Considering Options - advice appreciated Forum

A forum for those current students who are or may be transferring from one school to another. Post any questions, advice, or other transfer related comments here.
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Waupli

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Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2017 1:54 pm

Considering Options - advice appreciated

Post by Waupli » Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:34 pm

Two questions below. First is about transferring. Second is about using transfer for scholarship, which is something I've heard about.


First question: transferring from Emory to a school within a weekend trip of NYC. My partner lives in NYC and I am regretting coming home to Atlanta for school. I have a large scholarship here and connections, etc. However, I want to transfer to a school close to where she lives. It does not have to be in NYC. Anywhere within a train or bus trip I could make Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon would be acceptable.

Currently I am thinking about:
CLS (waitlisted for 1L - have some friends who have graduated from law school and a friend on alumni board)
NYU
UPenn (waitlist)
Georgetown (waitlist)
Cornell (waitlist)
HLS
Possibly BU (geographic proximity but it would be essentially a lateral move)
YLS although I know they take very few transfers

From what I've found, it seems like I would need to be at least in the top 20% for the lower ranked schools here, and top 5-10% for the others. Is this accurate?

I have decent softs (worked for 4 years before law school, published articles, international work, I will do some part time work while in law school at a major non profit), good test scores, and a fairly good undergrad GPA with various honor societies.

Another question - how "bad" would a transfer DOWN be to Fordham? It is in NYC but is about 10 ranks down from Emory. It would cost me more money because I would lose scholarship and live in NYC, BUT I would be where I want to live and work, and I would be with the people I care about. I don't need a biglaw job - public interest or government would be acceptable as well (if not more desirable). Would being in NYC be significantly helpful for working in NYC, compared with Emory?

I'm satisfied with the school that I'm at now. I have no problem with Emory - good professors and friendly students. I am just feeling like I made a mistake coming down to Atlanta instead of staying near NYC and my partner. I took the $$ offered here, and I regret it in some ways.


The second, and related question is this:
I have heard of people using transfers to negotiate higher scholarships from their home school. Is this actually possible at all?
I currently have a $40k/year scholarship ($120,000 overall). This means I would incur approx. $80,000 more debt to be at a new school. This is worth it to be close to my partner IF my employment prospects would stay the same or improve.
If this was bumped by even just $5k/year I would be able to afford to fly back and forth every few weekends. This isn't ideal as it isn't as "easy" to fly back and forth as to hop on a bus or train. BUT the time commitment would be only very slightly longer than taking a train from Boston/DC or a bus from Ithaca, so in reality it wouldn't be a big deal. I could leave Atlanta Friday afternoon and still be there in time for dinner.

Alternative is staying and taking on about $5k more per year to make those trips, and keeping my scholarship. If I did well enough to get into one of the above schools, would my earnings potential really be that much worse at Emory than at one of the above? Would $70k less in debt be worth staying at Emory over Georgetown or UPenn for example?

Thank you for any advice.

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A. Nony Mouse

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Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:51 am

Re: Considering Options - advice appreciated

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:46 pm

I’m sorry because you put so much effort into this post, but you can’t ask about transfer chances until you have grades back. Some of this you might be able to ask about in some of the other forums.

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