiring page. I don't have data to back this up, but I feel like judges who go this route for applications are usually less gpa/school focused. They also tend to be hiring only 6-12 months in advance.

I always liked the idea that, if I got rejected by a non-OSCAR judge, someone at least probably looked at my resume (if they were hiring at all), instead of just screening it out beforehand with hard GPA or school criteria like OSCAR allows. Obv doesn't matter for judges who actually have hard cutoffs, but if a judge would have otherwise contemplated using a screen like that just to narrow the massive field of candidates, I appreciate the chance at a more holistic review.