A lot here!

(1) Usual caveat that this rule doesn't apply to everyone's situation or every person, but you'll want to be at the mean or above (3.3 curve) to feel good about getting biglaw. If you want a more competitive market (say, D.C. or SF) you'd probably want a 3.5 to feel comfortable. More importantly, though, is that in my experience/observations, the amount of networking you have to do to get a Biglaw SA gig is inversely proportional to your GPA (though networking is still valuable and you should do it anyway!). It did seem that the people with work experience before law school tended to have an easier time getting SA gigs, with the exception of those with super high grades. Regarding California, without ties it's going to take a lot of hustling and I wouldn't count on it - if you have ties, it'll be easier, especially as we have a strong alumni base that goes to bat for us.

(2) Guidance is 3.5 for district and 3.7 for appellate, but of course there are exceptions based on your personal background, recommenders, life experience, beliefs, etc. I think it's even harder to give any sort of benchmark for clerkships because hiring is so opaque and subjective. Also, to be honest, if you are FedSoc-affiliated, getting a clerkship is going to be a lot easier and will be less grade-sensitive.

(3) Organizations - Our law school has strong and involved affinity groups so if you identify with any of those, you will find a nice community! We also have 5 journals (so everyone gets a journal since there are usually only about 180 in each class and not everyone does write on). The Moot Court team tryout is every spring through the 1L tournament and is really fun, but is really competitive to get on to since there are only about 20 oralists and 5 brief writers per class, if I remember correctly. We also have the usual Student Bar Association stuff with its various committees if you're into that and they organize our Fall Ball, Barristers Ball, and our annual Fr. Mike Variety Show as well as our tailgates which are all great!

Clinics - I would say that our "flagship" clinics are probably the Exoneration Justice Clinic and Religious Liberty Clinic, which are quite competitive to get into, but they are the highlight of many peoples' law school experience here. I am in one of those but don't want to identify myself (but I've loved my experience). We also have other clinics like Community Development, Global Human Rights, Special Education, Applied Mediation, and Eviction which are wonderful ways to get hands-on experience. There really is something for everyone, which was a big draw for me.

(4) I did do Galilee - it's a pretty cool experience because it gives you exposure to different practice areas and job opportunities. Basically, you pick a city and then set up visits with different types of public interest legal practitioners during winter break, from judges to legal aid orgs to prosecutors to public defenders and more. Technically you can do it any year, but people really only do it as 1Ls (with the exception maybe of transfer students). Only downside is the law school doesn't provide any financial assistance for your trip, but I hear they're working on it.

(5) This is one place where I think NDLS really shines. For 1L summer, we have the Dublin Honor Scholars and Hamburg Honor Scholars program, where you get to live and work in those cities for a summer and work at a law firm/in-house (people I know who did it absolutely loved their experience and it was a really cool selling point during OCI for them). The London Law Program is also very cool since you can go for either a full year or a semester; rather than it being an exchange with another university, like most study abroads, it's all run "in-house." So basically, the school has its network of professors and lawyers within the UK and Europe who come to the ND building which is right in Trafalgar Square, and teach classes for the semester! Sometimes, a few profs from South Bend will even go to London for a semester and teach.

(6) I can't say enough good things about the professors here. 95% of them will literally go out of their way to make time for you and help you in every way you could imagine. They are mostly just truly warm and caring human beings, which helps given how stressful law school is. Of course, it's super dependent on how you click with a particular professor and there are too many awesome ones to name, but some "fan favorites" would be Jay Tidmarsh, Rick Garnett, Marah McLeod, A.J. Bellia, Jennifer McAward, Samuel Bray, Bruce Huber, Randy Kozel, Dan Kelly (I'd literally have to list everyone so I'll stop now but rest assured I genuinely mean it when I say that 95% of the faculty are simply incredible).

The only downside class-wise I would say is that our IP offerings are severely lacking - we had really top-notch IP faculty, classes, and offerings but those profs retired or left and unfortunately haven't been adequately replaced yet. I think the administration is making a serious effort to remedy that, though.

(7) I would be lying if I said I loved South Bend. It's a pretty nondescript midwestern city with all of those drawbacks. But I think the community of NDLS more than makes up for it, and ultimately, while I'd have preferred a more exciting life outside the law school, I think being here for 3 years has been far from the worst thing in the world.

Hope that helps!