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Posed this question a few months back and got some good answers....some said to definitely transfer if i get in some said to ask my school for a nice wad of cash and stay........found out the school aint so keen on the wad of cash idea (altho i will get a scholarship for being in the honors program...for all thats worth, which is not much in the grand scheme of things).

Anyway.....havent gotten my grades back yet for 2nd semester, but even if i finished with like a 3.8+.....what are my chances at NYU or Columbia. I'd prefer NYU.

How much do they consider LSAT (honestly did pretty terrible....153)? Had a 3.6 in undergrad tho, which helps. I could get two good LORs also, but dont know how much thatll make up for my LSAT score, if they do really take that into consideration.

Any insight would be helpful.......thanks ahead of time.

absilv123 wrote:Posed this question a few months back and got some good answers....some said to definitely transfer if i get in some said to ask my school for a nice wad of cash and stay........found out the school aint so keen on the wad of cash idea (altho i will get a scholarship for being in the honors program...for all thats worth, which is not much in the grand scheme of things).

Anyway.....havent gotten my grades back yet for 2nd semester, but even if i finished with like a 3.8+.....what are my chances at NYU or Columbia. I'd prefer NYU.

How much do they consider LSAT (honestly did pretty terrible....153)? Had a 3.6 in undergrad tho, which helps. I could get two good LORs also, but dont know how much thatll make up for my LSAT score, if they do really take that into consideration.

Any insight would be helpful.......thanks ahead of time.

I don't think LSAT/UGPA matter that much. NYU is more likely than Columbia. I'm not sure if being from a NYC school helps or hurts your application to those schools.

By the way, you are supposed to ask your school for money _after_ you receive a transfer acceptance.

One thing I would look at is how transfers from NYU and Columbia did at OCI recently. Some of the things I've read said that people who transferred to the T14 from lower ranked schools did not do too well.

absilv123 wrote:Posed this question a few months back and got some good answers....some said to definitely transfer if i get in some said to ask my school for a nice wad of cash and stay........found out the school aint so keen on the wad of cash idea (altho i will get a scholarship for being in the honors program...for all thats worth, which is not much in the grand scheme of things).

Anyway.....havent gotten my grades back yet for 2nd semester, but even if i finished with like a 3.8+.....what are my chances at NYU or Columbia. I'd prefer NYU.

How much do they consider LSAT (honestly did pretty terrible....153)? Had a 3.6 in undergrad tho, which helps. I could get two good LORs also, but dont know how much thatll make up for my LSAT score, if they do really take that into consideration.

Any insight would be helpful.......thanks ahead of time.

OP, try Cornell. They have a tendency to take a couple students from T3/T4-NY area schools.

So do NYU and Columbia. I think coming from the NY area is a fairly big advantage when applying to transfer to both of those schools.

Good luck, OP.

Columbia seems pretty transfer friendly. According to the ABA guide, they allowed 62 transfers last year. Also, they're one of the few schools that have a mid-year transfer application.

OP, do your homework here and check out the "transferapps" group on yahoo. If you look at the database, you will see that a number of students have successfully transferred from NYLS (tier 3), to NYU or Columbia or both. It is ofcourse a major advantage that you are at a school in NYC because NYU and Columbia will be familiar with those schools. I will post stats for only the year 2008, and you can look up the rest if you wish:

1st person was 1st out of 389, and got into both.
2nd person was 9th out of 389, had a 3.75 gpa, in at columbia, dinged at NYU
3rd person was 11 out of 389, only applied to NYU and got in
4th person had a 3.61gpa, was 21 out of 389, applied to NYU and DID NOT get in.


As you can, see, you will probably have to keep up your 4.0, or anything pretty close too it to have a shot at both. Hopefully you won't drop below a 3.75

As far was whether to transfer or not, that is entirely up to you. However, I would reccommend that your transfer if you get into either.

