Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges Forum

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by taco bell breakfast » Tue Nov 14, 2017 3:19 pm

carsondalywashere wrote:
RedPurpleBlue wrote:
taco bell breakfast wrote:Career Night - worthwhile? Waste of time? Something I should go to regardless of how freaked out I am about finals right now?
Fellow 1L. I figure why not go? There's going to be some free food, and it's not like we don't have a couple of hours to spare in our schedules. Might get introduced to a practice area you hadn't previously considered or meet some contacts that might land you a job next August.
I'm not going to go. I've gone to a few of these events already, and the attorneys get swamped with kids. It can be a useful exercise, and I'll be sure to do more of them, but I think prepping for finals is more important at this point (especially since there will be more networking opportunities next semester).

Edit - to each their own though. I commented so other 1ls reading this don't feel a pressure to go to career night if they're stressed about studying for finals
Thanks for the great feedback, everyone. Haven't been to all that many of these yet, so I'll probably go just to shake some of the rust off my networking skills (and to kill an hour that I likely would have otherwise spent watching Netflix, etc.). I agree though that 1Ls shouldn't feel pressured to go - there will be so many (so so many) of these events in the coming months, that missing tonight's event really isn't a big deal.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by RedPurpleBlue » Tue Nov 14, 2017 3:26 pm

carsondalywashere wrote:
RedPurpleBlue wrote:
taco bell breakfast wrote:Career Night - worthwhile? Waste of time? Something I should go to regardless of how freaked out I am about finals right now?
Fellow 1L. I figure why not go? There's going to be some free food, and it's not like we don't have a couple of hours to spare in our schedules. Might get introduced to a practice area you hadn't previously considered or meet some contacts that might land you a job next August.
I'm not going to go. I've gone to a few of these events already, and the attorneys get swamped with kids. It can be a useful exercise, and I'll be sure to do more of them, but I think prepping for finals is more important at this point (especially since there will be more networking opportunities next semester).

Edit - to each their own though. I commented so other 1ls reading this don't feel a pressure to go to career night if they're stressed about studying for finals
I want to push back on this a bit. I don't there should be any real pressure to go to career night, but I also think it's absurd to be stressing about studying for finals right now. We aren't even done with all the readings for class.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by carsondalywashere » Tue Nov 14, 2017 3:45 pm

RedPurpleBlue wrote:
carsondalywashere wrote:
RedPurpleBlue wrote:
taco bell breakfast wrote:Career Night - worthwhile? Waste of time? Something I should go to regardless of how freaked out I am about finals right now?
Fellow 1L. I figure why not go? There's going to be some free food, and it's not like we don't have a couple of hours to spare in our schedules. Might get introduced to a practice area you hadn't previously considered or meet some contacts that might land you a job next August.
I'm not going to go. I've gone to a few of these events already, and the attorneys get swamped with kids. It can be a useful exercise, and I'll be sure to do more of them, but I think prepping for finals is more important at this point (especially since there will be more networking opportunities next semester).

Edit - to each their own though. I commented so other 1ls reading this don't feel a pressure to go to career night if they're stressed about studying for finals
I want to push back on this a bit. I don't there should be any real pressure to go to career night, but I also think it's absurd to be stressing about studying for finals right now. We aren't even done with all the readings for class.
I'm not going to dig into this, but let's just say there are different schools of thought on how to best prepare for exams

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by yyyuppp » Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:03 pm

carsondalywashere wrote:
RedPurpleBlue wrote:
I'm not going to dig into this, but let's just say there are different schools of thought on how to best prepare for exams
there's no wrong answer on this. career night is absolutely not necessary. There aren't firms that will be at OCI that will be at the november career night but won't have their own networking event or won't be there at the April career night thing (yes, they do this same thing again basically, and i think that one is mandatory). Caveat:I think Debevoise was there last year and they didn't come to our OCI.

if youre worried about talking to people who work at law firms you will have a ton of opportunities for that. if you're free that evening and wanna see what thats all about then go. its definitely okay to think two hours are better served studying or better served networking. During 1L do stuff in a way that makes sense to you.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by crumb cake » Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:04 pm

It’s anecdotal, but I saw plenty of people who might be considered a little weird (and definitely weren’t excellent interviewers) get solid offers because of their grades. And plenty of “normal” or even “good” interviewers at or below median struck out.

