UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions Forum

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CPA-->JD

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by CPA-->JD » Tue Mar 28, 2017 12:47 pm

HuntedUnicorn wrote:
CPA-->JD wrote:Anybody have any opinions on the Doctoroff program?
Not in it but I have friends who are and they seem to like it a lot- definitely hooked people up with cool 1L summer jobs and is a good conversation piece for OCI.
Thanks!

Veil of Ignorance

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by Veil of Ignorance » Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:00 pm

Anybody pick UChi over Harvard? How much did UChi offer to sway you? I'm asking because I think Harvard is the only one of HYS that will let me in, and frankly I prefer UChi as a school, from what I can see online.
Last edited by Veil of Ignorance on Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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dasq5511

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by dasq5511 » Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:14 pm

1) Anyone willing to share the things they don't like about UChi?
2) How much more do you value going to Chicago over Duke/UVA/Northwestern? ($60-70k?)

WheninLaw

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by WheninLaw » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:07 pm

dasq5511 wrote:1) Anyone willing to share the things they don't like about UChi?
2) How much more do you value going to Chicago over Duke/UVA/Northwestern? ($60-70k?)
1) weather sucks, spring quarter sucks, hyde park is not a great place to live (although Chicago is amazing), school takes itself a bit seriously (dat rigor), career services is fine but nothing special, not a ton of professors making clerkship calls.

2) depends what you want to do. Big law generally? Maybe 30k total.

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by WheninLaw » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:09 pm

Veil of Ignorance wrote:Anybody pick UChi over Harvard? How much did UChi offer to sway you? I'm asking because I think Harvard is the only one of HYS that will let me in, and frankly I prefer UChi as a school, from what I can see online.
Did not make this choice, although I strongly believe that UoC's outcomes are equivalent or near-equivalent for almost everything.

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poptart123

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by poptart123 » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:18 pm

I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?

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BlendedUnicorn

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by BlendedUnicorn » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:33 pm

poptart123 wrote:I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?
Depends on bidding strategy and personality of the bottom of the class but assuming the people with the worst grades aren't also the most socially awkward I'd say close to 95%+ of the class could get a job if they wanted to.

Biglaw safe is a slippery concept tbh. I don't think anything but the highest GPA will insulate you from bad bidding and (to a much lesser degree) interviewing. OTOH I don't think anyone had a GPA so low that biglaw was out of the question.

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landshoes

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by landshoes » Tue Mar 28, 2017 11:12 pm

dasq5511 wrote:1) Anyone willing to share the things they don't like about UChi?
2) How much more do you value going to Chicago over Duke/UVA/Northwestern? ($60-70k?)
I wish we took conlaw in 1L year. I go back and forth on this but right now I'm kinda annoyed to be taking a fundamental class in the last quarter of 2L year (!)

I like Hyde Park a lot for the most part, and the food here has gotten a lot better, but I wish there were more decent bars. The dive bars are good dive bars but sometimes you just want a bar that is slightly nicer than a dive bar, but not a $15+ a drink fancy-pants place.

The school is small, which I usually love, but right now I have a cold and I don't want to see a million people I know all the time because I just want to have a headache and sleep. How much you like the size of the school is very personality-specific.

There are only 3 journals. Some people who want a journal won't get one, and that sucks.

I wish we had more permanent business / corporate law faculty. We have a lot of good adjuncts and clinical faculty, but I would love it if we had one more permanent person to regularly teach securities regulation etc.

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dasq5511

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by dasq5511 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 12:57 am

HuntedUnicorn wrote:
poptart123 wrote:I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?
Depends on bidding strategy and personality of the bottom of the class but assuming the people with the worst grades aren't also the most socially awkward I'd say close to 95%+ of the class could get a job if they wanted to.

