Currently a 1L at BU. Did well 1st semester and got a 3.74 (A in Contracts, 2 A-'s in Torts and Civ Pro, B+ in LRW). Should put me pretty safely in top 10% based on last year's GPA rankings (about an average of 3.65 for 10% among sections) and might actually get me close to the 5% mark depending on my section. Want to work in big law after graduation but a little worried about BU's strength as a law school for that.

Obviously I'd like to move as far up the rankings as I can. Scholarship money (at this point) doesn't matter so much to me. Thinking about applying ED to Chicago but that sounds super competitive so not banking on that.

Would there be any point in applying to GULC EA or is that too little movement in rankings to really justify transferring?

Regular decision transferring would obviously be contingent on 2nd semester grades. I really don't care about location or market post-law school, transferring for me is mostly an attempt to improve my career prospects. Thoughts?

target HCCN. Forget about GULC. I wouldn't recommend UC ED either b/c the consensus is, if you get it, you would've had a shot at Harvard.

Agree with this completely. Repeat performance and apply YHSCCN.

Think I would really even have a shot with YHS? I figured that would be a top 1-2% even for a top 25 school like BU.

There's always that lingering fear in the back of my head that I'll screw up this semester and drop out of top 10%. That's why I was thinking ED Chicago but you both make a good point about competitiveness for that anyway.

When I applied to ED Chi their offer is contingent on maintaining the performance you had the first semester. So if you drop out of the top 10% it won't save you there either

Top 10% BU + getting on LR (hopefully) to GULC is a big step down. Ask the registrar where your grades put you rank-wise. They notify who are the top 15 students in the year. If you are one of them, congrats - you have a decent shot at HYSCCN. If not, I don't think you should be so optimistic at HYS at least. We usually have 3 people transfer to H each year and they pretty much dominated grade-wise. Y is almost out of the picture (their transfers tend to be from the T14). I'd wager with a 3.7 or so you could transfer to MVP, maybe CC. I'm unsure if MVP would be worth it... CC would be a judgment call on your part. If you want to clerk eventually, transferring would be a good idea. If you just want a big firm job - top 10% at BU, assuming you get on a journal, will put you in a really good position.

In sum, get your grades up - try to book a class or two and transfer to H. As things are looking now, transferring may not be worth it.

Also, top 10% shouldn't worry too much. FWIW, I'm at BU and went through OCI with LR and a 3.49 GPA and got a few offers (V20, V50, mid-size market-rate). Coming out of 1L with a 3.74 GPA will also let you push your grades up to top 5% easy. I raised my GPA by .2 in just 3 semesters taking easy classes.

I think our point was that transferring to anything below CCN is not worth it for you. You should be in very good shape whether you transfer or not, but YHSCCN are worth the apps if you want to attempt a transfer.

ED to Chicago--however, this is not a sure thing & may be unlikely if not in the top 5%. I would ED to Chicago to take advantage of your first semester performance which may fall relative to your classmates. I am not sure, but I think wiscohopeful overstates Chicago's second semester requirement.

P.S. I agree with the second post in this thread by Vronsky, except that I would be satisfied with Chicago whether or not Harvard was likely.