Top Law Schools

I'm a white guy with two years of Capitol Hill experience and I'm going to NYU next fall. What do I have to do to get accepted as a transfer to Harvard or Yale for my 2L year?

Finish 1L in the Top 1% of your class.

Better yet, just be the top of the class and you're a shoe-in.

Almost.

From NYU: Make Law Review.

But if you make Law Review, it might be better to stay at NYU.

That's the trick with transferring up that close.

..

nyuer2010 wrote:I'm a white guy with two years of Capitol Hill experience and I'm going to NYU next fall. What do I have to do to get accepted as a transfer to Harvard or Yale for my 2L year?

If you do well enough at NYU to transfer to Y/H, I question whether or not it would even be worth it to transfer.

Yeah, I'm just curious. If I did transfer, it'd mainly be for LRAP reasons and for lay reputation.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Don't bother transferring from NYU. If you can get the grades to do so then you're going to be just fine in terms of job prospects. It just seems absurdly stupid to risk top grades from a top 6 university just to get into a place ranked slightly higher, for whatever reason.

And doesn't NYU have a good LRAP program?

Pretty good LRAP, but Yale's is way better...

If you can get into Yale, go Yale. But top of NYU -> Harvard is really unnecessary...your career prospects will likely be better from NYU. Unless Harvard is your dream school, which may make the transfer worth it in solely sentimental ways.

But again, if you can get into Yale I'd advise insta-attendance.

I could see there being a long term payoff to transfering. A name like Harvard or Yale stays with you your whole career.

Tautology wrote:I could see there being a long term payoff to transfering. A name like Harvard or Yale stays with you your whole career.

But the chance of transferring to Harvard and bombing there is a real - and its unclear whether bottom of H would be more advantageous than top of NYU in the long run. Top of NYU almost certainly takes the cake in the short run.

Tautology wrote:I could see there being a long term payoff to transfering. A name like Harvard or Yale stays with you your whole career.

Like NYU doesn't? Harvard and Yale have more lay appeal, but if you're going to a certain law school to impress people at parties, you're gonna wanna rethink your career plans. Top 10% at NYU (without which it'd be hard to see you transferring up) is incredibly prestigious and certainly nothing to scoff at.

These questions are borderline silly.. the only reasons to transfer up from a T10 school are family sicknesses, SO got a job somewhere else, and other personal reasons. You dont transfer from to 25% at NYU to Harvard for job prospects or "lay prestige".

I'm not scoffing at NYU, but I think saying you graduated from HLS or YLS carries more weight than NYU, and overtime it seems like that name would overtake class rank as far as importance goes. Maybe not. My main point was that it's not just a short term decision.

I also don't consider the chance of doing terribly at HY after doing very well at NYU to be significant, especially since I don't even know what doing poorly at schools with 3-4 different grades looks like.

Anyway, I don't really care whether it's a good idea or not, since I'm not doing it.

acadec wrote:

Tautology wrote:I could see there being a long term payoff to transfering. A name like Harvard or Yale stays with you your whole career.

Like NYU doesn't? Harvard and Yale have more lay appeal, but if you're going to a certain law school to impress people at parties, you're gonna wanna rethink your career plans. Top 10% at NYU (without which it'd be hard to see you transferring up) is incredibly prestigious and certainly nothing to scoff at.

I know someone who wants to run for office and transferred after their 1L year a few years ago largely to get the political bounce that comes with YLS/HLS lay reputation.

I'd also add that if you're top 10% at NYU, you're probably not going to drop to the bottom of HLS. As they say, 1L grades are a better predictor of performance in law school than anything else.

Harvard recently took about 20 transfers and Yale took about 14. Those are not good odds.

Damn is Stanford that undesirable? Or transfer to Columbia, it's close to NYU...

Everyone is stating that if you're at the top of your class at a top school, it's not worth it to transfer. But would it be worth it if your career goal is legal academia?

js87 wrote:Everyone is stating that if you're at the top of your class at a top school, it's not worth it to transfer. But would it be worth it if your career goal is legal academia?

don't transfers lose out on Law Review? seems like that would kill legal academia hopes

Borhas wrote:

js87 wrote:Everyone is stating that if you're at the top of your class at a top school, it's not worth it to transfer. But would it be worth it if your career goal is legal academia?

don't transfers lose out on Law Review? seems like that would kill legal academia hopes

you'd have to check the individual school policies, but I think most leave a few spots for transfers. You don't necessarily lose out, but you would go from having a spot to having to fight for one.

where is this top 10% number coming from?
Someone on TLS with a 3.6 at Columbia transfered to HLS (his wife was going to HBS though). Is that top 10%?

Borhas wrote:

js87 wrote:Everyone is stating that if you're at the top of your class at a top school, it's not worth it to transfer. But would it be worth it if your career goal is legal academia?

don't transfers lose out on Law Review? seems like that would kill legal academia hopes

"The Harvard Law Review encourages transfer applicants to apply for membership on the Review. If you wish to be considered for membership, you must participate in the Writing Competition. All prospective transfer students may participate in the competition, including those who intend to apply and have not yet done so and those who have applied and have not yet received a decision. You will be notified of the results of the Writing Competition in late July."

http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/ ... index.html

"Transfer students are welcome to participate in FIP (the Fall Interview Program for 2L summer jobs) and to try out for the Yale Law Journal (or to simply sign up to join any of the secondary journals). "

http://www.top-law-schools.com/yale-law-school.html

Basically, if you transfer, you lose out on the auto-admit option for being a top student during 1L, but if you can rock the competition, you still have a chance...

Sorry to piggyback on OP's Question, but at what point(in terms of the rank of a school) does it become worth it to transfer from a T20 school? Duke/Northwestern? MVP?

Political motives may be a valid reason to transfer up to HLS (probably a good deal more valid that Yale for that particular goal, given the size of Harvard's network). Similarly, Academia may be a valid reason to go to Yale and HLS to a lesser extent. Firm prospects are not a good reason to move, especially if you want NYC.* And to answer Tautology's assertion that the name stays with you your whole career, the wisdom I've gotten states that first firm job is the most important in terms of your career move later on. That comes from an in-house lawyer on the boards.

of Benito Cereno -- I believe I've read that Harvard places weight on your reasons for wanting to transfer, and they specify things such as spousal jobs/schooling.

*anecdotally, my firm just got its first wave of summers. Of 55, 13 each are from CLS and NYU. Seven come from Harvard, and four from Yale. Big firms dig deeply into the top local schools.

If you have to ask, you're not going to make it.