Unless you do something offensive or disqualifying, firms really are just looking for a number to put in the seat.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by yyyuppp » Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:28 pm

Its a little early to have OCI conversations, but I think networking is valuable depending on your goals (and again, no need to start that at career night if you have better stuff to do. i went, stayed an hour, and left to go study). This is especially true if for whatever reason you are set on a certain firm or firms. since getting an offer isn't extremely hard (assuming you have at least near median grades and cast a wide net), but getting a specific one can be a crapshoot even with grades.

in my experience, what your offers and CBs will be depends on what practice groups and markets you are targeting. Corp is generally easier than lit (esp. in Chicago) and NY easier than DC or Chicago. For those more competitive CBs, grades are necessary, but better interviewers will have an advantage. If you're interested generic NY biglaw, then networking probably won't change much, you'll get an offer with decent grades and a non-offesnive personality. If you want Chicago Lit or something in DC, getting a feel for the firm and talking to people there can make you stand out in the interviews if you don't have a 4.0+. Its not that networking will get you a job (though i did see that happen for a few people), but in an interview you can say "i talked to this person and that, and they told me X, which really lines up with my interests because Y." (all of this can be done at subsequent OCI events and cold emailing associates). Firms, especially competitive ones, will have to choose between a number of people with grades between say a 3.65 and a 3.7, and the difference between those grades may be immaterial to the firm because they are above cutoff, so they have to then select based on other factors.

theres zero reason to not put in effort to have whatever edge you can during OCI, including grades and networking.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by crumb cake » Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:58 pm

Yeah, good poast ^

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by FloridaCoastalorbust » Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:06 pm

RedPurpleBlue wrote:
carsondalywashere wrote:
RedPurpleBlue wrote:
taco bell breakfast wrote:Career Night - worthwhile? Waste of time? Something I should go to regardless of how freaked out I am about finals right now?
Fellow 1L. I figure why not go? There's going to be some free food, and it's not like we don't have a couple of hours to spare in our schedules. Might get introduced to a practice area you hadn't previously considered or meet some contacts that might land you a job next August.
I'm not going to go. I've gone to a few of these events already, and the attorneys get swamped with kids. It can be a useful exercise, and I'll be sure to do more of them, but I think prepping for finals is more important at this point (especially since there will be more networking opportunities next semester).

Edit - to each their own though. I commented so other 1ls reading this don't feel a pressure to go to career night if they're stressed about studying for finals
I want to push back on this a bit. I don't there should be any real pressure to go to career night, but I also think it's absurd to be stressing about studying for finals right now. We aren't even done with all the readings for class.
fwiw I'd be stressed if I wasn't stressing about finals the first day of class.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by RedPurpleBlue » Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:47 pm

carsondalywashere wrote:
I'm not going to dig into this, but let's just say there are different schools of thought on how to best prepare for exams
There absolutely are a lot of viable schools of thought on how to best prepare for exams. Feigning that there isn't an hour and a half to waste at this point is not one of the healthy ones though. You do you but make sure you take some R&R, so you don't burn out.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by yyyuppp » Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:56 pm

RedPurpleBlue wrote:
carsondalywashere wrote:
I'm not going to dig into this, but let's just say there are different schools of thought on how to best prepare for exams
There absolutely are a lot of viable schools of thought on how to best prepare for exams. Feigning that there isn't an hour and a half to waste at this point is not one of the healthy ones though. You do you but make sure you take some R&R, so you don't burn out.

1st semester finals are long and stressful and everyone will be burned out by the end, that's guaranteed. right now (or ever) no one should be white knuckling it or freaking out, but maybe the poster would rather spend that 1.5 hours relaxing at home after finishing up some reading instead of networking, which can be stressful too. anyways, the point is everyone just do you what you feel you should do.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by personofinterest » Wed Nov 15, 2017 10:18 pm

yyyuppp wrote:
RedPurpleBlue wrote:
carsondalywashere wrote:
I'm not going to dig into this, but let's just say there are different schools of thought on how to best prepare for exams
There absolutely are a lot of viable schools of thought on how to best prepare for exams. Feigning that there isn't an hour and a half to waste at this point is not one of the healthy ones though. You do you but make sure you take some R&R, so you don't burn out.

1st semester finals are long and stressful and everyone will be burned out by the end, that's guaranteed. right now (or ever) no one should be white knuckling it or freaking out, but maybe the poster would rather spend that 1.5 hours relaxing at home after finishing up some reading instead of networking, which can be stressful too. anyways, the point is everyone just do you what you feel you should do.
My 2 cents: Both grades and networking are important. You can network over the summer, but your grades are set by late April/early May. If you have limited time, choose to focus on grades during be school year. Also, I found networking 1-on-1 to be most beneficial. Good luck!

