Rising 2Ls at Notre Dame Taking Questions Forum

[ndirish2010]

If you want to meet people, I would live on campus. As far as I know, they aren't subject to parietals but I could be wrong.

[TLS_noobie]

How does Notre Dame's religious affiliation affect the law students? Would it be awkward for an agnostic? I have read forum posts before about Notre Dame not necessarily forcing anyone to be or act one or another because of their religious ties but there has been some recent heat (http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5&t=177438) and I was wondering if there is any truth/weight to this?

[ndirish2010]

If you are a tolerant agnostic, you will be fine. If you are offended by religion and people who are devout practitioners of Catholicism, then Notre Dame is not the place for you. I am not religious and I find that the religious character of Notre Dame is one of the things that makes it special. Nobody forces anything on you, but if simply seeing it makes you uncomfortable, maybe you should reconsider.

[TLS_noobie]

If you are a tolerant agnostic, you will be fine. If you are offended by religion and people who are devout practitioners of Catholicism, then Notre Dame is not the place for you. I am not religious and I find that the religious character of Notre Dame is one of the things that makes it special. Nobody forces anything on you, but if simply seeing it makes you uncomfortable, maybe you should reconsider.

Gotcha! Thanks for the reply

[Xvimic]

I was planning on attending ND this coming fall as they offered me the $66,000 scholly, however I just got offered full tuition at WUSTL. As far as any of you know does Notre Dame even offer full tuition scholarships? I'd love to attempt to negotiate but I doubt I'll have any chance at such a substantial increase.

I can't see turning down full tuition from a technically higher ranked school, even though I'd really prefer ND.

Not that I'm bagging on WUSTL by the way, honestly I'd just really prefer living in the Indiana South bend area over St Louis.

Any thoughts?

[JCUGuy0428]

Well, ND does give out full tuition scholarships I believe but if they offered you 66k (22k a year), I wouldn't expect them to bump you to a full scholarship, as that would be doubling your scholarship.

Apart from all other considerations, I don't understand why you would turn down full tuition at WUSTL to attend ND at a half scholarship. I suppose it depends on where you want to work (I am not familiar with WUSTL's employment stats). You also said you'd rather live in South Bend than St. Louis, which means you have some kind of attachment to ND, cuz I can't imagine anyone wanting to live in South Bend over St. Louis. So those things come down to personal choice and preference.

From a numbers standpoint and a DEBT standpoint, being that WUSTL is a higher ranked school, or at worst a "peer" school, I really don't see why you would choose ND over WUSTL.

[TLS_noobie]

Does anyone have any insight into how many market-paying firms come to/hire at ND? What sorts of cut-offs do these types of firms have at ND?

Thanks!

[mrjohnsterman]

Similar to the above question. How has summer associate hiring looked this past year. And has it all been in Chicago or has it been in additional markets as well?

[JCUGuy0428]

Does anyone have any insight into how many market-paying firms come to/hire at ND? What sorts of cut-offs do these types of firms have at ND?

Thanks!

I don't know about market-paying. In terms of cut-offs, most firms have something like "top 50%" or "top 25%" though some have cutoff GPAs, typically 3.3, 3.5, or 3.7 depending on location, prestige.

For example, I think Skadden LA came to OCI here and their cut-off was 3.7.

I applied to a lot of midwestern firms, and their cut-off was 3.3.

It's difficult to generalize.

Similar to the above question. How has summer associate hiring looked this past year. And has it all been in Chicago or has it been in additional markets as well?

Hard to say overall - I really don't want to guess at it, so I'll just tell you I do not know. In terms of markets, sure, some people placed into Chicago, but largely I found people trying to go elsewhere depending on where they are from. I've found many people are finding success in small-medium and medium-large markets in which they have connections. Chicago is really hard to break into - especially if you have no connections - it's not impossible, but I will say its certainly improbable to get Chicago without some ties.