USC (Gould) c/o 2018 Forum

[michael2015]

If anyone wants some honest answers re: USC, shoot me a message. 3L at USC here.

[LawsRUs]

If anyone wants some honest answers re: USC, shoot me a message. 3L at USC here.

pm-ed. Thanks!!

[RubyRod]

Anyone going to the NYC reception? I'm on my way to the big apple now. Fresh off a DLS from Stanford.

[LawsRUs]

Anyone going to the NYC reception? I'm on my way to the big apple now. Fresh off a DLS from Stanford.

mec could you let us (or me at least) know how the reception is?
I hope the letter contains good news!!

[michael2015]

Hope I was helpful to anyone that PM'ed

[RubyRod]

Anyone going to the NYC reception? I'm on my way to the big apple now. Fresh off a DLS from Stanford.

mec could you let us (or me at least) know how the reception is?
I hope the letter contains good news!!

Stanford calls for acceptances. Best hope I have is a wait list :/
I will post a short review and maybe a pic or two. Wish USC had a little book that came with acceptance like Vandy and UCLA so I could read it during this bus ride. Reading the web portal on my phone is rough on the eyes

[LawsRUs]

Hope I was helpful to anyone that PM'ed

Mike, you don't realize how helpful you were! Thanks!!
How about good places to eat nearby??

[LawsRUs]

Mec I'll have my fingers crossed for that WL.
Also on the myLaw portal, I've watched almost all videos from last year's ASW, and the most interesting one was the alumni panel.

[RubyRod]

Hope I was helpful to anyone that PM'ed

Mike, you don't realize how helpful you were! Thanks!!
How about good places to eat nearby??

I'm now very curious about this Q&A. I need to think of questions for tonight!

[LawsRUs]

Hope I was helpful to anyone that PM'ed

Mike, you don't realize how helpful you were! Thanks!!
How about good places to eat nearby??

I'm now very curious about this Q&A. I need to think of questions for tonight!

pm-ed you just now mec.

[michael2015]

Laws if you don't mind, I'll post your Q with my As to this thread?

[LawsRUs]

If anyone wants some honest answers re: USC, shoot me a message. 3L at USC here.

Also, what is this about? Law, Language and Values (2 units)

[LawsRUs]

Laws if you don't mind, I'll post your Q with my As to this thread?

Please!

[michael2015]

Do you have a job lined up at the moment? If yes, how did you find your job?
o Yes. I received a job from 2L OCI and then upgraded firms during the start of 3L by a combo of mass-mailing and a professors recommendation.

How easy was it to find your 1L summer gig? What did you do for summer after 1L?
Summer of 1L I worked with a judge. It wasn’t too hard. 1L summer jobs don't really matter as long as it is a legal job. I mass-mailed about 50 judges on Dec. 1 and received a few interviews and locked one down. You’ll be able to find something.

- Were you set on practicing in SoCal, with no intention to practice out of state?
o I was set on practicing wherever the best opportunity presented itself. I am actually going to NYC at the end of this year.

- How is the job market in LA?
o Getting better. Firms are hiring more and the BigLaw firms here always have spots for USC/UCLA.

- What type of jobs do people with median grades take?
o Midlaw. Median isn’t good enough for BigLaw here. Our median is a 3.3, I would say unless you have some other qualities (URM, Engineer, CompSci, Patent eligible), you will need a 3.45 to feel more secure.

- Do you find that a lot of 1Ls and 2Ls have a summer job lined up? What kind of work? How did they find it? OCI, Simplicity, self-initiated?
o Every 1L does and I think almost all 2Ls did. 30-40% through OCI, 20-30% via public interest, the remainder through hustle+simplicity.

- How helpful is the career service office?
o The new dean of our CSO is AMAZING. I can only imagine that it will continue to improve. LET ME EMPHASIZE THIS - THE NEW DEAN OF CSO WORKED AT NALP AND KNOWS RECRUITERS AT TONS OF FIRMS, SHE IS A ROCKSTAR.

- Was OCI helpful for you?
o Yes. They have a good amount of firms and it’s a mix of lottery + preselects.

- What is your opinion on the grading system?
o It’s the standard 3.3 so it’s fine. I hated the fact Legal Writing and Research is graded. This is a terrible thing, but unless you’re at HYS that’s going to be the case.

- How easy/hard is it to write onto LR or a secondary journal?
o Almost every student who wants a LR/Journal/Moot court will get one. I think there are something like 140 spots in those activities for about 170 students.

- How easy/hard is it to get your first choice clinic?
o Seems easy.

- Do most 3Ls have jobs lined up at graduation? How did they find their jobs?
o I say most are. Either through 2L OCI, hustle, internships, simplicity. It varies.

- Do a lot of governmental agencies or PI organizations come to OCIs?
o There is a separate PI OCI, I did not attend.

- Which other schools were you considering before you decided on USC? Why did you choose USC?
o USC, Cornell, ‘Bama, UCLA. More money, better location.

- Are your legal research and legal writing classes graded or P/NP?
o Graded. SUCKS.

- What is the GPA that 1L doctrinals are curved to?
o 3.3

- Are seminars curved? If yes, what is the GPA that they are curved to?
o Yes. To the mean of the students in the class.

- Re: Law school / university funded positions, do people generally take these positions because they can’t land a job, or are they generally using them to wait on bar results?
o Unsure.

- Are you happy with your decision to attend USC?
o Yes and no. I think it’s a great school and you can take advantage of the school/professors/resources/location. I think it’s not like HYS where you walk in and can be handed a job, you got to put in a bit more work than the T-14. I’m happy with where I ended up even though the road was a bit more bumpy at times than others were.