Biglaw safe is a slippery concept tbh. I don't think anything but the highest GPA will insulate you from bad bidding and (to a much lesser degree) interviewing. OTOH I don't think anyone had a GPA so low that biglaw was out of the question.
I know this might also be hard to determine, but any ideas on what percentage are competitive for district and appellate clerkships in non-flyover areas?

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by curry1 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 1:02 am

dasq5511 wrote:
HuntedUnicorn wrote:
poptart123 wrote:I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?
Depends on bidding strategy and personality of the bottom of the class but assuming the people with the worst grades aren't also the most socially awkward I'd say close to 95%+ of the class could get a job if they wanted to.

Biglaw safe is a slippery concept tbh. I don't think anything but the highest GPA will insulate you from bad bidding and (to a much lesser degree) interviewing. OTOH I don't think anyone had a GPA so low that biglaw was out of the question.
I know this might also be hard to determine, but any ideas on what percentage are competitive for district and appellate clerkships in non-flyover areas?
Just a fellow admit, but if you want to look at more granular data for clerkships (including alumni clerks), go to the admitted students' website and navigate to the judicial clerkships tab from 'Careers After Chicago.'

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HillandHollow

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by HillandHollow » Wed Mar 29, 2017 1:24 pm

dasq5511 wrote:1) Anyone willing to share the things they don't like about UChi?

Only three journals, and none of them put out particularly fascinating content.
Winter is a beast.
Learning torts sans duty is straight up nonsense.
Similar to ^^^ there is perhaps too much value placed on being clever, even when being clever does not mean being right (this is only the case with a few professors, and you will know who they are before you are even in their class).
Grades, as opposed to Pass/Fail. Lowest normal pass at Harvard = same on paper as highest normal pass. Lowest at UChi is abundantly clear on transcript (the school pretends the transcript is more confusing than it is).
Not as much support for public interest careers and clerking for non-honors students as one may prefer.


2) How much more do you value going to Chicago over Duke/UVA/Northwestern? ($60-70k?)

This is difficult to quantify, but at least $10k/year in scholarship, apparently.

WheninLaw

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by WheninLaw » Wed Mar 29, 2017 2:20 pm

dasq5511 wrote:
HuntedUnicorn wrote:
poptart123 wrote:I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?
Depends on bidding strategy and personality of the bottom of the class but assuming the people with the worst grades aren't also the most socially awkward I'd say close to 95%+ of the class could get a job if they wanted to.

Biglaw safe is a slippery concept tbh. I don't think anything but the highest GPA will insulate you from bad bidding and (to a much lesser degree) interviewing. OTOH I don't think anyone had a GPA so low that biglaw was out of the question.
I know this might also be hard to determine, but any ideas on what percentage are competitive for district and appellate clerkships in non-flyover areas?
It really depends. As a general rule, I'd say top 10-15% for circuit, and top third for district, although I know of tons of students way outside of those ranges that received one. If you mean big time (2/9/DC/SDNY/etc.), then probably more like top 5-10%.

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dasq5511

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by dasq5511 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 2:53 pm

WheninLaw wrote:
dasq5511 wrote:
HuntedUnicorn wrote:
poptart123 wrote:I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?
Depends on bidding strategy and personality of the bottom of the class but assuming the people with the worst grades aren't also the most socially awkward I'd say close to 95%+ of the class could get a job if they wanted to.

Biglaw safe is a slippery concept tbh. I don't think anything but the highest GPA will insulate you from bad bidding and (to a much lesser degree) interviewing. OTOH I don't think anyone had a GPA so low that biglaw was out of the question.
I know this might also be hard to determine, but any ideas on what percentage are competitive for district and appellate clerkships in non-flyover areas?
It really depends. As a general rule, I'd say top 10-15% for circuit, and top third for district, although I know of tons of students way outside of those ranges that received one. If you mean big time (2/9/DC/SDNY/etc.), then probably more like top 5-10%.
This is actually pretty surprising given Chicago's high clerkship numbers. I got the sense that those numbers would make you competitive for clerkships at most T13/14s.

