class schedule when struck-out of OCI Forum

[Anonymous User]

What classes do you recommend for 2Ls who struck out of OCI?

Would firms care if you took all paper-based seminars? Does it matter if not taking corporations/evidence/admin law?

Since I struck out of OCI, I'm trying to get the best grades possible this year, and am avoiding the large curve bar courses/

[Anonymous User]

so I struck out as well, and from what I read online mass mailing/job hunt during the school year takes up a significant amount of your time. From what i've experienced so far it is 100% true. i'm taking 12 credits- basically the minimum to still be considered full time and i only have classes twice a week. I am still struggling to find time for school work. Firms will absolutely not care what you're taking this semester as far as paper-based/seminars. Im only taking one non-seminar class. I've gotten a few callbacks already post-OCI and the only questions i've gotten about it is "what classes are you taking". The only suggestion I would have is to take seminar classes that are related to biglaw (accounting, securities, etc). But do NOT take hard classes it will not make a significant difference to these firms and you will NOT have time to mass mail/prepare for interviews and your grades will suffer. If anything tell them what your spring schedule is like and mention that you're planning on taking those harder classes to prepare you for their firm

[Anonymous User]

What classes do you recommend for 2Ls who struck out of OCI?

Would firms care if you took all paper-based seminars? Does it matter if not taking corporations/evidence/admin law?

Since I struck out of OCI, I'm trying to get the best grades possible this year, and am avoiding the large curve bar courses/

I struck out last year too and I took the minimum credits (12) in the fall because I wanted more time to do applications. The only thing I would say about this though is that I ended up still searching in the spring which was even worse since I had a bigger course load (15 credits) to balance out my weak fall. So, I would watch out for that possibility since I know many others who struck out at OCI and were still searching for summer positions far into the spring.

I would still suggest taking corporations or evidence, depending on if you're interested in corporate or litigation. Those are two very basic courses/building blocks that'll signal your interest. Also, at least BA for us is a prerequisite/co-req for a lot of corporate classes so taking it would allow you to do more corp classes and show your interest. I also found BA helped me understand a lot more about corporate and that helped me better articulate my interest during interviews.

I personally ended I taking evidence in the fall and BA in the spring, but I definitely got a few questioning looks when I interviewed and said I was interested in corporate. Luckily for me, a very famous professor teaches BA only in the spring so I easily explained that I wanted to wait for his class and also said I wanted a broad range of courses to experience more fields since 2L fall is the first semester we get to choose our own courses. If I did it again, I would put off to the spring again so I could have that professor. But, while interviewing for 3L, I found that I really did learn a lot from BA/other corporate classes and it really did help me do better in interviews because I could talk more substantively about my interest in corporate biglaw.

Of course, you can always say during interviews what courses you plan to take in the spring. Still, if you take a bunch of easy courses that aren't related to the area you say you want to practice, it's hard to really demonstrate your interest. If you don't take Corporations/BA, at least be sure to load up on other courses that are corporate related (or litigation related if that's your interest)

[QContinuum]

What classes do you recommend for 2Ls who struck out of OCI?

Would firms care if you took all paper-based seminars? Does it matter if not taking corporations/evidence/admin law?

Since I struck out of OCI, I'm trying to get the best grades possible this year, and am avoiding the large curve bar courses/

Unless you're aiming for regulatory work in D.C., firms aren't gonna care about admin. Admin's important if you want to litigate (which would require clerking at some point), but it isn't immediately critical.

But I echo the previous posters ITT about the importance of Corps (for either lit or transactional) and Evidence (for lit; you can put this off if you're solely interested in transactional). I'd also recommend taking some kind of accounting for lawyers class, which is actually super useful (both in practice and in terms of interviewers' perceptions). Interviewers also like to hear of folks taking federal tax, but I wouldn't say you have to have tax on your resume.

I'd also be wary of taking too many paper-based seminars, as writing multiple papers in one semester can be a bigger challenge than you anticipate. Also, some seminars are a ton of work for very few credits (at least at my T13 that was the case), so choose carefully.

[Anonymous User]

I'd also be wary of taking too many paper-based seminars, as writing multiple papers in one semester can be a bigger challenge than you anticipate. Also, some seminars are a ton of work for very few credits (at least at my T13 that was the case), so choose carefully.

Yeah I agree with this. Seminars at my T13 can end up being almost as much work as a standard 4 credit - especially since you're expected to participate in class more often. Multiple papers can definitely be difficult to juggle especially since a lot of the time, you're still reading for class discussions and essentially writing your paper on the side on your own schedule (aka cramming a whole 20-30pg paper into one week if you're anything like me/the average student). Of course, it comes down to your own studying style but I personally prefer taking fewer classes than taking many low credit courses since I find that low credit courses aren't proportionally less work.

[QContinuum]

I'd also be wary of taking too many paper-based seminars, as writing multiple papers in one semester can be a bigger challenge than you anticipate. Also, some seminars are a ton of work for very few credits (at least at my T13 that was the case), so choose carefully.

Yeah I agree with this. Seminars at my T13 can end up being almost as much work as a standard 4 credit - especially since you're expected to participate in class more often. Multiple papers can definitely be difficult to juggle especially since a lot of the time, you're still reading for class discussions and essentially writing your paper on the side on your own schedule (aka cramming a whole 20-30pg paper into one week if you're anything like me/the average student). Of course, it comes down to your own studying style but I personally prefer taking fewer classes than taking many low credit courses since I find that low credit courses aren't proportionally less work.

Thanks for the spot-on elaboration. Just to add, I personally find it best to have a good mix of classes every semester. You don't want to end up with 4 proctored exams, but also don't want to end up with 4 papers to write. If you're able to do something like 3 exams with at least one being a take-home, and a paper, that'd be pretty much ideal. You can also try to further lighten that load by getting credit for supervised research or TAing.