Top Law Schools

I go to the University of Tampa, it is not prestigious at all by any means. Would it help my admissions chances into law school at all if I transferred to a top 20 school? (i.e. Cornell/Georgetown/USC/UCLA/Dartmouth/WUSTL/Rice/Vanderbilt etc??)

UG has as close to 0 effect on law school admissions as it is possible to have. All that matters are your UG grades and your LSAT score.

disco_barred wrote:UG has as close to 0 effect on law school admissions as it is possible to have. All that matters are your UG grades and your LSAT score.

TITCR. I transferred to a more prestigious school during undergrad and for a lot of reasons I ended up doing much better at my new school than my old. If you know that you will be happier, more comfortable and thus do better at the better school then by all means pull the trigger. But at the end of the day all that matters is that you are getting the best grades you can. If the law school you are shooting for is one of a certain group then undergrad prestige does seem to matter. HYSCC seem to care, but outside of those most schools don't seem to care at all. Go wherever you feel you can make the grades.

Rand M. wrote:

disco_barred wrote:UG has as close to 0 effect on law school admissions as it is possible to have. All that matters are your UG grades and your LSAT score.

TITCR. I transferred to a more prestigious school during undergrad and for a lot of reasons I ended up doing much better at my new school than my old. If you know that you will be happier, more comfortable and thus do better at the better school then by all means pull the trigger. But at the end of the day all that matters is that you are getting the best grades you can. If the law school you are shooting for is one of a certain group then undergrad prestige does seem to matter. HYSCC seem to care, but outside of those most schools don't seem to care at all. Go wherever you feel you can make the grades.

The bolded part is the key, as I see it. I disliked my UG quite a lot when I was there, and did pretty poorly. I opted not to transfer, but in retrospect that was probably a mistake, given that I continued to not particularly care how I did in large part due to being unhappy continually while I was there. You are the only person that can really answer it, in regards to how happy you would be once you get there, and how that translates to your continued performance.

One caveat to this is UG debt. Otherwise, the responses above are correct.

If your parents are footing the bill (though it may impact how they pay for law school), you get a scholarship (rare) or you know you can do better at the new school (impossible to know beforehand I'd say) then definitely do it.

But I'd say that most people do it to be more comfortable although UG networks have benefits

What everyone else said. An important thing to keep in mind, though, is whether you want to spend more money now if you know you're going to spend even more later. I didn't know I was going to law school when in undergrad and I went to a pricy private school. In retrospect, I wish I had gone in-state and saved my college fund/debt load for later.

When applying to law schools, the schools that I will be reaching for will be Harvard and Columbia. (MAYBE YALE/STANFORD IF I THINK I GOT A SHOT...). Current UGPA = 3.86 (finishing freshman year, the GPA is going up by like .1 after exams... lmao)

If I transfer, one of the biggest reasons for transferring will be because I believe that it will make at least a small difference when applying to law schools, the other reasons are because I feel smarter than most in my college right now, and because my school doesn't really offer a great selection of courses for a philosophy major. I definitely believe I got a chance of getting into the above listed schools, especially Cornell, UCLA, USC, Vanderbilt and maybe Georgetown,PENN(not HYPS though... but I guess I could apply if I decide to transfer lol, well Princeton doesn't even have transfer applications so nvm that)

Money is not a factor for UG or for law school at all... My parents are doing very well, and guaranteed paying for my entire education, the more successful academically I am, the more happy they will be. Besides it's not like UTampa is cheap... it's private and costs 30k/year. I've always been going to expensive private schools and when I'm older I intend to send my children to expensive private schools too, it's the way I was raised...

Just GET OUT of University of Tampa!

I'm in Tampa, too by the way

tasteofred wrote:Just GET OUT of University of Tampa!

I'm in Tampa, too by the way

lol I didn't quite understand what you meant... Do you recommend me to transfer? or graduate from UT and go to law school thus getting me out of Tampa?

Do you go to UT or another school btw?

Transfer.

Although it may not effect your law school prospects, you will benefit personally from attending a more prestigious university and being surrounded by (some) people who are smarter than you.

disco_barred wrote:UG has as close to 0 effect on law school admissions as it is possible to have. All that matters are your UG grades and your LSAT score.

Haha, for most people this seems to be truth. Going where I went will have an effect on law school admission, however.

What you should know: some schools will evaluate your GPA in the context of the school at which you earned it, though this is a minor, tie breaking factor at most. Also, there is some evidence that firms care where you went to UG.

The only problem I could see is that if you're doing horrible at your current school and then you transfer to another school and start getting really good grades (not necessarily because the schools is easy but because you're actually trying harder), law schools might think there is some grade inflation.

My gpa at UTampa is 3.86, I don't think that that is too horrible

Xptboy wrote:I go to the University of Tampa, it is not prestigious at all by any means. Would it help my admissions chances into law school at all if I transferred to a top 20 school? (i.e. Cornell/Georgetown/USC/UCLA/Dartmouth/WUSTL/Rice/Vanderbilt etc??)

only if your current school has an unhealthy and thus grade damaging environment

prestige doesn't matter, though Harvard and Yale students seem to get a very slight boost

It's going to have almost zero effect on you. The bigger question is, do you think you can maintain your high GPA at the T20?

OperaSoprano wrote:

disco_barred wrote:UG has as close to 0 effect on law school admissions as it is possible to have. All that matters are your UG grades and your LSAT score.

Haha, for most people this seems to be truth. Going where I went will have an effect on law school admission, however.

What you should know: some schools will evaluate your GPA in the context of the school at which you earned it, though this is a minor, tie breaking factor at most. Also, there is some evidence that firms care where you went to UG.

+1. I have heard that some law firms do pay attention to UG, esp. if you went to a top UG, but a lower ranked law school.