Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges Forum

[Chrstgtr]

Trying to decide whether to drop Legislation so that I can return my book.

What do you think the likelihood that about 15 people drop legislation and thereby make it uncurved?

[zugzwanger]

Trying to decide whether to drop Legislation so that I can return my book.

What do you think the likelihood that about 15 people drop legislation and thereby make it uncurved?

15 seems rather unlikely and if I was in that position, I probably wouldn't bank on it. Maybe stay in a bit longer and see if people start trickling out obv

[cookiejar1]

Trying to decide whether to drop Legislation so that I can return my book.

What do you think the likelihood that about 15 people drop legislation and thereby make it uncurved?

Stand in front of class and ask people to drop see where that takes you

[Man from Nantucket]

Trying to decide whether to drop Legislation so that I can return my book.

What do you think the likelihood that about 15 people drop legislation and thereby make it uncurved?

Stand in front of class and ask people to drop see where that takes you

Have you had success with this strategy in the past?

[parkslope]

Trying to decide whether to drop Legislation so that I can return my book.

What do you think the likelihood that about 15 people drop legislation and thereby make it uncurved?

Stand in front of class and ask people to drop see where that takes you

Have you had success with this strategy in the past?

Surely a passive-aggressive post to the listserv would be more effective.

[zugzwanger]

Trying to decide whether to drop Legislation so that I can return my book.

What do you think the likelihood that about 15 people drop legislation and thereby make it uncurved?

Stand in front of class and ask people to drop see where that takes you

Have you had success with this strategy in the past?

Surely a passive-aggressive post to the listserv would be more effective.

We already know what can potentially happen when we disturb the sensitivities of some of our fellow classmates by emailing the listserv

[kenwash]

Is an uncurved class 40 and under or under 40?

[zugzwanger]

Is an uncurved class 40 and under or under 40?

Over 40 = curved, at 40 it is not curved.

[rinkrat19]

Is an uncurved class 40 and under or under 40?

Over 40 = curved, at 40 it is not curved.

At/under 40 it's at the professor's discretion.

[bobbybird]

Hey there! I have a question that I'm hoping current and past NW grads can answer. If this has been covered in the past 370+ pages, I'm sorry.

The question: Northwestern seems to place a disproportionately high number of grads in business positions (compared to peer schools). Is this a result of Northwestern's focus on accepting individuals with prior work experience (Are grads getting these jobs based off their history before law school?), Northwestern's lauded JD/MBA program (Are the individuals going the business route all/almost all JD's that are also graduating with MBA's?), or are business/finance companies targeting Northwestern JD's heavily for employment besides all these factors?

Just curious what it seems like from inside the program. Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this!

[fishfry111]

[

[cookiejar1]

Hey there! I have a question that I'm hoping current and past NW grads can answer. If this has been covered in the past 370+ pages, I'm sorry.

The question: Northwestern seems to place a disproportionately high number of grads in business positions (compared to peer schools). Is this a result of Northwestern's focus on accepting individuals with prior work experience (Are grads getting these jobs based off their history before law school?), Northwestern's lauded JD/MBA program (Are the individuals going the business route all/almost all JD's that are also graduating with MBA's?), or are business/finance companies targeting Northwestern JD's heavily for employment besides all these factors?

Just curious what it seems like from inside the program. Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this!

I think it's because of the JD/MBA program. What other T14 schools have a large JD/MBA program? This is what's probably pushing the numbers.

We have banks (PWM, mostly) and consulting firms recruit on campus but I think you would expect this same kind of commitment at the vast majority of our peer schools.

[bobbybird]

Hey there! I have a question that I'm hoping current and past NW grads can answer. If this has been covered in the past 370+ pages, I'm sorry.

The question: Northwestern seems to place a disproportionately high number of grads in business positions (compared to peer schools). Is this a result of Northwestern's focus on accepting individuals with prior work experience (Are grads getting these jobs based off their history before law school?), Northwestern's lauded JD/MBA program (Are the individuals going the business route all/almost all JD's that are also graduating with MBA's?), or are business/finance companies targeting Northwestern JD's heavily for employment besides all these factors?

Just curious what it seems like from inside the program. Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this!

Well, in a nutshell......we just happen to be really good. But seriously, shouldn't you be directing this questions to business/law firms?

Thank you for your response! I don't know about directing this to business/law firms. I don't know of any forums where I can direct this to a group of them at once and think it would be pretty difficult to get an honest response, if one at all, from a ton of them if I messaged them individually. I do agree however, that they best information would likely be found from the employers themselves... I'm just not confident in my ability to glean that information from them lol.

