Top Law Schools

Started one of these threads to distract myself from finals, didn't get too many questions, but maybe there is more interest out there. In any case, Barbri is boring, so ask away...

Any NYC bidding advice for Vandy students specifically?

What seems to be the job prospects for people right at the median?

not vanderbilt specific, but what do 1L's do between December and January. Is the Christmas vacation time to apply for 1L summer jobs?

rad law wrote:Any NYC bidding advice for Vandy students specifically?

Honestly no, I had no interest in NYC ... it was DC or bust for me. Obviously don't bid for a firm if you are no where near their GPA suggestion, but don't use them as a hard-and-fast rule either. I was on the low end for a lot of Vault 25 DC firms, and in fact had the lowest GPA of anyone given a callback at my firm ... but I got the offer.

Any advice for bidding at Vanderbilt in general? Especially in light of the fact that the CSO doesn't release a GPA chart for OCI interviews/callbacks/offers?

merc280 wrote:not vanderbilt specific, but what do 1L's do between December and January. Is the Christmas vacation time to apply for 1L summer jobs?

I applied to 100 firms in December of 1L year ... but that was by no means the norm. I ended up getting a 1L SA at an NLJ 250. I would say, at the least, apply to jobs in December if they are dirving distance to where you'll be over xmas break.

bble wrote:What seems to be the job prospects for people right at the median?

At least for my class (remember OCI was in the thick of the decline), this was EXTREMELY dependent on your likeableness + persistence ... I know people at median with awesome Vault or government gigs, and others who had to seriously settle.

rad law wrote:Any advice for bidding at Vanderbilt in general? Especially in light of the fact that the CSO doesn't release a GPA chart for OCI interviews/callbacks/offers?

Hmmm... off the top of my head, don't every consider Nashville firms to be safeties. I basically wasted those bids ... they wanted nothing to do with me because I wasn't from Tennessee... despite the fact that my only sibling has settled in Nashville.

How hard did you work/what did you do to end up securing those grades? (Top 20-25% from reading your previous posts)

UFBoldAsLove wrote:

rad law wrote:Any advice for bidding at Vanderbilt in general? Especially in light of the fact that the CSO doesn't release a GPA chart for OCI interviews/callbacks/offers?

Hmmm... off the top of my head, don't every consider Nashville firms to be safeties. I basically wasted those bids ... they wanted nothing to do with me because I wasn't from Tennessee... despite the fact that my only sibling has settled in Nashville.

I've heard as much. Anecdotally people tell me the only ways to get hired in Nash are to be from there, be engaged to someone, or have seriously balling grades.

Even your grades (which were quite good, if I remember the last thread), can anything really be considered a safety?

rad law wrote:Any advice for bidding at Vanderbilt in general? Especially in light of the fact that the CSO doesn't release a GPA chart for OCI interviews/callbacks/offers?

Yeah, I'm finding it difficult to gauge what kinds of firms I should be targeting not only for OCI bidding, but for genearal hustling as well. Obviously the V100 is probably out of reach with median(ish) grades (not really sure where median is since Vandy doesn't tell us) but I'm gonna guess 3.3ish. Anyway, the only firms that I can find GPA cut-off info on are the top firms and I'm thinking its in my best interest to try for regional markets that I have ties to.

Also, is it worth paying for the vault membership in terms of getting research on firms?

bble wrote:

rad law wrote:Any advice for bidding at Vanderbilt in general? Especially in light of the fact that the CSO doesn't release a GPA chart for OCI interviews/callbacks/offers?

Yeah, I'm finding it difficult to gauge what kinds of firms I should be targeting not only for OCI bidding, but for genearal hustling as well. Obviously the V100 is probably out of reach with median(ish) grades (not really sure where median is since Vandy doesn't tell us) but I'm gonna guess 3.3ish. Anyway, the only firms that I can find GPA cut-off info on are the top firms and I'm thinking its in my best interest to try for regional markets that I have ties to.

Also, is it worth paying for the vault membership in terms of getting research on firms?

Slightly more than half of the people in each class get a B+, so the median student would have something like 4 B+s and 4 Bs, so the median should be like a 3.15 or slightly above. Also, do I know you? Feel free to PM.

edit: or, section A or B?

stylishlaw wrote:How hard did you work/what did you do to end up securing those grades? (Top 20-25% from reading your previous posts)

Throughout lawschool, I've very rarely got behind on the reading. I've always taken notes on the reading, and then just supplemented/emphasized anything the professor harped on in class.

Key to doing well first year was to outline EARLY. I spent one full saturday every month updating my outline. It sucked, but come Thanksgiving break, everyone else was STARTING their outlines, and mine was done, so I was able to spend all that time taking as many practice tests as I could.

2/3L year I got better at writing concise notes, so I stopped making outlines ... I never stopped taking practice tests though.

rad law wrote:

bble wrote:

rad law wrote:Any advice for bidding at Vanderbilt in general? Especially in light of the fact that the CSO doesn't release a GPA chart for OCI interviews/callbacks/offers?

