GMU OCI Forum

[rakhball]

Hi,

I'm curious about what GMU's OCI (or their equivalent) looks like. I'm tied to NOVA/DC law schools for various reasons and was curious what opportunities GMU students have for employment in a OCI environment. Is there a list of firms and median GPAs out there? Thanks

[Wayze]

Would you mind telling me what kind of work you’re interested in doing (Big law/Government/Midsize firm/Other)? I graduated from GMU law within the last few years and took part in OCI myself back in the day, mainly because I didn’t know what I wanted to do at the time. The process actually opened my eyes to how big law was not a good fit for me, and even though I took part in the OCI interview process, I ended up getting my 2L summer position through means other than OCI, which I think is pretty consistent with most of my classmates. GMU law enjoys the huge benefit of being a 10-15 min metro ride away from DC, and the school really encourages full time students to intern/work at least on a part time basis during the school year (after 1L). I felt this was how a lot of my classmates got jobs— building connections through part time work during law school, and subsequently gaining legal experience doing so.

Since you asked about OCI, I will say the process itself was fairly simple. I don’t think there is a public facing list of firms participating/ list of candidate qualities are looking for since it varies from year to year. You only get access to the OCI career site as a student. I can tell you that during my year the most common things they were looking for in candidates was top 5-15%/ past experience in a certain field/ engineering degrees.

[rakhball]

Would you mind telling me what kind of work you’re interested in doing (Big law/Government/Midsize firm/Other)? I graduated from GMU law within the last few years and took part in OCI myself back in the day, mainly because I didn’t know what I wanted to do at the time. The process actually opened my eyes to how big law was not a good fit for me, and even though I took part in the OCI interview process, I ended up getting my 2L summer position through means other than OCI, which I think is pretty consistent with most of my classmates. GMU law enjoys the huge benefit of being a 10-15 min metro ride away from DC, and the school really encourages full time students to intern/work at least on a part time basis during the school year (after 1L). I felt this was how a lot of my classmates got jobs— building connections through part time work during law school, and subsequently gaining legal experience doing so.

Since you asked about OCI, I will say the process itself was fairly simple. I don’t think there is a public facing list of firms participating/ list of candidate qualities are looking for since it varies from year to year. You only get access to the OCI career site as a student. I can tell you that during my year the most common things they were looking for in candidates was top 5-15%/ past experience in a certain field/ engineering degrees.

Thanks for the reply. My main goal is fedgov national security law, like DOJ NSD Attorney-Advisor. I already work in the national security field, so I have a clearance and experience. However, when I looked at natsec jobs, it appears that most of them require experience as a licensed attorney. I was looking at something like Biglaw cyber security/data privacy to get a bit of experience and pay off potential loans before going into natsec. However, if going straight into natsec after law school is a possibility, I would do that.