Should I Plan On Transferring from Pitt? 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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Should I Plan On Transferring from Pitt?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Oct 01, 2018 9:19 pm

I am a current 1L at University of Pittsburgh wondering if I made a mistake in coming here. I went to fairly elitist liberal arts college for undergrad, but didn't test well and got a 156 on the LSAT. Ended up coming to Pitt on 75% scholarship. Originally got denied at Georgetown and denied after being waitlisted at George Washington. I have family in Pittsburgh so it made sense in May when I made the decision to come here.

Now that the semester is several weeks in, I'm wondering if I made a mistake. These classes are a joke. My classmates (most of them) are unprepared for class every day, have no idea what they're talking about, and are the embodiment of the big public university polisci students going onto big public uni law school. I feel like I'm back in high school again. People just want to cut corners to turn in an ungraded assignment to prof, proceeding through the semester with confidence even though they're going to get wrecked by the curve that they don't even know exists...

My career goals are IRS Chief Counsel or biglaw. Interested in tax law. Indifferent to working in Pittsburgh biglaw/IRS or D.C. biglaw/IRS given the relative COL/prestige tradeoff with the two cities. I talked to a tax law prof at Pitt today, and he recommended graduating in top of my class at Pitt and going onto NYU / Gtown tax LLM program, then shooting for D.C. biglaw or IRS.

However, should I just look to transfer after 1L year assuming I'll be in top 25% at least -- and hopefully top 10% -- at University of Pittsburgh after this year? The 2L and 3L students here at Pitt seem somewhat serious, but the 1Ls think this is all just a game. Only about 5 students in my ~40 student section take things seriously and make an attempt to learn the material. Good news for beating the curve...bad news for the reputation of my school.

acr

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Re: Should I Plan On Transferring from Pitt?

Post by acr » Mon Oct 01, 2018 9:55 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I am a current 1L at University of Pittsburgh wondering if I made a mistake in coming here. I went to fairly elitist liberal arts college for undergrad, but didn't test well and got a 156 on the LSAT. Ended up coming to Pitt on 75% scholarship. Originally got denied at Georgetown and denied after being waitlisted at George Washington. I have family in Pittsburgh so it made sense in May when I made the decision to come here.

Now that the semester is several weeks in, I'm wondering if I made a mistake. These classes are a joke. My classmates (most of them) are unprepared for class every day, have no idea what they're talking about, and are the embodiment of the big public university polisci students going onto big public uni law school. I feel like I'm back in high school again. People just want to cut corners to turn in an ungraded assignment to prof, proceeding through the semester with confidence even though they're going to get wrecked by the curve that they don't even know exists...

My career goals are IRS Chief Counsel or biglaw. Interested in tax law. Indifferent to working in Pittsburgh biglaw/IRS or D.C. biglaw/IRS given the relative COL/prestige tradeoff with the two cities. I talked to a tax law prof at Pitt today, and he recommended graduating in top of my class at Pitt and going onto NYU / Gtown tax LLM program, then shooting for D.C. biglaw or IRS.

However, should I just look to transfer after 1L year assuming I'll be in top 25% at least -- and hopefully top 10% -- at University of Pittsburgh after this year? The 2L and 3L students here at Pitt seem somewhat serious, but the 1Ls think this is all just a game. Only about 5 students in my ~40 student section take things seriously and make an attempt to learn the material. Good news for beating the curve...bad news for the reputation of my school.
I hope you end up in a position, grade wise, where you're unable to transfer. Your attitude is annoying.

You complain about your classmates, but you're the one who comes across as an elitist who thinks you're better than your peers and too good for the law school you're attending.

Your gripes about your classmates are fairly common across all law schools, even the "fairly elitist" law schools similar to your undergrad.

Now to the substance of your question: Nobody can possibly give you a straight answer before you even have one semester of grades. It entirely depends on your class rank, and despite the assumptions you're making about where you'll land, you really have no idea.

You need to humble yourself, work harder and smarter than the classmates you're looking down upon, and revisit this topic when you have a better idea of where you'll end up in the class.

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Wild Card

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Re: Should I Plan On Transferring from Pitt?

Post by Wild Card » Mon Oct 01, 2018 11:54 pm

Yes, the vast majority of your classmates are mouthbreathers and so are you by association if you don't transfer.

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BansheeScream

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Re: Should I Plan On Transferring from Pitt?

Post by BansheeScream » Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:41 pm

You talking about your fellow classmates not trying or understanding the curve is just as, if not more, naive than you think they are. You know how you find yourself to be a very intelligent person based on the fact that you went to a good liberal arts college but couldn't break 160 on your LSAT? That's how a lot of law school exams come out. I know plenty of people with impressive backgrounds, from elite undergrads, who are ranked significantly lower than their peers who went to an undergrad you've never heard of because something didn't click for them.

Is it possible to look at your classmates and say "That person seems very smart, went to a good undergrad, and takes this very seriously I be they'll do well" and be right? Sure. It's also just as likely that kid you think is a slacker, half asses ungraded assignments, and sounds dumb during cold calls studies for the exam the entire semester instead of worrying what their peers thinks of them and aces their exams. Everyone has their own approach to law school and some work better for some people than others.

In regards to your question, with your goals of DC big law, yes you should transfer out of Pitt if you can get into a better school. Pitt placed 13% of their students in firms with 250+ employees and I would be the vast majority of them are not in DC big law which is difficult to get for students from elite schools let alone Pitt.

QContinuum

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Re: Should I Plan On Transferring from Pitt?

Post by QContinuum » Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:20 pm

Please don't rush to judge your classmates. As a T13 student, it was more common than not for me to do badly on cold calls, cut corners on ungraded assignments, and catch up on the latest gossip before/after class with my friends. Nevertheless, I studied hard for finals and generally received good grades.

And most folks' in-class performance deteriorated after 1L, once we had jobs lined up. OP, I fear you'd be in a rude surprise if you were to transfer to a T13.

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NonTradinStLou

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Re: Should I Plan On Transferring from Pitt?

Post by NonTradinStLou » Fri Oct 05, 2018 11:50 am

Agreed. I am sure many of my classmates think the same of me because I'm totally not an intellectual type, waste tons of class time online shopping, never have anything insightful to say when called on, and barely do my homework. We've only had a couple of quizzes and midterms so far, but I've been scoring in the top of my class pretty consistently. Some people just aren't super-focused in class.

That said, if school does turn out to be that easy for you, why would you transfer? It's probably better to be at the top of Pitt than the median/bottom of like, BU or whatever.

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Re: Should I Plan On Transferring from Pitt?

Post by QContinuum » Fri Oct 05, 2018 5:26 pm

NonTradinStLou wrote:Agreed. I am sure many of my classmates think the same of me because I'm totally not an intellectual type, waste tons of class time online shopping, never have anything insightful to say when called on, and barely do my homework. We've only had a couple of quizzes and midterms so far, but I've been scoring in the top of my class pretty consistently. Some people just aren't super-focused in class.

That said, if school does turn out to be that easy for you, why would you transfer? It's probably better to be at the top of Pitt than the median/bottom of like, BU or whatever.
Mostly agreed - if (IF) OP actually knocks it out of the park grades-wise, there may be a real advantage in transferring to a T13 - as unreasonable as it probably is, branding goes a long way in the legal profession. But I agree that it'd be better to be top at Pitt than median at BU.

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