Yeah, I'm finding it difficult to gauge what kinds of firms I should be targeting not only for OCI bidding, but for genearal hustling as well. Obviously the V100 is probably out of reach with median(ish) grades (not really sure where median is since Vandy doesn't tell us) but I'm gonna guess 3.3ish. Anyway, the only firms that I can find GPA cut-off info on are the top firms and I'm thinking its in my best interest to try for regional markets that I have ties to.

Also, is it worth paying for the vault membership in terms of getting research on firms?

Slightly more than half of the people in each class get a B+, so the median student would have something like 4 B+s and 4 Bs, so the median should be like a 3.15 or slightly above. Also, do I know you? Feel free to PM.

edit: or, section A or B?

Credited ... median, as a 1L at least, is somewhere around 3.15 ... somewhere around 3.25 or so by graduation.


EDIT: And you should appreciate the fast that Vanderbilt doesn't report this. I had a friend with a 3.0 who repeatedly had employers assume that he was median, when that most definitely is not.

PMed

Aaaand I just posted what I thought I PMed. I suck at keeping the annonymity in annoymous forums. Sigh.

Question for you, UF. Do employers really not do minimal research, think about what the median is, then calculate an assumed normal distribution from the released Dean's List cutoffs?

UFBoldAsLove wrote:

rad law wrote:

bble wrote:

rad law wrote:Any advice for bidding at Vanderbilt in general? Especially in light of the fact that the CSO doesn't release a GPA chart for OCI interviews/callbacks/offers?

Yeah, I'm finding it difficult to gauge what kinds of firms I should be targeting not only for OCI bidding, but for genearal hustling as well. Obviously the V100 is probably out of reach with median(ish) grades (not really sure where median is since Vandy doesn't tell us) but I'm gonna guess 3.3ish. Anyway, the only firms that I can find GPA cut-off info on are the top firms and I'm thinking its in my best interest to try for regional markets that I have ties to.

Also, is it worth paying for the vault membership in terms of getting research on firms?

Slightly more than half of the people in each class get a B+, so the median student would have something like 4 B+s and 4 Bs, so the median should be like a 3.15 or slightly above. Also, do I know you? Feel free to PM.

edit: or, section A or B?

Credited ... median, as a 1L at least, is somewhere around 3.15 ... somewhere around 3.25 or so by graduation.


EDIT: And you should appreciate the fast that Vanderbilt doesn't report this. I had a friend with a 3.0 who repeatedly had employers assume that he was median, when that most definitely is not.

Hmm, this is nice to know.

bble wrote: Hmm, this is nice to know.

Ah, so now you're quite a bit above median, aren't you haha. Check your PMs.

rad law wrote:Question for you, UF. Do employers really not do minimal research, think about what the median is, then calculate an assumed normal distribution from the released Dean's List cutoffs?

All I can say is, apparently not some firms! Generally, Vault firms know whats up though.

UFBoldAsLove wrote:

rad law wrote:Question for you, UF. Do employers really not do minimal research, think about what the median is, then calculate an assumed normal distribution from the released Dean's List cutoffs?

All I can say is, apparently not some firms! Generally, Vault firms know whats up though.

Also I echo bble's Q. Worth it to pay for a Vault subscription?

rad law wrote:

UFBoldAsLove wrote:

rad law wrote:Question for you, UF. Do employers really not do minimal research, think about what the median is, then calculate an assumed normal distribution from the released Dean's List cutoffs?

All I can say is, apparently not some firms! Generally, Vault firms know whats up though.

Also I echo bble's Q. Worth it to pay for a Vault subscription?

You mean you didn't take one of the many free copies available in CSO? Amateurs. I mean, I say no ... If you have interviews with any Vault firms, your best resource is a former SA at Vanderbilt. Infact, my firm asks in your interview if you contacted last year's SA's... and it looks extremely bad if you did not.

EDIT: Doesn't the vault website give you the ranking and a bit about hiring/pros/cons? If I remember correctly, all the full version has is the pay scale (which you can guess at) and general info on the hisotry of the firms and big deals they've worked on (which google can give you more up-to-date info on big deals/litigation)

UFBoldAsLove wrote:

rad law wrote:

UFBoldAsLove wrote:

rad law wrote:Question for you, UF. Do employers really not do minimal research, think about what the median is, then calculate an assumed normal distribution from the released Dean's List cutoffs?

All I can say is, apparently not some firms! Generally, Vault firms know whats up though.

Also I echo bble's Q. Worth it to pay for a Vault subscription?

You mean you didn't take one of the many free copies available in CSO? Amateurs. I mean, I say no ... If you have interviews with any Vault firms, your best resource is a former SA at Vanderbilt. Infact, my firm asks in your interview if you contacted last year's SA's... and it looks extremely bad if you did not.

Whelp looks like I'm incompetent. Thanks for the protip. I'll be sure to do that.