OCI Lottery Forum

[LoyolaLaw2012]

How does the lottery system generally work for OCI bidding? Does the firm have a say in who they interview? I understand the requirements, but not the lottery system.

[nealric]

You get a pre-set number of bids (often around 50).

You then rank the firms from 1-50 (from most wanting to interview with, to least). If a firm has 10 interview slots, the 10 people who ranked the firm highest will get the interview. Some firms will be very hard to get an interview at (you need to rank them as 1 or 2 to get a slot). Other firms are very easy (you can rank them #50 and still get one).

In a lottery system, firms have no choice who they interview. However, you can often pick up extra interviews with a strong resume by going to the hospitality suites. Firms will still have callback criteria. If you bid Cravath as #1 and you have a 2.5 GPA, you will get an interview but you will be wasting everyone's time.

[LoyolaLaw2012]

You get a pre-set number of bids (often around 50).

You then rank the firms from 1-50 (from most wanting to interview with, to least). If a firm has 10 interview slots, the 10 people who ranked the firm highest will get the interview. Some firms will be very hard to get an interview at (you need to rank them as 1 or 2 to get a slot). Other firms are very easy (you can rank them #50 and still get one).

In a lottery system, firms have no choice who they interview. However, you can often pick up extra interviews with a strong resume by going to the hospitality suites. Firms will still have callback criteria. If you bid Cravath as #1 and you have a 2.5 GPA, you will get an interview but you will be wasting everyone's time.

Thank you!

[General Tso]

You get a pre-set number of bids (often around 50).

You then rank the firms from 1-50 (from most wanting to interview with, to least). If a firm has 10 interview slots, the 10 people who ranked the firm highest will get the interview. Some firms will be very hard to get an interview at (you need to rank them as 1 or 2 to get a slot). Other firms are very easy (you can rank them #50 and still get one).

In a lottery system, firms have no choice who they interview. However, you can often pick up extra interviews with a strong resume by going to the hospitality suites. Firms will still have callback criteria. If you bid Cravath as #1 and you have a 2.5 GPA, you will get an interview but you will be wasting everyone's time.

so do schools generally allow the entire class to participate in OCI? if so, could this scenario play out:

bottom half students at lower T1 all bid Cravath #1 and Cravath must interview them. Cravath only has 19 interviews, so no top 10% students get to talk to Cravath.

At my school, I think that the firm gets to pick 2/3 of the people it will interview and the school can only force them to interview the other 1/3.

[nealric]

so do schools generally allow the entire class to participate in OCI? if so, could this scenario play out:

bottom half students at lower T1 all bid Cravath #1 and Cravath must interview them. Cravath only has 19 interviews, so no top 10% students get to talk to Cravath.

At my school, I think that the firm gets to pick 2/3 of the people it will interview and the school can only force them to interview the other 1/3.

Only T14 schools do OCI by pure lottery. Even UVA doesn't do pure lottery. Your situation would never come up- a lower T1 will have the firms pre-selecting the candidates they want to interview.

At least at GULC, career services reviews your bid list. If you bid Cravath (or a similar firm) #1 and your grades aren't even in the ballpark, they are going to kindly request you give the interview slot to someone who has a shot. They can't force you to take it off, but I don't think anyone is really going to try to bid Cravath with sub-median grades. Generally, people bid firms they think they have a shot at. Those who are top 10% and for whatever reason don't get an interview at the top firms will still probably get one through resume drops at the hospitality suites if there weren't enough qualified applicants.

[LoyolaLaw2012]

so do schools generally allow the entire class to participate in OCI? if so, could this scenario play out:

bottom half students at lower T1 all bid Cravath #1 and Cravath must interview them. Cravath only has 19 interviews, so no top 10% students get to talk to Cravath.

At my school, I think that the firm gets to pick 2/3 of the people it will interview and the school can only force them to interview the other 1/3.

Only T14 schools do OCI by pure lottery. Even UVA doesn't do pure lottery. Your situation would never come up- a lower T1 will have the firms pre-selecting the candidates they want to interview.

At least at GULC, career services reviews your bid list. If you bid Cravath (or a similar firm) #1 and your grades aren't even in the ballpark, they are going to kindly request you give the interview slot to someone who has a shot. They can't force you to take it off, but I don't think anyone is really going to try to bid Cravath with sub-median grades. Generally, people bid firms they think they have a shot at. Those who are top 10% and for whatever reason don't get an interview at the top firms will still probably get one through resume drops at the hospitality suites if there weren't enough qualified applicants.

Also, the firms specify their interview criteria on the bidding page. You can write the firm a letter to ask for a waiver of the requirements. However, I'm not sure how successful people are in getting an interview without the requested numbers.

[nealric]

Also, the firms specify their interview criteria on the bidding page. You can write the firm a letter to ask for a waiver of the requirements. However, I'm not sure how successful people are in getting an interview without the requested numbers.

You don't need to ask for a waiver in a lottery system. You just bid. They probably won't give you a callback if you are below what they are looking for though.

The grade criteria on the bidding page is usually pretty wonky. You will sometimes see white shoe firms list "B" average, when they won't touch you without a 3.6+.