<p>The graduates who seek clerkships are like medical internships, with an eye for the plum jobs after it ends. Big law firms will pay an extra $40-60K bonus for those who join their firms upon completion of prestigious appellate clerkships. Somehow most of the law grads have to repay loans owed. </p>
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<p>Biglaw doesn’t care about what college you hail from for hiring purposes. It’s all what law school you attend, your law school grades, and the rest is all interviewing skills.</p>
<p>Actually, when I went out to have a firm happy hour dinner with partners at my firm, one partner sitting in our table asked many of us what college we attended. (due to lack of topics to discuss) One guy was a Florida State Alum, and the other dude went to Duke. </p>
<p>Partner: “So what made you choose the college you guys went to?”</p>
<p>Florida State Alum: “I went to FSU because of the strong academics, warm weather, good school spirit, had a bunch of good friends going there, and because it was the cheapest school to attend. The total amount of tuition I paid all four years was less than 10k. I learned a lot and had a blast”</p>
<p>Partner: “Excellent. I wish I went to a fun school like that. I went to all boys catholic school from middle to high school, and attended a small liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere. Hey, I heard FSU has some attractive ladies.”</p>
<p>Duke Alum: I went to Duke, and I went there because it was a great school and I liked it the most out of all the colleges I had visited."</p>
<p>Partner: “Oh nice. My son is actually thinking of applying there next fall. But I hear it’s quite expensive to attend, no?”</p>
<p>Duke Alum: “Yeah, my parents helped me out a lot but I still had to graduate with over 90k in student loans. But I think it was worth it”</p>
<p>Partner: “Wow, 90k in student loans from attending college? You must be insane.”</p>
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<p>you are forgetting the gpa factor. top law schools SALIVATE over applicants with both high lsat & gpa. people with low gpa & high lsat are called ‘splitters’. these guys may not get into Harvard Law, but many of them get into lower T-14 schools nevertheless.</p>
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<p>remember that many of public interest jobs and especially clerkships are even MORE competitive to get than Biglaw. and many, if not most, of all law grads who clerked end up at Biglaw anyway.</p>
<p>the reason higher % of yale law grads end up at clerkships is because they can do so. many lower T-14 students heading to Biglaw would love to do high end clerkships for a year or two before heading to biglaw, for numerous perks.</p>
<p>@NYULawyer - Words cannot express how much of a help you’ve been. Thank you. </p>
<p>glad to help. I just had to chime in to offset the high level of suspect information being handed out.</p>
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I’m with @NYULawyer on this one. The Yale grads who are clerking are doing so (usually) for federal appellate judges, and often for Supreme Court Justices. Last I heard, BigLaw gives out six-figure bonuses, plus associate-year credit, for SCOTUS clerks. (There is probably a better term for what I mean, but basically, if you graduated in 2012, clerked for a federal appeals judge, then for SCOTUS, the law firm will put you on as a third-year associate when you start.) This often happens for some other clerkships as well.</p>
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<p>No, that is not quite correct, at least the back half is not. Yes, there are 120k testers, but last year, there were only 60,000 actual applicants to law schools. Many of those 120k annual testers - high and low – decide to do something else with their lives (or retake next year). </p>
<p>Assuming that the test scores are well distributed across 60k pool, that means only 600+ applicants are the chosen few sought after by HYS. And H needs half of those just to make its own number. Further, law schools just down the food chain will pay big money to snag one of those precious 173’s+…thus, the 173+ pool shrinks even further, particularly for H.</p>
<p>Of course, as NYU points out, 173+3.8 are even more rare. (Earns the Rubys and Hamiltons.)</p>
<p>I’d be surprised if the difference between applications and LSAT takers didn’t cluster around the bottom. However, I’d be equally surprised if a good number of high LSAT scorers were not splitters of some degree. I’d also bet there’s a substantial degree of poaching by the T50. It doesn’t take all that many students taken to bring a school’s LSAT median up or provide a shortage at the top.</p>
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<p>Notice, the partner did NOT say that his son was thinking of applying to Baruch or SUNY.</p>
<p>Blue, a 173+ is 99 percentile. That only 6000 applied could be due to the bottom half. Even if we use the 6000 number, the odd still comes out as 1 in 6 for Yale, assuming splitters are small minorities. I use it to illustrate that it takes more than just gpa and lsat. Of course, it may be perfectly okay if the HYS schools are not the goal. </p>
<p>Perhaps the moral of the partner story is that schools like Duke are the playground of rich kids or the stupid poor. </p>
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<p>Uh, no. 60,000 applicants times 10% = 6,000. 60,000 applicants times 1% = 600. That is the pool of 173’s that HYS has to fight over to keep their medians. And then fight even some more when UVA, Mich, NU at others offer those 173’s a full ride.</p>
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<p>ONLY at those two small schools: Yale and Stanford. Harvard is all about at the numbers; it has to be. With a ~70% yield, H has to accept ~440 of those 600 173’s to get a class of 300.</p>
<p>“Perhaps the moral of the partner story is that schools like Duke are the playground of rich kids or the stupid poor.”</p>
<p>No, they give merit scholarships.</p>
<p>They also give 75% off scholarships.</p>
<p>^^Exactly. Particularly those with 17x scores, the same kids that HYS expects to pay sticker.</p>
<p>Jon & Blue, the story here refers to undergraduate study where Duke only gives need-based financial aids.</p>
<p>Blue, my 6000 is obviously a typo for 60,000. 440 out of 600 is still not 100% as guaranteed by a poster here, and that number would assume that only 600 out of the 120,000 get the 173+ scores. Personally, I know of three 173+/3.8+ who failed to gain entrance to HLS in the past year. </p>
<p>“Jon & Blue, the story here refers to undergraduate study where Duke only gives need-based financial aids.”</p>
<p>Huh?</p>
<p>Duke undergrad gives merit money.</p>
<p>My BIL got the 75% off one, which was why he went to there and not Harvard.</p>
<p>And I can assure you that there was no need-based financial aid for him. Too much family real estate.</p>
<p>^ I stand corrected…So schools like Duke are for rich kids, a few kids with merit or the stupid poor. </p>
<p>Chances are OP will most likely not get into HLS regardless of which school he chooses. You can’t go from an average student who got into BU to the 99th percentile LSAT taker.</p>
<p>@Bouncer - Which law school did you attend? What percentile did you score on the LSAT? </p>