Does my Undergrad school matter?

Admissions: unless it is Yale Law, your undergrad does not matter and LSAT/GPA crowd out all other considerations. Yale Law still looks at a Boise State 4.0 favorably over a Harvard 3.8.

Hiring: law school, class rank, and journal override your social skills, undergrad, and prior work experience. In fact, having serious prior work experience (such as an analyst program at a BB bank) can hurt you.

Other fields: your undergrad matters. McKinsey is not hiring front office roles from Colgate, let alone Boise State. Law school is a reset on your career if you botched undergrad and your first few jobs. You should not plan for it because it is a Plan C.

This level of student would likely fail the bar after multiple attempts and never practice.

Seems like a way of letting someone down gently without being sued. I suspect @itsgettingreal21 will note that MBB take students from a wide range of different schools, if they are sufficiently accomplished.

MBB hires from a wider range of schools than BB banks because the interview process is more structured and correct answers assigned more weight than other factors. Even so, a NY McKinsey class recruiter will try to avoid CU. He or she doesn’t need front office staff making snide remarks to one another.

You only need to be in the top 75-90% of a T13 school to have good odds in recruiting. Most took easy courses at objectively non target undergrad schools so the competition is not fierce. Thirty years ago, law school was a different beast with far more impressive matriculants.

They’re not telling until there’s a lawsuit and discovery takes place. Then we will see the rot under the hood of the car and it is not pretty.

I know little about law schools, but I’ve dealt with many of the most “prestigious” law firms. They seem to be as obsessed with pedigree as any other types of firms.

while I agree about 1L grades mattering, the best students weren’t the grinders. They often had a spouse and children and worked with ruthless efficiency. People who go K-JD don’t know what a 40 hour work week is like (let alone 80). They don’t know what they are capable of because that discipline wasn’t instilled. veterans in law school, who often served overseas, take it to another level of discipline. You won’t see them in the library cramming because they thought strategically from orientation on

They do not care about undergrad. The younger you get in the associate ranks, the more likely the school is not prestigious. The pedigree they prize is law school and law review and graduating with honors.

This is why, outside of the T13, you go to law school near where you want to practice. Even then, going to UMiami for three years when you’re from Seattle May not be enough for “ties.” The T13 has way less National reach than 30 years ago. HYS still has it, Cornell probably won’t get you to LA unless you have a stellar class rank

As someone who has done hiring not too distantly in the past for a big law firm, personality doesn’t matter much. The hiring committee and HR know few will last more than 4-8 years, we need people who become midlevel associates where the profit margin in the billable hour lies. We wanted top grades because it showed the interviewee can grind over 2100 billable hours a year, not because grades mean they are smart. The work isn’t hard, it just requires sustained focus within full minutiae

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