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by WilliamFaulkner » Thu Nov 16, 2017 9:21 am

good people: 0L here who id torn about applying ED/RD. Above both medians and time is running out on a decision. Would love to correspond with a student directly.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by Jclubb » Thu Nov 16, 2017 12:21 pm

WilliamFaulkner wrote:good people: 0L here who id torn about applying ED/RD. Above both medians and time is running out on a decision. Would love to correspond with a student directly.
1L here. If you have any questions about the school I'd be glad to help. As for applying ED, a lot of it will depend on your particular situation and what you want. Glad to talk through things with you if you'd like to pm me. Just know a lot of it will be trying to determine what you want. Generally ED here is a better decision most places because of the guaranteed scholarship (assuming they still do it). Feel free to pm me.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by pbsdotcom » Thu Nov 16, 2017 9:49 pm

Anyone with experience going into Boston Big Law from NU?

Edit: I am from there, strong family ties, plan to live there, etc.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by Mullens » Thu Nov 16, 2017 11:19 pm

pbsdotcom wrote:Anyone with experience going into Boston Big Law from NU?

Edit: I am from there, strong family ties, plan to live there, etc.
A few recent alumni I went to school with work in Boston Big Law. If you’re a 1L I suggest reaching out and trying to get coffee with them over winter break (look for bios on firm websites). If you’re a 0L, it’s def possible and few people try so the path to Boston doesn’t seem too bad with ties.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by pbsdotcom » Fri Nov 17, 2017 12:05 am

Mullens wrote:
pbsdotcom wrote:Anyone with experience going into Boston Big Law from NU?

Edit: I am from there, strong family ties, plan to live there, etc.
A few recent alumni I went to school with work in Boston Big Law. If you’re a 1L I suggest reaching out and trying to get coffee with them over winter break (look for bios on firm websites). If you’re a 0L, it’s def possible and few people try so the path to Boston doesn’t seem too bad with ties.
Ok cool yea thats a good idea. I'm a 0L but I applied ED and then just got nervous looking through Boston law firm bios and not seeing a ton of NU people... probably something I should have looked into before. do you think its just self selection which is why not a lot of NU people go to Boston?
Last edited by pbsdotcom on Tue Nov 21, 2017 12:57 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by Mullens » Fri Nov 17, 2017 12:10 am

pbsdotcom wrote:
Mullens wrote:
pbsdotcom wrote:Anyone with experience going into Boston Big Law from NU?

Edit: I am from there, strong family ties, plan to live there, etc.
A few recent alumni I went to school with work in Boston Big Law. If you’re a 1L I suggest reaching out and trying to get coffee with them over winter break (look for bios on firm websites). If you’re a 0L, it’s def possible and few people try so the path to Boston doesn’t seem too bad with ties.
Ok cool yea thats a good idea. I'm a 0L but I applied ED and then just got nervous looking through Boston law firm bios and not seeing a ton of NU people... probably something I should have looked into before. do you think its just self selection which is why not a lot of NU people go to Boston?
Yeah it’s almost entirely self-selection. Not a lot of people from Boston who want to go back to Boston venture to the Midwest for law school

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by pbsdotcom » Fri Nov 17, 2017 12:20 am

Mullens wrote:
pbsdotcom wrote:
Mullens wrote:
pbsdotcom wrote:Anyone with experience going into Boston Big Law from NU?

Edit: I am from there, strong family ties, plan to live there, etc.
A few recent alumni I went to school with work in Boston Big Law. If you’re a 1L I suggest reaching out and trying to get coffee with them over winter break (look for bios on firm websites). If you’re a 0L, it’s def possible and few people try so the path to Boston doesn’t seem too bad with ties.
Ok cool yea thats a good idea. I'm a 0L but I applied ED and then just got nervous looking through Boston law firm bios and not seeing a ton of NU people... probably something I should have looked into before. do you think its just self selection which is why not a lot of NU people go to Boston?
Yeah it’s almost entirely self-selection. Not a lot of people from Boston who want to go back to Boston venture to the Midwest for law school
Hmm yea.. weirdly my thought process was i specifically wanted to get out of the northeast for law school knowing i would be living there the rest of my life but i hope its not significantly harder to get a job.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by eminentdomain » Fri Nov 17, 2017 2:05 am

pbsdotcom wrote:
Mullens wrote:
pbsdotcom wrote:
Mullens wrote:
pbsdotcom wrote:Anyone with experience going into Boston Big Law from NU?

Edit: I am from there, strong family ties, plan to live there, etc.
A few recent alumni I went to school with work in Boston Big Law. If you’re a 1L I suggest reaching out and trying to get coffee with them over winter break (look for bios on firm websites). If you’re a 0L, it’s def possible and few people try so the path to Boston doesn’t seem too bad with ties.
Ok cool yea thats a good idea. I'm a 0L but I applied ED and then just got nervous looking through Boston law firm bios and not seeing a ton of NU people... probably something I should have looked into before. do you think its just self selection which is why not a lot of NU people go to Boston?
Yeah it’s almost entirely self-selection. Not a lot of people from Boston who want to go back to Boston venture to the Midwest for law school
Hmm yea.. weirdly my thought process was i specifically wanted to get out of the northeast for law school knowing i would be living there the rest of my life but i hope its not significantly harder to get a job.
I know of people who got Boston biglaw as a 3L and people who got Boston biglaw summer offers without ties. Definitely doable.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by Anon-e-miss » Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:36 pm

