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I'm currently a 1L at Fordham Law. I finished up my first semester with a 3.82 (top 10% is a 3.6) and am thinking about the possibility of transferring. If I keep a similar GPA next semester, what schools do you think would be possible for me? Columbia, UVa, NYU, Penn? Maybe the Harvard people would look at my application without laughing?

My undergrad GPA was 3.94 from a decent (but not amazing) college and my LSAT was 165.

Any advice would be great!

If you keep up the same grades you have a great shot at NYU, good shot at Columbia, and ok to low chance at harvard or yale.

you;re in the full time division right? transferring from part time is much more difficult.

edit: never mind

Likely at the very top of our class. (Top 3%? Sealocust could tell you more precisely.) Top 10% was actually 3.57 as of our most recent curve. As has been mentioned, transferring from PT is a bit more complicated, but from FT you do have a shot at CLS and NYU for sure, and maybe even Harvard. The fact that you had a good UG GPA bodes well for you there, or so I have heard.

Assuming you maintain this GPA, you should grade on to law review here, and will likely have your pick at OCI. If it's NYC biglaw you are after, it actually might make sense for you to stay, given recent news about transfer students' experiences at OCI. I also grateful for my grades (though they aren't quite so high as yours). My plan is to kick ass, stay here, and do my best for the school that took a chance on me.

If you want to leave for a T6, you almost certainly can, but given your grades, employers will be lining up to court you at Fordham. People at the top of our class do get V5 firms and prestigious government positions (SEC, etc.)

We have a transfer from Fordham at SLS this year, and while I don't know what his GPA was, he said his OCI options were far better at SLS than those of his friends back at Fordham who had similar grades.

Re transfer students' success at OCI: this varies with the student's transferee school. If you're coming from a school from which the employer typically does not recruit, the employer has no basis against which to compare you. Everyone at SLS did great, but I don't think any of us ended up at firms we couldn't have landed at if we'd stayed at our transferee school.

MarkTwain wrote:Re transfer students' success at OCI: this varies with the student's transferee school. If you're coming from a school from which the employer typically does not recruit, the employer has no basis against which to compare you. Everyone at SLS did great, but I don't think any of us ended up at firms we couldn't have landed at if we'd stayed at our transferee school.

A partner at my callback that led to a job offer flat-out said that my resume wouldn't have been considered if I had stayed at Wisconsin (I was #2 in the class. FML not being at Stanford atm, as I look out my window and see a partially-frozen lake Michigan, and the 12 degree weather.) And, oh, the partner was a Wisconsin graduate!

That said, this was an odd year.