Anyone have any reports on transferring from tier3/4 to tier 1 law schools? Like tier 1's in NY, CHICAGO, Michigan. Possibly top 35-40?

dsin,

I am currently a 2L. I transferred from a T3 law school to a top 25 law school. From what I can tell, there were three main factors that led to my success:

1. I was in the top 25% of my class. 1L classes are very similar from law school to law school and I imagine that admission counselors trust that if you are successful at your first school, then you can be successful at their school. I was worried that my horrendous LSAT score would hurt me in the transferring process, but my law school grades seemed to have prevailed

2. I made sure the the law schools knew who I was. For each school to which I applied to transfer (I applied to 3 and got into 2) I set up a meeting with the admissions dean. All 3 of these law schools were in a different region of the country than where I attended law school my first year, so I think it impressed them that I made the effort to travel to meet with them. This also gave me a chance to put a face with a name, when I called to check on my application status.

3. I told them EXACTLY why I wanted to transfer to that school in my personal statement. That way they knew that I wasn't just blanketing the country with transfer applications because I didn't want to be in a T3 school.

Transferring was a lot of hard work in addition to the work I put into my first year of law school. It was also extremely stressful. But, it worked and I am extremely happy that I did it.

Transferring from a Tier3/Tier4 school to a top 25 school is very possible. I transferred from a Tier 4 school, that is only 10 years old, to The College of William and Mary. Of course, class rank is the most persuasive point in your application packet. However, as stated earlier, your reason for transferring may have a profound effect on the admission committee. Make sure you narrowly tailor your personal statement specifically to each law school. Since law schools typically make their transfer decision late in the summer, most only make offers to students that they are sure will accept the offer. Also, even though you plan on transferring, still try out for Moot Court, Mock Trial, and Law Review. Just being invited to these organizations highlights your resume. Good luck.

LJP

If you want to go from T2/T3 to a t14, you'll probably need to be in the top 10% of your class, minimum. Outside of the top 14, you won't need nearly as good of grades to transfer; the above poster is probably right on with the top 25% number.

a whole board devoted to the subject:
http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/stud ... d,6.0.html

a great blog to the same:
http://suasponte.blogspot.com/

and a yahoo group that's all about it:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transferapps/

Top 10-15 % is what I heard.

Do you mind me asking why exactly you transfered? It seems obvious that people would want to go to a better school- but what type of reason did you have specifically, and what type of reasons do schools see as legit reasons for transferring?