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HillandHollow

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by HillandHollow » Wed Mar 29, 2017 3:02 pm

WheninLaw wrote:
dasq5511 wrote:
HuntedUnicorn wrote:
poptart123 wrote:I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?
Depends on bidding strategy and personality of the bottom of the class but assuming the people with the worst grades aren't also the most socially awkward I'd say close to 95%+ of the class could get a job if they wanted to.

Biglaw safe is a slippery concept tbh. I don't think anything but the highest GPA will insulate you from bad bidding and (to a much lesser degree) interviewing. OTOH I don't think anyone had a GPA so low that biglaw was out of the question.
I know this might also be hard to determine, but any ideas on what percentage are competitive for district and appellate clerkships in non-flyover areas?
It really depends. As a general rule, I'd say top 10-15% for circuit, and top third for district, although I know of tons of students way outside of those ranges that received one. If you mean big time (2/9/DC/SDNY/etc.), then probably more like top 5-10%.
Are you saying that a third of graduating students are competitive for district, generally, or that the top third of students, grade-wise, are?

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by WheninLaw » Wed Mar 29, 2017 3:12 pm

HillandHollow wrote:
WheninLaw wrote:
dasq5511 wrote:
HuntedUnicorn wrote:
poptart123 wrote:I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?
Depends on bidding strategy and personality of the bottom of the class but assuming the people with the worst grades aren't also the most socially awkward I'd say close to 95%+ of the class could get a job if they wanted to.

Biglaw safe is a slippery concept tbh. I don't think anything but the highest GPA will insulate you from bad bidding and (to a much lesser degree) interviewing. OTOH I don't think anyone had a GPA so low that biglaw was out of the question.
I know this might also be hard to determine, but any ideas on what percentage are competitive for district and appellate clerkships in non-flyover areas?
It really depends. As a general rule, I'd say top 10-15% for circuit, and top third for district, although I know of tons of students way outside of those ranges that received one. If you mean big time (2/9/DC/SDNY/etc.), then probably more like top 5-10%.
Are you saying that a third of graduating students are competitive for district, generally, or that the top third of students, grade-wise, are?
I'm not sure I understand the distinction. Top-third grades will make you competitive for a district court clerkship.

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by WheninLaw » Wed Mar 29, 2017 3:14 pm

dasq5511 wrote:
WheninLaw wrote:
dasq5511 wrote:
HuntedUnicorn wrote:
poptart123 wrote:I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?
Depends on bidding strategy and personality of the bottom of the class but assuming the people with the worst grades aren't also the most socially awkward I'd say close to 95%+ of the class could get a job if they wanted to.

Biglaw safe is a slippery concept tbh. I don't think anything but the highest GPA will insulate you from bad bidding and (to a much lesser degree) interviewing. OTOH I don't think anyone had a GPA so low that biglaw was out of the question.
I know this might also be hard to determine, but any ideas on what percentage are competitive for district and appellate clerkships in non-flyover areas?
It really depends. As a general rule, I'd say top 10-15% for circuit, and top third for district, although I know of tons of students way outside of those ranges that received one. If you mean big time (2/9/DC/SDNY/etc.), then probably more like top 5-10%.
This is actually pretty surprising given Chicago's high clerkship numbers. I got the sense that those numbers would make you competitive for clerkships at most T13/14s.
For non-flyover areas, I think clerkships are tremendously harder to come by then you think.

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by dasq5511 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 3:25 pm

WheninLaw wrote:
dasq5511 wrote:
WheninLaw wrote:
dasq5511 wrote:
HuntedUnicorn wrote:
poptart123 wrote:I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?
Depends on bidding strategy and personality of the bottom of the class but assuming the people with the worst grades aren't also the most socially awkward I'd say close to 95%+ of the class could get a job if they wanted to.