@ cookiejar1: First of all, thanks for the response. The reason I said Northwestern places disproportionately well next to peer schools is because none of the schools ranked around Northwestern (from 7-14) have anything close to Northwestern's placement in business outside of law school, even removing all the JD/MBAs. I just found this interesting tidbit looking at the Class of 2012 and 2013 NALP reports and was curious if people in the law school had a better understanding as to why.

[lhanvt13]

Hey there! I have a question that I'm hoping current and past NW grads can answer. If this has been covered in the past 370+ pages, I'm sorry.

The question: Northwestern seems to place a disproportionately high number of grads in business positions (compared to peer schools). Is this a result of Northwestern's focus on accepting individuals with prior work experience (Are grads getting these jobs based off their history before law school?), Northwestern's lauded JD/MBA program (Are the individuals going the business route all/almost all JD's that are also graduating with MBA's?), or are business/finance companies targeting Northwestern JD's heavily for employment besides all these factors?

Just curious what it seems like from inside the program. Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this!

I think it's because of the JD/MBA program. What other T14 schools have a large JD/MBA program? This is what's probably pushing the numbers.

We have banks (PWM, mostly) and consulting firms recruit on campus but I think you would expect this same kind of commitment at the vast majority of our peer schools.

yeah 40 ish JD/MBAs (thought not all of them go into business positions). Also, I think the close relation to Kellogg and the business-y atmosphere sometimes influence pure JD employment preferences. A couple people even have biglaw jobs lined up who are interviewing consulting firms at the same time.

[kcdc1]

The AJD program also has some law-business crossover. It was originally designed with mandatory business classes. Now it's purely a legal education (courses at Kellogg optional), but the focus on work experience still brings in people with business credentials and interests.

[cookiejar1]

I agree with everyone else - a lot of the business placement has to do with students who are leveraging their prior business experience (either through the JD/MBA program or etc). When I hear about "business placement" I think of students going into consulting.

I didn't come into NU with the same kind of work experience that the AJDs and JD/MBA did. Getting one of McKinsey, Bain, or BCG wouldn't be impossible but it would require a lot of hustling (and tons of preparation for the case interview) so don't get the impression that we can just sign up for an interview with McKinsey and get fed into the program. With that being said, I feel confident that if I really wanted one of M/B/B consulting I'd be able to at least land initial interviews with them - and finding other JD/MBA students to practice your case interviews with shouldn't be too difficult. It's just a lot of work and, imo, nabbing a biglaw position through OCI is much, much easier (to the extent that it takes a lot less effort).

I don't know much about the Private Wealth Management positions but I see these banks on campus occasionally giving out free lunches so there's that.

[Charger]

Are grades expected to be posted today?

[bjsesq]

I don't know much about the Private Wealth Management positions but I see these banks on campus occasionally giving out free lunches so there's that.

If only I had shown interest in dynasty trusts.

[zozin]

Grades are up for me.

[lhanvt13]

welp, below median woo!

[Dellas623]

Are 1L grades usually your lowest grades throughout the law school since they are mostly curved?

[irishballa]

I know there's no actual class rank but what is the GPA for the different percentiles usually?

[Cobretti]

Handy-dandy GPA/class-rank break down, for after 1L:

4.00+ - top 3-5 people
3.85+ - top 10%
3.75+ - top 15%
3.65+ - top 25%
3.50+ - top 35%
3.30-3.40 - median
3.20 - 3.30 - slightly below median
3.00 - 3.20 - quite below median

This is very approximate, but it doesn't really matter because firms don't try to divine your exact class rank.

Nobody really knows what the bottom half of the curve looks like, because the curve is not symmetric.

[Betharl]

Highest grade was in a curved class. I think I'm scheduling wrong.

[idgaf37]

Handy-dandy GPA/class-rank break down, for after 1L:

4.00+ - top 3-5 people
3.85+ - top 10%
3.75+ - top 15%
3.65+ - top 25%
3.50+ - top 35%
3.30-3.40 - median
3.20 - 3.30 - slightly below median
3.00 - 3.20 - quite below median

This is very approximate, but it doesn't really matter because firms don't try to divine your exact class rank.

Nobody really knows what the bottom half of the curve looks like, because the curve is not symmetric.

this doesn't really make sense to me... if the median grade in a 1L class is a B-, shouldn't the median GPA be closer to a 2.7?

also, what gpa is a "you should just drop out now" gpa? asking for.... a friend