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I am a 1L at TTT - my midyear GPA is 3.78 (3.0 curve)

My school does not release official class ranks for midyear grades, but I am top three (possibly #1) in my section of 90-100 people; there are 350+ day students total. With this said, I believe that I am in the top 1% - 5% of my class.

I have read Arrow's guide, but I am looking for some additional advice/thoughts on transferring from TTT with no scholarship to T14.

With regard to LOR, I have never been to office hours and I have never participated in class unless cold-called -- do you think this will adversely affect my pursuit of LOR?

Lastly, any thoughts on my chances in T14? Should I also apply to T2?

Do you mean letter of recommendation or lord of the rings?

A → B ⊨ ¬B → ¬A wrote:Do you mean letter of recommendation or lord of the rings?

Ha, I meant LOR not LOTR, thank you for correcting that mistake

Anecdotal, but I had no problem getting a LOR from professors despite being in the same situation as you (I never went to office hours, just did well on their exam). One professor explicitly told me that she could not write a particularly detailed LOR because she didn't know anything about me (other than that I did well on the exam and that I did ok when cold-called).

I think LOR are near meaningless. But there are rumors that TTTs and TTT professors may take affirmative steps to try and stop their students from transferring.

Also, the fact that you have no scholarship is entirely irrelevant to your admission chances as a transfer student.

PS: don't you have a legal writing professor that knows you personally? Those classes tend to be much smaller. I had one LOR from that professor.

shock259 wrote:Anecdotal, but I had no problem getting a LOR from professors despite being in the same situation as you (I never went to office hours, just did well on their exam). One professor explicitly told me that she could not write a particularly detailed LOR because she didn't know anything about me (other than that I did well on the exam and that I did ok when cold-called).

I think LOR are near meaningless. But there are rumors that TTTs and TTT professors may take affirmative steps to try and stop their students from transferring.

Also, the fact that you have no scholarship is entirely irrelevant to your admission chances as a transfer student.

PS: don't you have a legal writing professor that knows you personally? Those classes tend to be much smaller. I had one LOR from that professor.

I did have a legal writing professor that knew me better than my other profs, however we have a new professor this semester. Also, the only reason I mentioned my lack of scholarship is because I have often seen that most people who transfer are leaving a scholarship to pay full tuition at their transfer school, which is generally a major con, but that would not be the case for me. Overall, thank you for your input, that is very reassuring that you did not have any trouble with LORs.

Blanket the mid-low T14 - you might stand a shot at places like Georgetown. As for HYS or CCN, it's a bit of a crapshoot. If you're in the top 1% I'd apply, but anything outside of top 1% at TTT I think you're wasting money.

Applying to a TT is usually a bad move for employment. I can't see how going from TTT -> TT gets you much. That said, throw in applications to the upper end of T1, from maybe 15-35 and see what you get. I transferred last year as 1% at a TTTT to a low 30s T1.

Blanket the T14 from CCN down. Most (all?) of the people who go from TTT--> HLS or SLS (almost none go to YLS) have shiny 4.0+ GPAs to go with their number-one-in-the-class ranking. If you've got spare cash, send HLS an app, but know you're at incredibly long odds of success.

I'll echo what other posters said about LORs: all that matters is that you have them. It decidedly doesn't have to be great.

On TTT->TT: I would only recommend that you transfer to these in an exceptionally narrow set of circumstances. First, you must have no scholarship at your current school. Second, you cannot be in the region you want to practice after graduation. If that describes you, then apply to every school in the region you want to practice after graduation that's also a significant step up from your current law school. Use these admissions offers (along with any you might net from the T14) to negotiate scholarships from your current school. Don't hesitate to walk if they don't pony up the dough.

if you go to where i think you go.. maybe somewhere in new england then i heard one person who was near the top that got into georgetown. A LOT of people were able to transfer into T20s in general with grades lower than yours. T20s in your region can probably be your safeties.