[LawsRUs]

^^ Thanks mike!! Really excited about the new dean of CSO. I'm coming in at the right time, I feel like.

Follow up Q: Re: journals: "...something like 140 spots in those activities for about 170 students"
These 140 spots are for 2Ls right? Not 2Ls and 3Ls combined?

[michael2015]

All of 2Ls. 3Ls get board/exec board positions.

For our year (roughly 180 kids), law review had 37, the secondary journals had another 70 kids, and then moot court had another 30. Then a bunch of kids didn't even apply for any of them, and very few kids got shut out completely.

[LawsRUs]

^^ awesome!!

That piece of information is something we can't find on the web elsewhere--thanks again!!

[NoBladesNoBows]

.

[LawsRUs]

Yep duplicate, except for the bolded part.

Also have you signed up for ASW?

[NoBladesNoBows]

.

[LawsRUs]

Yep!

[Ver91]

Hey All! Seriously considering USC...has anyone tried negotiating with them for more $? I have gotten more at similar and higher ranked schools but I am not sure how open they are to negotiations and they are a top choice for me!

[LawsRUs]

Hey All! Seriously considering USC...has anyone tried negotiating with them for more $? I have gotten more at similar and higher ranked schools but I am not sure how open they are to negotiations and they are a top choice for me!

Hi ver!! Welcome!! 'SC does negotiate; as for me, I'm still waiting on few more schools to get back to me, so I haven't started..I hope you get more; GL!! Do pls let us know if you are successful--

[Finalfan]

How many people showed up at the New York meeting with the dean?? For anyone that was there what was it about??

[RubyRod]

How many people showed up at the New York meeting with the dean?? For anyone that was there what was it about??

Hey so I was at the reception last night.

First off the building was gorgeous, and I believe the law firm hosting the event owned half of it seeing as how their name was etched into the marble walls of the second elevator bay. Morrison and Foester, aka MoFo law, which the employees forget the novelty of until they host events like these. Someone's email there is JHo@mofo.com, haha. The lobby was marble and on the far wall a water instillation spanned from floor to ceiling, very very very high ceiling. We're talking big law, New York City elite. From the 21st floor conference room with floor to ceiling windows the view was gorgeous.

The current dean was amazing. I arrived first so everyone kind of bombarded me at once. I met most of the key faculty in attendance in the first two minutes, but the dean swooped in to take over. He is incredibly personable, clearly passionate about his work, and has even continued to teach Contracts every fall despite being dean. He seemed to know all of the alums in the room and was striking up conversations with them just as genuinely as he spoke with the admitted students which is incredibly promising. There were clear friendships among the alums as well.

The dean made a short speech halfway through the night. He introduced the new dean that will be entering the school. It broke my heart a bit because he really won me over. Afterwards I said, "they pulled a fast one on me, he spoke me to long enough to make me very sad he's leaving." The new dean was also kind but seemed a litle more off guard and timid. Makes sense since this is probably one of the first receptions he's been to on the east coast and is probably trying to observe and learn as much as possible. The current dean said that the incoming class is lucky in that we have the opportunity to start together with the new dean, we will be his first graduating class to have presided over for all 3 years. He comes from Boalt, Berkeley's Law School. During the speech the dean also told a quick story about how every year alums always complain after the mentor lunch where alums come back to campus to meet students and begin a mentor type relationship, their complaint always was "You have me come here for lunch, why do I always have to share students?" Essentially, there are more alumni willing to come mentor than there are students, this means we get to have multiple successful alums focus real attention onto assisting us throughout our entire law school experience and into our careers. Small class sizes very clearly facilitated camaraderie between the alums. The even better thing, everyone reported having close ties to the staff as well, no aloof professors too good or too busy to speak to you. Seems as though there are a lot of part time professors who still practice teaching at the school along with full time staff. Everyone looked at this favorably as these professors can give students a better taste of what it's like to practice forcing us to apply theory, not just learn it.

I didn't get to speak too much to the OCS woman but she is clearly knowledgeable and easy to speak to. The alums had generally positive things to say about career services, but none of them were in school when the new dean of OCS was in office. She is supposed to be an improvement over the last.

Alums were diverse in their fields from an Agent at Paradigm, to an in house at JP Morgan, to a Tax Lawyer working at the most prestigious firm in NYC, starts with Weil, but can't remember the other two partner names. Each of them had good things to say, and a lot of them didn't wind up doing what they thought they might. The in house at JP Morgan said he went to USC thinking entertainment law but got sucked into the tax law program and loves what he does now. One alum even said, you shouldn't know what you're going to want to specialize in, and if you do, you're probably going to change your mind. Exploring seems not only welcome but encouraged at USC. The dean and others made a point when talking to the alums in front of students to highlight any connections that may have gotten them the job, or influential professors or mentors that helped the student along the way. While clearly a sales tactic, the dean of the school knew intimate details of how these alums developed from students to professionals. I don't think that's the case in a lot of places.

Everyone was so friendly I only got to have one beer and a small plate of food the entire time, even though I was starving and everything was free. There was just so much to talk about and a lot of interesting conversation to be had. For instance me and another admit spoke with the tax lawyer and dean about Ted Cruz's crazy abolish the IRS and have flat tax idea. We had a good laugh.

I am sad about this dean leaving, I honestly think USC had become my official top choice before he announced the new dean. Still, the impression I got was incredibly positive and the conversations were genuine. I had to get them to speak about the alumni program and other positives I've read in their online materials, the staff weren't just trying to make us drink the koolaid so to speak.

If I maybe missed something you guys were curious about let me know.

Tonight I'll be going to the UCLA reception, we'll see how they compare. If anyone is interested in that as well PM me and I'll shoot out a summary tomorrow.