Chicago c/o 2015 Applicants (2011-2012 cycle) Forum

[Gail]

What's the typical academic year temperature range?

From Chicago (not smart enough to go to University of Chicago)


Typical temperature range can probably be from 80 (last weeks of summer/early fall) to 20 (dead of winter).

The wind changes everything though. You know you're in winter, that's what I'm saying.

[Samara]

What's the typical academic year temperature range?

From Chicago (not smart enough to go to University of Chicago)


Typical temperature range can probably be from 80 (last weeks of summer/early fall) to 20 (dead of winter).

The wind changes everything though. You know you're in winter, that's what I'm saying.

Do you mean -20? It gets a lot colder than 20 degrees in Chicago.

[Gail]

What's the typical academic year temperature range?

From Chicago (not smart enough to go to University of Chicago)


Typical temperature range can probably be from 80 (last weeks of summer/early fall) to 20 (dead of winter).

The wind changes everything though. You know you're in winter, that's what I'm saying.

Do you mean -20? It gets a lot colder than 20 degrees in Chicago.

I was going average high to average low.

It CAN get that cold (usually not -20), but in all honesty it usually settles around 20. The wind really does change everything though. If you're averse to the cold, I'd choose a different city. It will be cold. There will be mustache icicles. Your coffee will turn into milkshakes. And I'll drink them up.

Wait. What?

[Samara]

What's the typical academic year temperature range?

From Chicago (not smart enough to go to University of Chicago)


Typical temperature range can probably be from 80 (last weeks of summer/early fall) to 20 (dead of winter).

The wind changes everything though. You know you're in winter, that's what I'm saying.

Do you mean -20? It gets a lot colder than 20 degrees in Chicago.

I was going average high to average low.

It CAN get that cold (usually not -20), but in all honesty it usually settles around 20. The wind really does change everything though. If you're averse to the cold, I'd choose a different city. It will be cold. There will be mustache icicles. Your coffee will turn into milkshakes. And I'll drink them up.

Wait. What?

Ah, I see. Yeah, the average is close to 20, but the wind and snow can be brutal. Stupid Lake Michigan.

[luxxe]

...if anyone has any non-employment-related questions for 1Ls, I can answer them. Or PI-related questions.

Yay, PI. How has OCS been so far in helping with PI? Have people been successful in getting positions they wanted (especially in DC, if you know anything about that more specifically)?

[yupaws]

yay! UR today. complete since end of oct.

[JamMasterJ]

So, come up with a better way to demarcate biglaw from not-biglaw using those statistics. Or is this Chicago trolling hour?

If you want to use NLJ250 numbers as the point of demarcation, why not go right to the source? Keeping in mind that NLJ250 doesn't cover a lot of highly sought-after firm jobs, Chicago still outplaced Columbia and NYU (the former by a small margin, the latter by a lot). You're comparing Chicago's relatively comprehensive jobs data to rumors from NYU and Columbia, mostly rumors circulated by students at those schools who go there and have an interest in making it seem as good as possible, instead of looking at objective indicators. I'm not saying Chicago is way better than Columbia and NYU. They're peer schools, and all available data indicate that Chicago easily performs as well as NYU and Columbia, if not better.

Of course my analysis was imperfect, but the entire point of the post was to show that people were misreading the data, and that yes, Chicago performs as well as NYU and CLS. I'm not going to say better, because their strengths are in different fields. I mean, let's be honest... using old c/o 2010 data isn't exactly the most fruitful when we're looking at current placement. It's much better to look at the leaked OCI data (not exactly 'rumors') of the most recent classes.

yeah, I messed up the math, but the numbers still look great!

What's the typical academic year temperature range?

From Chicago (not smart enough to go to University of Chicago)


Typical temperature range can probably be from 80 (last weeks of summer/early fall) to 20 (dead of winter).

The wind changes everything though. You know you're in winter, that's what I'm saying.

Do you mean -20? It gets a lot colder than 20 degrees in Chicago.

I was going average high to average low.

It CAN get that cold (usually not -20), but in all honesty it usually settles around 20. The wind really does change everything though. If you're averse to the cold, I'd choose a different city. It will be cold. There will be mustache icicles. Your coffee will turn into milkshakes. And I'll drink them up.

Wait. What?

--ImageRemoved--

[Tiago Splitter]

Hmm under review again as of 12/14

[Copacetic1]

yep same.

[poe]

Hmm under review again as of 12/14

Same here. Original date was 11/11, I believe.

[80eight]

...if anyone has any non-employment-related questions for 1Ls, I can answer them. Or PI-related questions.

Does interest in PI (vs biglaw/anything else) impact first semester...at all?

[thestillpoint]

Hmm under review again as of 12/14

Same here. Original date was 11/11, I believe.

I finally went UR today. Complete since 11/02.

[Xifeng]

...if anyone has any non-employment-related questions for 1Ls, I can answer them. Or PI-related questions.

Yay, PI. How has OCS been so far in helping with PI? Have people been successful in getting positions they wanted (especially in DC, if you know anything about that more specifically)?

Well, I'm just a 1L so I don't know about long-term jobs, but for 1L summer most people do PI. And the person who's in charge of PI knows everything so she's really helpful. People haven't really been talking about summer jobs a lot since we were in the midst of finals, so I'm not sure about anything in the DC area and it's a bit early for people to be hearing back.

[Xifeng]

...if anyone has any non-employment-related questions for 1Ls, I can answer them. Or PI-related questions.

