Top Law Schools

Would appreciate if someone could please detail, whether briefly or otherwise, the logistics of transferring schools. As a hypothetical situation:

A student with A 170/3.95 is accepted to Georgetown and rejected at NYU and Columbia. The student's goal is to secure (tax) biglaw employment in NYC. He enrolls in Georgetown because he doesn't want to wait another cycle. The student is nervous regarding employment prospects at Georgetown and would like to consider transferring to NYU or Columbia as a means to increase the likelihood of securing NYC biglaw upon graduation.

So...how does NYU/Columbia evaluate the student's transfer application? Specifically, is it based upon first semester 1L grades? When does the student apply for transfer and what are the logistics?

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide!

Happy to help:

1) All transferring happens after the entire first year of law school

2) Some school evaluate transfer applications with only one semester of grades, notably Georgetown itself and Chicago (which has a binding program).

3) Transfer students participate in the new school's on campus interview program. Believe it or not, employers aren't stupid, and so a 3.X from Georgetown who transfers to Columbia is going to have functionally identical job prospects at OGI as he or she would have staying at GULC.

Transferring is tough in law school, given how short and compressed it is. It's a good move for students fairly far out of the T14 because transferring to a top school will mean they will get taken seriously by firms who otherwise would be reluctant to look at graduates from the original school. There's also an argument to be made that transferring into YHS can be beneficial long term even from the T14, but that's debatable.

Basically, within the T14 your grades matter exponentially more than your school. Prior to going to law school, it makes good sense to pick the school that gives you the best odds - but once you crack the T14, personal drive / accomplishment will play a much, much larger role than the name on your diploma.

disco_barred wrote:Happy to help:

1) All transferring happens after the entire first year of law school

2) Some school evaluate transfer applications with only one semester of grades, notably Georgetown itself and Chicago (which has a binding program).

3) Transfer students participate in the new school's on campus interview program. Believe it or not, employers aren't stupid, and so a 3.X from Georgetown who transfers to Columbia is going to have functionally identical job prospects at OGI as he or she would have staying at GULC.

Transferring is tough in law school, given how short and compressed it is. It's a good move for students fairly far out of the T14 because transferring to a top school will mean they will get taken seriously by firms who otherwise would be reluctant to look at graduates from the original school. There's also an argument to be made that transferring into YHS can be beneficial long term even from the T14, but that's debatable.

Basically, within the T14 your grades matter exponentially more than your school. Prior to going to law school, it makes good sense to pick the school that gives you the best odds - but once you crack the T14, personal drive / accomplishment will play a much, much larger role than the name on your diploma.

So I get the sense that transferring from Gtown to NYU/Columbia may not be worth it...Thanks for the information!

nax425 wrote:So I get the sense that transferring from Gtown to NYU/Columbia may not be worth it...Thanks for the information!

In most cases, probably not. If you really want to be in New York, wind up not liking Georgetown, or have other unique circumstances it wouldn't be a terrible idea. But it's definitely not going to give you a noticeable employment boost.