Does OSCAR know if you have accepted a clerkship? Forum
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Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about clerkship applications and clerkship hiring. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned."
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Anonymous User
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Does OSCAR know if you have accepted a clerkship?
Hello, I've accepted a clerkship with a federal magistrate judge in a state far away that I do not intend to stay in long term. I would much prefer to clerk for a federal district judge in my own state, and would like to try my luck with a couple of such judges once they post for the term I am interested in. Can I apply to them when the positions open, or does OSCAR have a record of my acceptance with the federal magistrate judge I have already accepted an offer from?
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nixy
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Re: Does OSCAR know if you have accepted a clerkship?
I don’t think OSCAR has a record of this, but if you’ve actually accepted a clerkship already, continuing to apply to other judges for that term is ill-advised. I know the general ethos here is that you have to look out for you, employers don’t have your best interests at heart, renege and it’s fine even if you may burn a bridge, and most of the time I agree with that. And if you were just second-guessing the mag position and wanted to withdraw, say for a permanent full time position in a firm or something, that I could get behind. Even if you wanted to withdraw from the mag to apply to other judges, probably okay.
But continuing to apply to other judges for the same term you’ve accepted with the mag is just a bad look. If any of the judges involved figure out that you’re continuing to apply after accepting the mag judge’s offer, they will be PISSED. Like REALLY pissed, blackball you pissed. And you can’t know they won’t find out. Especially because if you do get a position with another judge and then withdraw from the mag, you’re either going to have to lie or admit what you’ve done, and you just never know which judges know each other, even if they don’t sit anywhere near each other.
This is the eternal dilemma of clerkships - getting a less desirable offer before you can even try for a more desirable offer. You just have to deal with that. There might have been a way to keep the mag offer open, but I really think if you’re going to clerk in that term, it has to be with the mag.
(If you’re talking about a different term then never mind my rant, but your post suggested continuing to apply for the same term.)
But continuing to apply to other judges for the same term you’ve accepted with the mag is just a bad look. If any of the judges involved figure out that you’re continuing to apply after accepting the mag judge’s offer, they will be PISSED. Like REALLY pissed, blackball you pissed. And you can’t know they won’t find out. Especially because if you do get a position with another judge and then withdraw from the mag, you’re either going to have to lie or admit what you’ve done, and you just never know which judges know each other, even if they don’t sit anywhere near each other.
This is the eternal dilemma of clerkships - getting a less desirable offer before you can even try for a more desirable offer. You just have to deal with that. There might have been a way to keep the mag offer open, but I really think if you’re going to clerk in that term, it has to be with the mag.
(If you’re talking about a different term then never mind my rant, but your post suggested continuing to apply for the same term.)
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lavarman84
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Re: Does OSCAR know if you have accepted a clerkship?
OSCAR doesn't have a record of your acceptance. But I'll echo Nixy's words. If you are considering applying for the same term as the magistrate and then dumping that clerkship if you land something better, that's a bad idea. You can do that with firm jobs, but that's a major faux pas in the federal clerkship world.
