Top Law Schools

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Probably true.

top20 chicago = 50% hls transfer success

IF CC you're competitive not so much for nyu