Big Law GPA cutoffs Forum

[jbagelboy]

Y= Top 80
HS= Top 70
CCN= Top 50
BMVP= Top30
DNC=top20
G= Top15

Even if some firms say this, except for the most prestigious ones, it doesnt seem to be true in practice. This might be in part because some schools dont release class rank and the exact "top X" point is difficult to determine (we estimate using stone/kent apparently). Lots of below median kids at my school getting at least V100 2L SA's. If you are a good interviewer and you have some Prelaw WE, you can get solid firms paying market even at bottom third level.

Obviously even people above median strike out too, and certainly some below, but its rarely just because of a firm gpa cutoff issue.

And as others have noted, saying top 30 for penn, for example, seems statistically impossible when they had at least 75% large firm placement potential

[doing_it_in_a_car]

Y= Top 80
HS= Top 70
CCN= Top 50
BMVP= Top30
DNC=top20
G= Top15

Even if some firms say this, except for the most prestigious ones, it doesnt seem to be true in practice. This might be in part because some schools dont release class rank and the exact "top X" point is difficult to determine (we estimate using stone/kent apparently). Lots of below median kids at my school getting at least V100 2L SA's. If you are a good interviewer and you have some Prelaw WE, you can get solid firms paying market even at bottom third level.

Obviously even people above median strike out too, and certainly some below, but its rarely just because of a firm gpa cutoff issue.

And as others have noted, saying top 30 for penn, for example, seems statistically impossible when they had at least 75% large firm placement potential

--LinkRemoved--

http://www.businessinsider.com/law-scho ... ms-2013-12

http://abovethelaw.com/careers/law-scho ... /#rankings

[jbagelboy]

Y= Top 80
HS= Top 70
CCN= Top 50
BMVP= Top30
DNC=top20
G= Top15

Even if some firms say this, except for the most prestigious ones, it doesnt seem to be true in practice. This might be in part because some schools dont release class rank and the exact "top X" point is difficult to determine (we estimate using stone/kent apparently). Lots of below median kids at my school getting at least V100 2L SA's. If you are a good interviewer and you have some Prelaw WE, you can get solid firms paying market even at bottom third level.

Obviously even people above median strike out too, and certainly some below, but its rarely just because of a firm gpa cutoff issue.

And as others have noted, saying top 30 for penn, for example, seems statistically impossible when they had at least 75% large firm placement potential

--LinkRemoved--

http://www.businessinsider.com/law-scho ... ms-2013-12

http://abovethelaw.com/careers/law-scho ... /#rankings

All three of these articles are highly flawed, and the second one is just an article reporting the erroneous results of the first blog post.

Use Law School Transparency and the actual ABA data please.

[skers]

JFC, are y'all really in such a rush to sperg out all over each other to not notice when DF's ham-fisted trolling has already been called out?

[hopelessoptimist]

Y= Top 80
HS= Top 70
CCN= Top 50
BMVP= Top30
DNC=top20
G= Top15

This is just plain false. For whatever reason (i.e. self-selection, strengths in particular practice areas, etc.) P remains the #1 school for biglaw and sent 60% to the NLJ 250 last year (we also don't have published GPAs or class ranks, so there can't be a hard-and-fast "cut-off"). Like others have said, law schools definitely fudge numbers, but not nearly to this extent. These supposed cut-offs also presume biglaw hiring automatically follows the US News rankings, which the data clearly show is not the case.

Please do some actual research before misleading others.

[brotherdarkness]

.

[09042014]

Nlj counts staff attorneys doing dock review for 25 an hour. Totally misleading.

[giantsfan564789]

Nlj counts staff attorneys doing dock review for 25 an hour. Totally misleading.

Is this true? Can anyone else weigh in on this? If this is true, to what extent can the numbers be skewed?

Also, isn't the percentage of grads who got into big firms (100+ attorneys), much more important than seeing nlj 250 percentages?

[Kikero]

Also, isn't the percentage of grads who got into big firms (100+ attorneys), much more important than seeing nlj 250 percentages?

Better make that 250+ attorneys. 100+ attorneys include places with 3 offices in Are Cuntry, and good luck touching six figures or paying off debt there.

[RCO2012]

Nlj counts staff attorneys doing dock review for 25 an hour. Totally misleading.

Is this true? Can anyone else weigh in on this? If this is true, to what extent can the numbers be skewed?

Also, isn't the percentage of grads who got into big firms (100+ attorneys), much more important than seeing nlj 250 percentages?

I have no idea if it's true or if DF is flame, but I'm thinking the latter. Even if it is true, just match up ABA reviewed documentation on the school for median/75th percentile starting salaries (these can be skewed, but not grossly).

The second question: It depends what you're looking for when you say it's more important. More important in what respect? I prefer looking at the NLJ 250, because the data is provided by the firms. Also, above poster is correct, there are decent firms with a good starting salary that are within the 100-200 range, but you're safer to hedge on the side of 250-500 or even 501+ to secure a salary where you can live comfortably and pay off your loans more quickly.

[84651846190]

Biglaw firms have GPA cutoffs, or at least mine does. I can tell you that for schools in the T10 range, there is a rather hard cutoff around the top 1/3 area at my firm. This may have absolutely no correlation to what other firms similar to mine do, however.

[daryldixon]

I am not going to read the first page of this thread but I assume the question is whether or not you can wear jean cut-off shorts to your big law job. The answer is maybe. Do the partners that work in your group wear jean cut-offs? Does anyone in your office wear jean cut-offs? If the answer is no then you might want try something more modest.

[2014]

Biglaw firms have GPA cutoffs, or at least mine does. I can tell you that for schools in the T10 range, there is a rather hard cutoff around the top 1/3 area at my firm. This may have absolutely no correlation to what other firms similar to mine do, however.

How do you know what top 1/3 is though?

[84651846190]

Biglaw firms have GPA cutoffs, or at least mine does. I can tell you that for schools in the T10 range, there is a rather hard cutoff around the top 1/3 area at my firm. This may have absolutely no correlation to what other firms similar to mine do, however.

How do you know what top 1/3 is though?

I dunno. I think our recruiting director figures that stuff out. Maybe she just asks the schools? Or she could be guessing from where known medians are.

I should also add that this cutoff was for people interviewing with us in 2013. We may adjust the cutoff next year based on how many OCI interviewees we have and how many schools we're visiting.