Transfer Grades Forum

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Transfer Grades

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:15 pm

As a recent graduate transfer applying to clerkships, would you recommend including the letter/GPA grades from the 1L school? How about a "first year coursework completed at" on the resume?

On the unofficial and official transcripts of the JD-granting institution, the 1L grades just appear as transfer credits (i.e., no letter/GPA). Do you just plug those into a separate OSCAR sheet (that reflects the 1L institution) - or should that sheet include the letter/GPA grade from the 1L school?

As for the resume, it looks like the JD-granting school recommends for general job search stuff that you have to include the "first year coursework completed at" line up to 3L, but after the degree is granted you can drop it and just include the JD-granting institution.

Trying to balance coherence (transcript to grade sheet identicality), transparency (don't want to seem like I'm hiding the ball on transferring), and chance maximizing (transferring, even if for a good reason, seems like a minor dark mark, all considered - and I had slightly lower 1L grades than 2L and 3L grades to boot). Want to check with a particular eye to clerkships before I follow the JD-granting school's career planning manual resume guidance (and see what the thoughts are for grade inclusion).

Goldie

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Re: Transfer Grades

Post by Goldie » Wed Sep 27, 2017 10:07 am

Recent graduate, currently clerking and applying for a second clerkship. My JD-granting institution did not include my 1L credits on my transcripts. So I include a transcript from my JD-granting school and a transcript from my 1L school (including all grade and ranking information). On my resume, I have both schools listed (with very little detail about my 1L school - just RA work and ranking information). Now, my 1L grades and ranking were pretty perfect, and my JD-granting institution has a different grading system and doesn't rank students, so I think keeping the 1L information probably helps rather than hurts me.

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Re: Transfer Grades

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Sep 27, 2017 1:01 pm

We would 100% want to see the 1L grades in my chambers and would not consider an application without them.

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Re: Transfer Grades

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Sep 27, 2017 1:25 pm

OP here. To maintain consistency with the JD-granting institution's official transcript, while still giving enough info about 1L performance, would markers like "Dean's List" or comparable get the same info across?

If it makes any difference, the transfer was from T25 (with likely top quartile grades, but not stellar) to mid-T14 (a hair outside magna). The 1L curve was tougher than the ABA-requirements (whereas it looks like the upper-level grades at the T25 shoot up dramatically). Definitely not trying to hide the ball, but don't want the application to be unfavorably or mistakenly compared.

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A. Nony Mouse

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Re: Transfer Grades

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Wed Sep 27, 2017 1:48 pm

Get a transcript from your 1L school that shows grades and submit that.

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Re: Transfer Grades

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Sep 27, 2017 7:10 pm

OP here. So including letter grades seems a definite yes. Thoughts on marking 1L school on resume on top of that? JD school says not necessary, but want to know particular clerkship thoughts.

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Re: Transfer Grades

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:23 pm

We would definitely want to be able to figure out what the 1L school was. Would be fine if it just appears on the grade sheet.

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