Is NU's stated commitment to expanding its PI/gov offerings genuine or just alot of marketing? I have numbers that give me a chance at $$$, am from the Midwest, and would like to do PD work or litigate for a non-profit (doing civil rights work related to prisoner advocacy) in a major or secondary market. The possibility of a scholarship at Northwestern that would allow me to graduate with limited debt is obviously appealing, but I'm concerned about their relatively low PI/gov placement numbers.
Is the PI placement a product of self-selection, and do NU grads have success in securing gov/PI work? Also, for students who want to do public defense, is it particularly difficult to get a PD job in Cook County since they don't hire pre-bar like many other large offices? Finally, are NU grads competitive at "unicorn" PI orgs like ACLU, SPLC, etc etc? I know that students at HYSCCN are more competitive for those jobs, but can NU get you there too?

I appreciate anyone who takes the time to answer one or more of my questions! (I realize that I asked multiple things that one person might not be equipped to answer)
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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by RedPurpleBlue » Sun Nov 26, 2017 6:15 pm

Anon-e-miss wrote:Is NU's stated commitment to expanding its PI/gov offerings genuine or just alot of marketing? I have numbers that give me a chance at $$$, am from the Midwest, and would like to do PD work or litigate for a non-profit (doing civil rights work related to prisoner advocacy) in a major or secondary market. The possibility of a scholarship at Northwestern that would allow me to graduate with limited debt is obviously appealing, but I'm concerned about their relatively low PI/gov placement numbers.
Is the PI placement a product of self-selection, and do NU grads have success in securing gov/PI work? Also, for students who want to do public defense, is it particularly difficult to get a PD job in Cook County since they don't hire pre-bar like many other large offices? Finally, are NU grads competitive at "unicorn" PI orgs like ACLU, SPLC, etc etc? I know that students at HYSCCN are more competitive for those jobs, but can NU get you there too?

I appreciate anyone who takes the time to answer one or more of my questions! (I realize that I asked multiple things that one person might not be equipped to answer)
I am a 1L

I'd say it's partially marketing and partially genuine. There's a public interest advisor here now, which I think is relatively new, the LRAP is pretty decent, summer funding got bumped to $8,000 (can pretty easily get it to $9,000 - $10,000 if you do 20hrs of volunteer work through SPFIF), there is a Spring public interest fair here iirc, civil rights/death penalty/police abuse, etc. clinics, and a good few of my classmates seem interested in PI work.

From what I can tell talking to other students, the historical PI number is due solely to self-selection.

I have no clue as to Cook County PD work.

Yes, NU can get unicorn jobs. There are 4 Bristow Fellows a year (get to work for the US Solicitor General and is probably only a notch below SCOTUS clerking), and NU had ones in 2012, 2013, and 2016. We've had at least 6 SCOTUS clerks since 2010 (maybe more but I don't know where to find data for recent years), and I know Roberts is hiring a NU grad to clerk for him in the 2018 term. Regardless, you're going to need to be at the top of your class wherever you go to get SCOTUS/Bristow. The point is that NU grads can get and definitely do get ACLU, SPLC, etc. gigs if they have the credentials (grades, PI resume). I'd think some quick googling would show you that ACLU, SPLC, etc. grads come from more than just HYSCCN. For my state branch, more ACLU lawyers went to our non-T14 (but still T25) state law school than the T14. Don't let TLS make you paranoid that it's HYS or bust for unicorn jobs.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by Attrition » Sat Dec 09, 2017 3:13 pm

Does anyone have a solid sec reg outline (recent?) ideally for horwich, but beggars cant be choosers

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by carsondalywashere » Mon Dec 11, 2017 3:12 pm

When do grades come back? All I know is that they are released in January.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by Mullens » Mon Dec 11, 2017 4:18 pm

carsondalywashere wrote:When do grades come back? All I know is that they are released in January.
It’s usually something like the second Friday of classes in January. You can go back through this thread and find past dates. As soon as exams end, just try to forget about them and move on. The waiting can make you go crazy if you fixate at all.

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Re: Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges

Post by carsondalywashere » Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:58 am

Mullens wrote:
carsondalywashere wrote:When do grades come back? All I know is that they are released in January.
It’s usually something like the second Friday of classes in January. You can go back through this thread and find past dates. As soon as exams end, just try to forget about them and move on. The waiting can make you go crazy if you fixate at all.
Would like to know if I need to drop out before next semseter :lol:


All joking aside, I just want to make sure I have time to drop classes if need be

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