T30 to Chicago Worth It? 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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T30 to Chicago Worth It?

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Nov 09, 2018 11:33 am

My situation:

-URM male
-Undergrad: <3.0 GPA from a no-name university in a state people often forget
-LSAT: 158 on first attempt in undergrad, 174 second attempt 2 years after undergrad
-During undergrad worked full time in service industry to pay for school, no time for actual schoolwork or studying for LSAT
-WE: worked for a multinational company based in Chicago, doing high-level project work in the regulatory arena for 3 years
-1L: currently at a T30 in the midwest, sizable scholarship

Chicago was/is my dream school for many personal reasons. If I'm top 5% during the first semester in 1L, should I apply to transfer to Chicago ED?

My goal is biglaw lit in DC, my fiance wants to move there for her career as well. If I transferred to Chicago, would I be able to land a job at a firm in DC? Would I be able to clerk on the COA? Preferably DC Circuit, but 6th or 7th as well? Feeder clerkship?

Disclosure:
I am fully aware that 1L grades are unpredictable and that I very well could be outside of the top 5%. Let's just assume I make it

Thank you!

toast and bananas

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Re: T30 to Chicago Worth It?

Post by toast and bananas » Fri Nov 09, 2018 5:13 pm

Ok yes if you got really good grades 2L all that stuff is a possibility, but you really, really shouldn't bank on that. The grading is so obscure and ambiguous that even if you were the smartest person in the class you may not get the best grade. Some professors don't even give out 180s. DC big law is definitely obtainable, but know that you will be interviewing at OCI as if you're still at your 1L school. If you have reasons to move there, however, and the increase in cost would be marginal, i would do it. It's a great school and gets nearly every firm in the country (that does OCI) at its OCI.

objctnyrhnr

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Re: T30 to Chicago Worth It?

Post by objctnyrhnr » Fri Nov 09, 2018 7:56 pm

You probably know this already, but you’re in a great spot regardless of what you do.

If I were you, I’d transfer. Urm coming out of that caliber school is a great outcome. Frankly it doesn’t even matter how you do at u Chicago. Equipped with your urm status, you’ll land at a great spot regardless. Many of these types of transfer thread questions come with risks. Here, of course you’ll pay more, but assuming you’re down with biglaw for a few years (I’m in BL it’s not that bad if you know what it’s like to put in real work and you have an ability to politically navigate different personality types, IMO), you can’t go wrong with transferring.

And congrats on the Lsat improvement.

wishywashy

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Re: T30 to Chicago Worth It?

Post by wishywashy » Wed Dec 19, 2018 9:49 am

Transferred up to T14 from a T50ish school. Worth it.

My advice would be to go for it and to also apply to 3-4 others in the T14 as a backup. You may find that an acceptance to another one of the T14 is right for you even if Chicago says no. Can't hurt to have options, especially as we look to be heading into some nasty recession territory.

Good luck.

Polarbae

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Re: T30 to Chicago Worth It?

Post by Polarbae » Wed Dec 19, 2018 9:39 pm

The unfortunate truth is that the name of your school will follow you around forever during your legal career. Not necessarily because people who hire you will think you're smarter but because CLIENTS will. When clients complain about the fees, your firm will say "we only hire from the best schools" in order to justify the high fees they're charging. Even when a deal/litigation goes wrong, no one gets fired for having hired someone from U Chicago, because it was a rational decision. It's definitely worth it if you get the opportunity.

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Necho2

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Re: T30 to Chicago Worth It?

Post by Necho2 » Thu Dec 20, 2018 9:55 am

Two things to additionally consider if you transfer:

1. Clerking may be a little harder b/c you haven't built professor relationships that will help you with your LoRs, and your 1L grades maybe a discounted. If you were 5% at UChicago you'd be competitive everywhere, but you may have to replicate that for another year. And the DC Cir. is competitive as hell, so unless you're at least in the top 10% or a diehard FedSoccer, that may still be a real stretch. Luckily the new hiring plan expects everyone to wait until 2L grades are in before hiring, and while a number of judges aren't following it, that will give you time to (hopefully) collect a whole year of UChicago grades before throwing your hat into the ring.

2. OCI and targeting DC as a transfer may be a little more difficult no matter how good your prior grades were. The bulk of the transfer students in my year wound up at Chicago firms, and I only know one who is in DC. That may be selection bias (we don't take a ton of transfers, plus they tend to be kids from Midwestern schools who want to stay in the Midwest), but given that DC is generally a pretty competitive market, adding the slight uncertainty of being a transfer might make things a bit more complicated. If you're not DC or bust I'd be more comfortable recommending this, but more generally the occasional strikeout at UChicago is quite stereotypically a kid with average grades and a personality that isn't super engaging, who then decides to bid exclusively DC. Obviously you'll be a transfer w/ sparkling grades in this scenario, but there's always some uncertainty about how firms look at transfer grades.

Npret

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Re: T30 to Chicago Worth It?

Post by Npret » Thu Dec 20, 2018 12:14 pm

Anonymous User wrote:My situation:

-URM male
-Undergrad: <3.0 GPA from a no-name university in a state people often forget
-LSAT: 158 on first attempt in undergrad, 174 second attempt 2 years after undergrad
-During undergrad worked full time in service industry to pay for school, no time for actual schoolwork or studying for LSAT
-WE: worked for a multinational company based in Chicago, doing high-level project work in the regulatory arena for 3 years
-1L: currently at a T30 in the midwest, sizable scholarship

Chicago was/is my dream school for many personal reasons. If I'm top 5% during the first semester in 1L, should I apply to transfer to Chicago ED?

My goal is biglaw lit in DC, my fiance wants to move there for her career as well. If I transferred to Chicago, would I be able to land a job at a firm in DC? Would I be able to clerk on the COA? Preferably DC Circuit, but 6th or 7th as well? Feeder clerkship?

Disclosure:
I am fully aware that 1L grades are unpredictable and that I very well could be outside of the top 5%. Let's just assume I make it

Thank you!
Yes you should apply ED if your dreams come true and you get the grades. There is no reason not to if it’s truly your dream school.

I wouldn’t count on landing any of those competitive positions though.

QContinuum

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Re: T30 to Chicago Worth It?

Post by QContinuum » Mon Dec 24, 2018 9:08 pm

I agree with the gist of the advice above that OP should transfer. I think that, if OP is able to transfer, he may actually do better than the above posters suggest, because he's a URM. A non-URM T30-to-Chicago transferee would likely find the D.C. market challenging (heck, the D.C. market's challenging for everyone), but between being at Chicago and being a URM, I think OP would do just fine.

But again, I also echo the consensus that there are no guarantees. OP doesn't have any law school grades. There's no way OP (or any 1L) can remotely count on being in the top 5% of his class. So in large part, until grades come out, all of this discussion is purely academic.

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