RP1983 wrote:OP, do your homework here and check out the "transferapps" group on yahoo. If you look at the database, you will see that a number of students have successfully transferred from NYLS (tier 3), to NYU or Columbia or both. It is ofcourse a major advantage that you are at a school in NYC because NYU and Columbia will be familiar with those schools. I will post stats for only the year 2008, and you can look up the rest if you wish:

1st person was 1st out of 389, and got into both.
2nd person was 9th out of 389, had a 3.75 gpa, in at columbia, dinged at NYU
3rd person was 11 out of 389, only applied to NYU and got in
4th person had a 3.61gpa, was 21 out of 389, applied to NYU and DID NOT get in.


As you can, see, you will probably have to keep up your 4.0, or anything pretty close too it to have a shot at both. Hopefully you won't drop below a 3.75

As far was whether to transfer or not, that is entirely up to you. However, I would reccommend that your transfer if you get into either.

Thanks a lot for the advice....that's definitely some solid info. If you dont mind.....would by any chance be able to send me a link to where you got that info. I'm checking out the "transferapps" group right now but can't seem to find the exact stats you posted. I think you found that in the "database" section but if you could link me to confirm thatd be great. Thanks a ton.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transferapps/database


If you are in the group, it should be on your left side and the 8th link down but there is the link. Also I checked and there is not much info regarding NYLS other than what I posted, but there should be alot for tier 3 transfers, tier 4 transfers etc. Its a good site and people are much nicer there lol.

oh and one more question.....so i've been trying to think of what to write for a personal statement....both schools say they want to know why i want to transfer blah blah.......CLEARLY they know why i want to transfer tho lol. Maybe if I was coming from a diff state than it'd be less obvious.....but NYU, for example, is down the street from my current school...clearly i'm applying bc NYU is NYU...how do you think I should approach this??

Thanks again!

absilv123 wrote:oh and one more question.....so i've been trying to think of what to write for a personal statement....both schools say they want to know why i want to transfer blah blah.......CLEARLY they know why i want to transfer tho lol. Maybe if I was coming from a diff state than it'd be less obvious.....but NYU, for example, is down the street from my current school...clearly i'm applying bc NYU is NYU...how do you think I should approach this??

Thanks again!

Thats a good question, and being an OL I have no clue how to answer that lol. I'm sure if you post on here and the transfer apps board, you will be plenty of advice. I would think to praise NYU without really putting down your old school. So something like my T3 offfered me wonderful opportunities, but nothing like NYU.

Anotehr thing, the reason I seem to know alot about this was because I wanted to get into NYLS and then transfer to a school like NYU or Columbia, but I never got in and will be going to Widener instead next year. Keep me posted on how it goes. I probably wont be able to transfer to one of those schools, but a 4.0 might get me into Penn.

I saw in the yahoo database that someone from Touro who was top 5% got into Columbia. If I was in your position and I got into Columbia or NYU I would go in the blink of an eye. I don't see how transferring from a T3 to a top 5 law school could be a bad decision. Good luck.

upgrade wrote: NYU is more likely than Columbia.

This isn't necessarily true. Columbia on average accepts more transfers...

fakemoney wrote:Columbia seems pretty transfer friendly. According to the ABA guide, they allowed 62 transfers last year. Also, they're one of the few schools that have a mid-year transfer application.

...but this year the 1L class was oversubscribed by about 25 so they might accept fewer transfers. I am not sure if they have a target total class size in mind, or if they have a certain number of transfers in mind regardless of 1L class size. It is possible, however, that due to the abnormally large 1L class, they accept fewer transfers.

bk187 wrote:One thing I would look at is how transfers from NYU and Columbia did at OCI recently. Some of the things I've read said that people who transferred to the T14 from lower ranked schools did not do too well.

This is a really good point. I do not have statistics, but anecdotally my 2L transfer friends have told me that transfers from T20s did very well at EIP, but many transfers from T3/T4 schools got screwed pretty badly. Keep in mind even if you transfer, you will still be viewed as "Top x% from your previous school" not "median at Columbia." I am not sure what the right answer is for you, but it may or may not be a better choice to stay at your school and grade onto law review.

How exactly does it work with transfers and class ranking? Generally, how soon can transfer students attain a class ranking at their new schools?