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So for several reasons I anticipate that Columbia should be willing to grant me advanced standing of a year or so on the JD.

Do you think this will have an effect on my job search, given that they look mostly at 1L grades? For OCI purposes, is it better to go all 3 years and do the core courses, or will I have just as good a shot with only 2L grades/mostly electives?

All input appreciated. Thanks!

Odds are, no one can predict how this is going to disrupt your employment cycle. It is going to do weird things. This could be a good thing, if employers like it. Or it could be a bad thing, if employers don't know what to do with you.

In my opinion, it can't be a good thing. You need to have grades in 1L doctrinal courses in order for the employer to evaluate you. It can be doctrinal courses that you took at another law school (i.e., you transferred to Columbia) or courses you took as a 1L at Columbia, but you have to have grades of some sort. Otherwise, there's absolutely no reason to treat you as similar to someone with good grades.

A little off-topic, but how does it work if you drop out after 1L year, take some time doing something else, and then decide you want to finish your degree? Do you have to reapply to schools as a transfer? Or do you have to finish your degree at the original school? I'm very interested in finding out how this plays out... I would think that if you did your 1L at Columbia a few years ago, they'll treat you as a 2L with a lot of explaining to do.

I think it's going to depend. If you get advanced standing because you effectively did 1L somewhere else (another law school, or a foreign law school with a system that closely tracks the US), I think it won't hurt you that much. If you're going to get advanced standing for some other reason and will have nothing roughly comparable to 1L grades, I think it will hurt you a lot.

The reason employers look at 1L grades so intensely is not only that they are basic doctrinal courses, but because that's when everyone is trying hard and you're graded on a strict curve. Most schools have laxer curves for upper-year classes and many of the people with jobs slack off.

Also, if you don't mind sharing, how do you anticipate getting advanced standing? I have never heard of that happening outside of transfers (either from US law schools, or there are 1 or 2 transfers from UK schools at CLS)?

Hopefully you are not under the impression that your undergraduate major in legal studies will afford you advanced standing in Columbia Law School. Are you a foreign law graduate from a British school ?

Are you a foreign law graduate from a British school ?

If that's the case, she should be pursuing an LLM.

Most likely you'll complete 1L with everyone else and then will have one year of advanced standing (conditioned upon approval) for your British law degree.

Anonymous User wrote:Most likely you'll complete 1L with everyone else and then will have one year of advanced standing (conditioned upon approval) for your British law degree.

This is helpful, thank you. And thank you all for your responses. I did do a full LLB at one of the UK schools Columbia accepts transfers from, as well as some other stuff that I'm hoping they will take into account. So essentially does this mean that I will go 1L --> 3L? In that case, I would miss out on SA stuff, right, considering that my only OCI will be 3L fall? I am pursuing the JD for the employment boost, so the subtraction of a full year's tuition appeals to me a lot, but not at the expense of the same job prospects as my peers.

Any other thoughts are welcome!

piccolittle wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Most likely you'll complete 1L with everyone else and then will have one year of advanced standing (conditioned upon approval) for your British law degree.

This is helpful, thank you. And thank you all for your responses. I did do a full LLB at one of the UK schools Columbia accepts transfers from, as well as some other stuff that I'm hoping they will take into account. So essentially does this mean that I will go 1L --> 3L? In that case, I would miss out on SA stuff, right, considering that my only OCI will be 3L fall? I am pursuing the JD for the employment boost, so the subtraction of a full year's tuition appeals to me a lot, but not at the expense of the same job prospects as my peers.

Any other thoughts are welcome!

My thought is you should call CLS and ask if you'll be allowed to do OCI before your "first year", since that would put you with your proper graduating class. I imagine you would, just like other transfers, in which case there's no real downside.