Question about Bidding Forum

[admisionquestion]

Hi,

So im a 0L attending a t14 next year. Can someone give me a quick run down on what all these "critique my bidlist" posts are about. I get that some part of OCI is bidding, but can somone give me a short guide on what this actually means...

[kalvano]

Some schools utilize a system for OCI in which you bid / rank a potential employer and there are certain factors to be considered in whether or not that is a "smart" bid. I believe some of it is pure luck of the draw, too.

Other schools use a different model called preselect. It's what my school uses. You just apply to OCI firms using the job website, and the firm selects who they want to interview.

[admisionquestion]

So does everyone get the same number of bids? Explain what it means to rank? Is it like a draft?

[kalvano]

So does everyone get the same number of bids? Explain what it means to rank? Is it like a draft?

Everyone gets the same number of bids. Someone with more knowledge of a lottery system will have to fill in better on that type, but I believe it's a Symplicity algorithm that uses a variety of factors, including where you rank the firm, to pick what interviews you get.

The advantage over a preselect is you may get a chance to interview with a firm that would not ordinarily interview you. Although I don't know how succesful that might be ultimately.

Like I said, my school is pure preselect, so I don't know much about the lottery systems. I'm sure someone else can chime in on that.

[attractive_NUisance]

Lottery bidding is like fantasy football except you pick law firms instead of nfl players. Most T14 is lottery so you get your pick of firms until they run out of interview slots. So maybe everyone wants Proskauer because they are like Adrian Peterson - a low risk pick known to give lots of offers to people with low GPAs. Maybe not too many people want S&C or Wachtell because they are high risk high reward like rookie QB Andrew Luck since they might ignore you because they only hire the top few people but if you luck out and get a job you are in a great spot. Oh and Latham and White & Case are risky like an injury-prone but very talented Running Back since you might do great with them but you might get screwed over if something bad happens. Think Jahvid Best.

Excuse the tortured metaphor.

[sambeber]

As an example...

Let's say 100 firms are coming to interview on campus at your school. Your school allows you to have 30 firms ranked in your list (30 "bids"). Everyone ranks their top 30 firms that they would like to interview with 1-30. Let's say each firm has spots to interview 25 students. Then an automated system goes down the list. For example, Firm A. Let's say 10 people rank Firm A in their #1 slot, 10 people rank it #2, 10 people rank it #3, and 10 people rank it #4. Here, the system would first slot everyone who ranked it #1 to interview. Now there are 15 interviews remaining. Repeat with everyone who ranked it #2. Now 5 interviews remaining, but 10 people have ranked it #3. The system randomly selects 5 of those 10 people to fill the remaining slots. The other 5 don't get an interview. Everyone who ranked it lower (#4 and below) doesn't get an interview. Rinse and repeat for each firm.

There is strategy involved in your rank-order. The less selective firms are usually ranked higher on peoples' lists, so you have to put them higher up to get interviews. The opposite for the more selective firms.

[kalvano]

Whereas it's much more straightforward with preselect. The firms lists their guidelines, you ignore them and apply anyway, and you're either given and interview or not. No ranking or anything like that.