TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[Jennifer2003]

Is it worth applying to white and case’s DTC without having done a vac scheme yet?

 

[alanshore]

Oo that is confusing then. Has anyone had any emails from clifford chance yet?

Someone last year said that the 'archived' tag is because it is an inactive posting, as the deadline has passed. Either that or PFO.

 

[ella123]

Hi! Does anyone have insights into the Linklaters vacation scheme? What do they assess / what tasks are we given / how is the final interview? And what are the conversion rates? Thank you

 

[whywhy88]

Any news from Sidley for summer recently?

 

[thepfocollector]

Has anyone heard back from CRS?

 

[tc2026]

wfw vi for dtc. any advice would be really useful, tysm : )

 

[tc2026]

Is it worth applying to white and case’s DTC without having done a vac scheme yet?

I think its still always worth applying as you never know

 

[legallybrunnette]

Hi everyone I just finished my interview for a vacation scheme and I wanted your thoughts on something. At the end, she mentioned that ultimately it was not her decision whether she was going to take me or no and that she is only responsible for completing the feedback form. Grad rec is the decision maker something like that?? I thought the interviewers had greater decision making power. Now I am wondering whether this was her kind way of telling me I got rejected or whether it is something that she/they say to everyone. What are you thoughts? Am I spiralling lol?

 

[jiimmyhendrix592]

Has anyone heard from PMC post AC?

 

[InterestInPublicLaw]

Hi everyone I just finished my interview for a vacation scheme and I wanted your thoughts on something. At the end, she mentioned that ultimately it was not her decision whether she was going to take me or no and that she is only responsible for completing the feedback form. Grad rec is the decision maker something like that?? I thought the interviewers had greater decision making power. Now I am wondering whether this was her kind way of telling me I got rejected or whether it is something that she/they say to everyone. What are you thoughts? Am I spiralling lol?

I think she meant the grad rec will have to look at the scores of all interviewees and invite the highest scorers to the vac scheme!

 

[abc124]

Is Bakers direct TC rolling?

 

[wqueens8]

Hi everyone I just finished my interview for a vacation scheme and I wanted your thoughts on something. At the end, she mentioned that ultimately it was not her decision whether she was going to take me or no and that she is only responsible for completing the feedback form. Grad rec is the decision maker something like that?? I thought the interviewers had greater decision making power. Now I am wondering whether this was her kind way of telling me I got rejected or whether it is something that she/they say to everyone. What are you thoughts? Am I spiralling lol?

At many firms nowadays, the process is made as quantifiable as possible. It's often not a case of somebody making a decision as such, so much as them scoring your interview on some metric, your case study, group presentation, whatever else etc, and giving you a score overall.

Even in those firms where there is a decision-maker, this is often grad rec as in your case, and again (in my experience) is often somebody who was not too involved in any of your assessments, so that they can be impartial. Your interviewer probably gave detailed feedback, then grad rec will compile that with any other information about you and decide on that basis.

I wouldn't read too much into that comment. Probably is said to everyone, or if you had an especially friendly/unfriendly interview, they might not want you getting any kind of impression, like "oh the interviewer LOVED me so I feel like I've got it" when there are so many other things going into it, and it's not her decision.

 

[pepsicola96]

Tips on how to stop stressing over vac scheme conversion rates 🙃

Potentially my last shot this cycle in April, and it seems to have a 40-50% conversion rate. Call it imposter syndrome but I'm sitting here thinking over and over "oh there's no way I'll be top 40% on this scheme."

 

[User093269823]

I think she meant the grad rec will have to look at the scores of all interviewees and invite the highest scorers to the vac scheme!

lol if everything is scored and they've done all the interviews why do they need to take so long with them then

 

[Abbie Whitlock]

Hi @Abbie Whitlock I hope you're well. I was just wondering how long after your VI last year did you hear back from Stephenson Harwood? If you don't remember then that's okay.

Thank you

Hi!

I completed the VI on the 11 March and received the VS offer on the 17 March However, I did apply on the deadline, and they might be working on slightly different timelines this cycle, so I wouldn't panic if you haven't heard yet!

 

[soph107048]

Don't stress, was in the last AC and they told us we can expect to hear back the week of the 16th!

just out of curiosity how many people were in your AC in total? For TW

 

[Abbie Whitlock]

Tips on how to stop stressing over vac scheme conversion rates 🙃

Potentially my last shot this cycle in April, and it seems to have a 40-50% conversion rate. Call it imposter syndrome but I'm sitting here thinking over and over "oh there's no way I'll be top 40% on this scheme."

Hey!

I can totally get where you are coming from, as I obsessed over the conversion rates last cycle as well! However, I ended up being closest to converting for the firm that had a conversion rate of around 15%-20% despite the fact I had almost convinced myself I had no chance. Sometimes raw percentages don't tell the full story, as some candidates will have other offers or decide that the firm isn't right for them.

Ultimately, try to focus on what you can control and go into the scheme engaged, reliable, and genuinely interested in the firm. You have every chance of being in the top 40%!

 

[msclm]

Tips on how to stop stressing over vac scheme conversion rates 🙃

Potentially my last shot this cycle in April, and it seems to have a 40-50% conversion rate. Call it imposter syndrome but I'm sitting here thinking over and over "oh there's no way I'll be top 40% on this scheme."

Hi!! I was in your shoes in winter - all I heard was horror stories that Sidley’s conversion rate is <20%. I had convinced myself going in that this was a no shot. The conversion rate ended up being closer to 35% and I did get the tc.

My feed back call focused a lot on personality and how my team thought id fit in - GR told me they look more so to who they’d want to work with as opposed to perfection (i definitely made mistakes in my vac). Best advice is to be kind to everyone you meet (feedback is by no means limited to just your team) and act interested in everything!!! My supervisor told me there is nothing worse than a vac schemer who is very obviously disinterested.

For the assessment tasks - assuming you have a written/group component (or both like I did), my feedback for both of these had good and bad elements. Again, GR told me they aren’t looking for perfection but looking for someone who can be taught. Lots of the skills we are being tested on on vacs are skills that you inevitably learn during the sqe/during your actual tc. You aren’t expected to be trainee ready during the vac.

Something I had to remind myself a lot of was that I deserved my place there just as much as anyone else

Good luck! You got this !

 

[soph107048]

Has anyone gotten a W&C PFO post WE?

 

[badmintonflyinginsect]

Does anyone know what the basics of Capital Markets are that I should know prior to an interview?

@Abbie Whitlock @Andrei Radu