Biglaw safe is a slippery concept tbh. I don't think anything but the highest GPA will insulate you from bad bidding and (to a much lesser degree) interviewing. OTOH I don't think anyone had a GPA so low that biglaw was out of the question.
I know this might also be hard to determine, but any ideas on what percentage are competitive for district and appellate clerkships in non-flyover areas?
It really depends. As a general rule, I'd say top 10-15% for circuit, and top third for district, although I know of tons of students way outside of those ranges that received one. If you mean big time (2/9/DC/SDNY/etc.), then probably more like top 5-10%.

This is actually pretty surprising given Chicago's high clerkship numbers. I got the sense that those numbers would make you competitive for clerkships at most T13/14s.
For non-flyover areas, I think clerkships are tremendously harder to come by then you think.
Yeah, that's very possible. Thanks for your help!

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HillandHollow

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by HillandHollow » Wed Mar 29, 2017 3:33 pm

WheninLaw wrote:
HillandHollow wrote:
WheninLaw wrote:
dasq5511 wrote:
HuntedUnicorn wrote:
poptart123 wrote:I've seen the employment numbers, but what do percent of the class do you all consider biglaw safe?
Depends on bidding strategy and personality of the bottom of the class but assuming the people with the worst grades aren't also the most socially awkward I'd say close to 95%+ of the class could get a job if they wanted to.

Biglaw safe is a slippery concept tbh. I don't think anything but the highest GPA will insulate you from bad bidding and (to a much lesser degree) interviewing. OTOH I don't think anyone had a GPA so low that biglaw was out of the question.
I know this might also be hard to determine, but any ideas on what percentage are competitive for district and appellate clerkships in non-flyover areas?
It really depends. As a general rule, I'd say top 10-15% for circuit, and top third for district, although I know of tons of students way outside of those ranges that received one. If you mean big time (2/9/DC/SDNY/etc.), then probably more like top 5-10%.
Are you saying that a third of graduating students are competitive for district, generally, or that the top third of students, grade-wise, are?
I'm not sure I understand the distinction. Top-third grades will make you competitive for a district court clerkship.
There is a small, but existent, distinction between "students with top third grades are competitive for 2/9/SDNY/DC" and "a third of UChi students will be competitive for..."
I don't personally think it matters (the venn diagram of these groups is a waning crescent, at best), but I thought the question was asking the latter.

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by chicago-gunner123 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 7:26 pm

dasq5511 wrote:1) Anyone willing to share the things they don't like about UChi?
- The weather is truly terrible
- Hyde Park is boring
- The quarter system means 3 finals periods per academic year
- A large coffee at the law school cafe is ~$3
- Too much self aggrandizement among faculty/students

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BlendedUnicorn

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by BlendedUnicorn » Wed Mar 29, 2017 7:29 pm

I would probably pay money to give mortara a swirly.

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by curry1 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 7:41 pm

chicago-gunner123 wrote:
dasq5511 wrote:1) Anyone willing to share the things they don't like about UChi?
- The weather is truly terrible
- Hyde Park is boring
- The quarter system means 3 finals periods per academic year
- A large coffee at the law school cafe is ~$3
- Too much self aggrandizement among faculty/students[/quote]

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by landshoes » Wed Mar 29, 2017 11:42 pm

HuntedUnicorn wrote:I would probably pay money to give mortara a swirly.
he doesn't even have hair! how would this work!

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by WheninLaw » Thu Mar 30, 2017 1:50 am

HuntedUnicorn wrote:I would probably pay money to give mortara a swirly.
Definitely, although he's single-handedly responsible for most of our clerkships, so HANDS OFF.

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LSRAT

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by LSRAT » Fri Mar 31, 2017 2:27 pm

Hi folks! Would y'all mind sharing what final reason made you decide to commit? Or how you decided Chicago was for you?

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call-me-bubbles

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Re: UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions

Post by call-me-bubbles » Sat Apr 01, 2017 2:08 pm

.
Last edited by call-me-bubbles on Fri Apr 14, 2017 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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