top 20 % CC or transfer to HY? Forum

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 4:48 am

Currently top 20% at CC and wondering what I should do. Goals: best big law firm I can get (really hoping for something like W+C), hoping for academia down the road.

I think I can bump my gpa up a bit, and if I knew I would make LR I'd just stay, but I'm worried I'm going to be right outside the cutoff. I'm happy here, fwiw, but future/career is top priority. What should I do? Would I even get into HY as a transfer? Is being a transfer to HY with 0 grades going to kill my chances at the top firms?

JamMasterJ · Post by **JamMasterJ** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 2:07 pm

I would think that Top 20% would get you almost any Biglaw job you want. However, HY are going to give you a substantially better shot at academia. I think that if you can get into Y, you should go, but if H, I would personally stay. I think you're in great shape either way.

Stanislaw Carter · Post by **Stanislaw Carter** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 2:21 pm

I don't think top 20% at CCN will cut it for W&C, and I don't think transferring to HY will make you more competitive for W&C if your grades stay the same. The same applies for WLRK and similarly selective firms, in my opinion. For other firms, though, I think top 20% at CCN and transferring to HY provide the same options.

zomginternets · Post by **zomginternets** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 3:40 pm

Stanislaw Carter wrote:top 20% at CCN and transferring to HY provide the same options.

+1. HY might even provide less options if you get LR @ CCN. If you're interested in academia, then a prestigious district/COA clerkship should be high on your list of priorities, and LR is pretty crucial to getting that.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:29 pm

f7u12 wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Currently top 20% at CC and wondering what I should do. Goals: best big law firm I can get...
Suppose it depends on which C you attend. I'm guessing Chicago, based on the N exclusion, despite biglaw prospects identical to Columbia.

OP here - didn't mean to slant N, just for interest in academia it matters a little bit whether I'm at N or CC

Stanislaw Carter · Post by **Stanislaw Carter** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:31 pm

OP here - didn't mean to slant N, just for interest in academia it matters a little bit whether I'm at N or CC

Between Columbia and NYU it doesn't, which just reinforces f7's point that you're at Chicago.

Stanislaw Carter · Post by **Stanislaw Carter** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:34 pm

In terms of transferring to HY, I think that with top 20% grades from Columbia and a transfer to H, your chances at academia don't improve that much. That's my intuition. There's still a lot of competition for academia coming from H just from the sheer size of their student body, that I think that without making LR, you just don't have that good a shot that transferring is worth it.

Yale, on the other hand, would provide a tangible advantage.

But if you're rejected from Yale, and if you're indeed at Chicago and manage to improve to the top 10%-15%, I think it's just wiser to stay, even if you don't make LR. Chicago's class is so small and you have so many great options coming out of the top 20% or above that I can't imagine any other school but Yale giving you something substantially more that it's worth starting at a new law school for.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:42 pm

Stanislaw Carter wrote:In terms of transferring to HY, I think that with top 20% grades from Columbia and a transfer to H, your chances at academia don't improve that much. That's my intuition. There's still a lot of competition for academia coming from H just from the sheer size of their student body, that I think that without making LR, you just don't have that good a shot that transferring is worth it.

Yale, on the other hand, would provide a tangible advantage.

But if you're rejected from Yale, and if you're indeed at Chicago and manage to improve to the top 10%-15%, I think it's just wiser to stay, even if you don't make LR. Chicago's class is so small and you have so many great options coming out of the top 20% or above that I can't imagine any other school but Yale giving you something substantially more that it's worth starting at a new law school for.

Thanks for the input. Tough call because even just applying to transfer has costs (time required and also the awkward asking profs for rec's) and I don't even know if I'd actually go if I got in. I think you're right about the difference between H and Y though, for academia, and I have no idea what my odds of acceptance would be to Y.

Stanislaw Carter · Post by **Stanislaw Carter** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:45 pm

Not to mention that if you're at Chicago, your grades might come in too late for the deadlines. Might. I don't know what Y and H's deadlines are, and I don't know how late Chicago is. But I do know it's on the quarter system.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sun May 01, 2011 11:18 am

Last year there was one CLS transfer to Yale, and one person on this board transfered from NYU. Both were easily top 10% from what I recall. The CLS person won a book award (top exam in a subject). So, my guess is that top 20%, even closer to top 10% is probably not going to cut it for Yale.

Stanislaw Carter · Post by **Stanislaw Carter** » Sun May 01, 2011 11:19 am

So, my guess is that top 20%, even closer to top 10% is probably not going to cut it for Yale.

Probably true.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sun May 01, 2011 11:52 am

top20 chicago = 50% hls transfer success

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Mon May 09, 2011 3:07 pm

IF CC you're competitive not so much for nyu

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