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I was rejected from the lower T1 law school, however am from the area and will be spending the summer in a well regarded summer associate position I obtained before grades came out. I completely bombed my first semester due to a rather unusual set of circumstances within my essays which just kills me.

From what I have been told by my professors, I would have likely been in the top 1/3rd given the content of my answers absent the confusion due to what is required on a law school exam rather than traditional academic writing. Assuming I can knock it out of the park this semester, have the first semester situation verified through recommendations and perform very well on legal writing, do I have a chance? I need some encouragement to get through the semester at a great law school, although in an area very different and very isolated (rural) than what I am used to. Getting through 2.5 more years would be very difficult.

Do you mean transfer from a T40 to a T20?

No, I woul be transferring down due to location.

the best way to transfer is to really kill this next semester grade wise. Lateral transfers or in this case moving down can be pretty unpredictable from what i have seen. there is really not a whole lot of info on these types of transfers.

Its really hard to predict without knowing what your final class rank would be, but you likely could have a shot at transferring and should definitely use that as motivation to do great this semester

can you give us 0L's an idea of what went so wrong with your approach to law exams?

of Benito Cereno wrote:can you give us 0L's an idea of what went so wrong with your approach to law exams?

I know you were asking OP, but if you read the back end of Getting to Maybe the authors give quite a few examples of ways students go wrong.

Thanks for the comments. I needed to give more details as to how I reached my conclusion. My conclusions were correct, however I missed quite a few points for not explaining my reasoning and/or the elements (i.e. what forms a convenience analysis), etc...

KSCO wrote:Thanks for the comments. I needed to give more details as to how I reached my conclusion. My conclusions were correct, however I missed quite a few points for not explaining my reasoning and/or the elements (i.e. what forms a convenience analysis), etc...

Yeah being conclusory is a common mistake that unfortunately some people just don't find out until after grades are out.

I know a few people who were pretty upset because they missed points for really basic obivous elements that they simply assumed didn't need to be stated.

Im sure you'll do great next semester OP

Mind if I ask a random question about your summer associateship?

-Is this with a "biglaw" kind of firm? Or is this a smaller firm? IE: How many attorneys in the office(s)?