Top Law Schools

Any stats/information about what it takes to transfer from Santa Clara to Berkeley or Stanford? Does this happen? Anyone have any experience or firsthand knowledge of this?

Given Santa Clara's rank, I'm aware that it would be a hell of a jump ... and one can never be certain of their class rank, since law school is so competitive. Still, I'm curious to know if a top-5% or top-10% student at Santa Clara would have a chance, or if this is a wet dream on top of a snowball's chance in hell.

FunkyJD wrote:Any stats/information about what it takes to transfer from Santa Clara to Berkeley or Stanford? Does this happen? Anyone have any experience or firsthand knowledge of this?

Given Santa Clara's rank, I'm aware that it would be a hell of a jump ... and one can never be certain of their class rank, since law school is so competitive. Still, I'm curious to know if a top-5% or top-10% student at Santa Clara would have a chance, or if this is a wet dream on top of a snowball's chance in hell.

Don't go to law school thinking you will wind up in the top 10%.

Very aware of that, but still curious.

There is a yahoo group dedicated to law school transfers. It contains lots of firsthand accounts of transfer success. If you do quite well transfering seems possible. Although, Stanford is probably a stretch for just about anyone.



Also, LSAC has a stat showing the number of transfers in and out each school has.

example:

http://officialguide.lsac.org/SearchRes ... BA4704.pdf

Thanks very much, this is good information.

FWIW.. a friend of mine took a great risk. she went to santa clara with the intention to transfer to a higher rated law school after one year. once at santa clara, she received above average grades, but nothing near the range of top 10%. she applied for transfer to WashU and got accepted. however, one thing she had which may have made her case atypical was a CPA. i know you were asking about stanford/berkeley, but thought i would share anyways.

Undergradut wrote:FWIW.. a friend of mine took a great risk. she went to santa clara with the intention to transfer to a higher rated law school after one year. once at santa clara, she received above average grades, but nothing near the range of top 10%. she applied for transfer to WashU and got accepted. however, one thing she had which may have made her case atypical was a CPA. i know you were asking about stanford/berkeley, but thought i would share anyways.

I appreciate the info. Everyone's case is different, but it's interesting to know the possibilities.

Undergradut wrote:FWIW.. a friend of mine took a great risk. she went to santa clara with the intention to transfer to a higher rated law school after one year. once at santa clara, she received above average grades, but nothing near the range of top 10%. she applied for transfer to WashU and got accepted. however, one thing she had which may have made her case atypical was a CPA. i know you were asking about stanford/berkeley, but thought i would share anyways.

Just an FYI - if you have the grades to transfer to Berkeley/Stanford from Santa Clara, SCU will generally offer you a hefty scholarship to stay. Unless you're looking for clerkships/working at very exclusive law firms/professorships, transferring to a higher ranked school such as Berkeley may not get you that much further along - at least for OCI interviews, since all you have on the resume is your experience at the lower-ranked school.

Just something to keep in mind.

chubbysworld wrote:

Undergradut wrote:FWIW.. a friend of mine took a great risk. she went to santa clara with the intention to transfer to a higher rated law school after one year. once at santa clara, she received above average grades, but nothing near the range of top 10%. she applied for transfer to WashU and got accepted. however, one thing she had which may have made her case atypical was a CPA. i know you were asking about stanford/berkeley, but thought i would share anyways.

Just an FYI - if you have the grades to transfer to Berkeley/Stanford from Santa Clara, SCU will generally offer you a hefty scholarship to stay. Unless you're looking for clerkships/working at very exclusive law firms/professorships, transferring to a higher ranked school such as Berkeley may not get you that much further along - at least for OCI interviews, since all you have on the resume is your experience at the lower-ranked school.

Just something to keep in mind.

That's good perspective, thanks.

I'm a current 2L at Berkeley who was at Santa Clara last year. My 1L grades put me in the top 15% and I applied to Berkeley and was accepted. I had a small scholarship at SCU (15K) and I asked them for more money as an incentive to stay but the only offered me 16K, a 1K increase. Soooo I switched to Berkeley and am paying sticker but I think it's worth it.
For what it's worth, I didn't go into SCU intending to transfer. I was 100% involved in school and not just focused on grades.

sjk wrote:I'm a current 2L at Berkeley who was at Santa Clara last year. My 1L grades put me in the top 15% and I applied to Berkeley and was accepted. I had a small scholarship at SCU (15K) and I asked them for more money as an incentive to stay but the only offered me 16K, a 1K increase. Soooo I switched to Berkeley and am paying sticker but I think it's worth it.
For what it's worth, I didn't go into SCU intending to transfer. I was 100% involved in school and not just focused on grades.

Two questions: how did you fare in OCI at Boalt? Any negative impact as a transfer? Second, were you able to do double OCI - one at SCU and one at Boalt. I know transfers aren't "supposed" to do this, but it's something that could give an individual a leg up on other applicants.

I did not double OCI at both schools...I didn't even try but I know that my SCU account was disabled so I wouldn't have been able to login at all.
I did participate in OCIP at Berkeley but I have never wanted to do big law so I wasn't sure if those interviews were really what I wanted to do. I did get a few callbacks but decided it wasn't for me. I know my fellow transfers had a mixed bag of experiences. One guy was #1 in his class pre transfer and received 2 callbacks, 1 offer. That seemed pretty standard except for those with technical backgrounds. Their experiences seemed to be different, more callbacks and offers.
The job market is still shitty, transfer or not.