I will start the happy question trend:

Q: How awesome is it to be done with your first set of 1L exams by December 13?

A: Really awesome. It's even more fun if you have friends who go to other law schools who haven't even started exams yet!

The quarter system rules!

Speaking of PI, I have a two-parter for you. I think I want to do biglaw (from my limited 0L perspective), but I feel bad about not doing PI. 1) Should I feel bad about that? 2) Is it possible to do some sort of mix, i.e. PI biglaw or biglaw PI in-house, or does biglaw pro bono work offer a real opportunity to do some PI work?

I'll let Xi answer this more fully as the PI expert of Chicago, but you will soon learn about the unfortunate cliquishness of legal PI. My understanding is that they tend to be very suspicious of people who come from big law and want to go full PI.

Yeah. Basically, when there were more jobs, it used to be much easier to go from biglaw -> PI. I have no idea how you'd go about going from PI to biglaw, as it seems that the normal track is OCI -> 2L summer -> offer -> job.

In this economy, with the limited number of jobs (PI has limited jobs, too! Especially with their lack of resources), I've heard that they're more willing to go with someone who's always been PI over someone who's jumping ship. It's also hard to get PI jobs in the first place and they want you to show your commitment, so if you do your 2L summer at a firm, that's a summer you didn't spend working in PI.

Also, with Chicago's LRAP now, there's no real way to justify it in terms of cost if you're really dedicated to PI. They'd rather hire someone who really wants PI over someone who wants to change sectors a LOT. That isn't to say that you can't, it's just that it's much trickier ITE.

I've also heard stories of people who do a lot of pro bono work at their firms, but your normal work obviously > pro bono work, and it depends on the firm and firm culture (things which I know nothing about).

[Samara]

Yeah. Basically, when there were more jobs, it used to be much easier to go from biglaw -> PI. I have no idea how you'd go about going from PI to biglaw, as it seems that the normal track is OCI -> 2L summer -> offer -> job.

In this economy, with the limited number of jobs (PI has limited jobs, too! Especially with their lack of resources), I've heard that they're more willing to go with someone who's always been PI over someone who's jumping ship. It's also hard to get PI jobs in the first place and they want you to show your commitment, so if you do your 2L summer at a firm, that's a summer you didn't spend working in PI.

Also, with Chicago's LRAP now, there's no real way to justify it in terms of cost if you're really dedicated to PI. They'd rather hire someone who really wants PI over someone who wants to change sectors a LOT. That isn't to say that you can't, it's just that it's much trickier ITE.

I've also heard stories of people who do a lot of pro bono work at their firms, but your normal work obviously > pro bono work, and it depends on the firm and firm culture (things which I know nothing about).

Thanks for the response! This is very helpful. I talked to Dany and beezy on chat last night about this too. Beezy said that someone was even given a budget for PI at their biglaw firm. I imagine that's pretty rare, but it sounds like there are some firms that are more pro bono-focused than others. I think having the opportunity to do more than a nominal amount of pro bono work at a firm would be a good fit for me.

How do firms typically treat you pro bono work? I know that you have a target amount of hours and that a certain number of pro bono hours can count towards that. But say you're on track to hit the billable hours requirement and you're on track to quickly use up your countable pro bono hours. Can you use the firm's resources to pursue extra pro bono work or is it something you have to do completely on your own? Also, do they treat different kinds of pro bono work differently? My biggest interest doesn't fall under one of the bleeding heart categories (though I'd like to assist those causes in some way), so would firms be pressuring me towards a certain type of pro bono?

[Blessedassurance]

yep same.

[Killingly]

Dropped by just to say:

Come on, Chicago, let Jam in.

(Karma. It's a good idea.)

[snehpets]

Dropped by just to say:

Come on, Chicago, let Jam in.

(Karma. It's a good idea.)

+1.

Also, because I'm too lazy read back in the thread (annoying, I know), anyone want to share how Chicago usually sends out RD? I know it's in January, but is there a status checker change, letter, email, etc.?

[JamMasterJ]

Dropped by just to say:

Come on, Chicago, let Jam in.

(Karma. It's a good idea.)

+1.

Also, because I'm too lazy read back in the thread (annoying, I know), anyone want to share how Chicago usually sends out RD? I know it's in January, but is there a status checker change, letter, email, etc.?

[46nyc]

Dropped by just to say:

Come on, Chicago, let Jam in.

(Karma. It's a good idea.)

+1.

Also, because I'm too lazy read back in the thread (annoying, I know), anyone want to share how Chicago usually sends out RD? I know it's in January, but is there a status checker change, letter, email, etc.?

I think it's a phone call

[crumpetsandtea]

Jam + Chicago

meant to be!

[Sh@keNb@ke]

Was complete as of 11/2, now UR as of 12/14. Hope this leads to good news.

[amc987]

Was complete as of 11/2, now UR as of 12/14.

Same complete date, not UR yet. Thanks so much for quickly processing my application, Chicago. I am getting a little worried about this January RD batch thing. Maybe they'll be in the office next week too...

[foxylaxy]

Hmm under review again as of 12/14

+1 my original date was 11/11 new date same, 12/14

[luxxe]

Was complete as of 11/2, now UR as of 12/14.

Same complete date, not UR yet. Thanks so much for quickly processing my application, Chicago. I am getting a little worried about this January RD batch thing. Maybe they'll be in the office next week too...

They will be, because that's when they are making our ED acceptance phone calls .