What to do? Forum

[yeoob]

Top 3% 15-20 school with 1/2 scholarship, LR
Accepted to Boalt with no scholarship
What would you do....stay or transfer?

[Teoeo]

Unless you have a hard on for Cali and your school isn't UCLA/USC, I would stay.

[D-ROCCA]

What do you want to do/Where do you want to do it?

[NoleinNY]

Depending on your goals and where you want to practice, I'd vote stay. T20 + LR + tremendous class rank and low debt? You're odds of getting a great job (whatever that may mean to you) are high. Of course, if you want to work in the West Coast and your school is East of the Mississippi river then jump ship.

[interalia]

There is no reason on earth why you should transfer to boalttt from a ut/ucla/vandy/USC. If You are at some other school, then transfer might be credited.

There isn't that much more prestige or hiring at boalt than at the other schools. You are also not going to improve your clerkship chances because there is a good chance you won't get law review at boalt. I assume you want to work on the west coast. I think your ridiculous rank with law review will take you far, and you should only consider leaving for hys or ccn if you're just a good ol' prestige whore.

[A'nold]

I'd be HYS at minimum if I were in your shoes. MAYBE Mich. but that is another story.

[olanderp]

Stay. You're at a top 20 school and competitive for clerkships.

[legalease9]

I vote stay, although region is important. Where are you now and where do you want to be? Boalt will give you a lot of diverse regional options. However, you will dominate the region you are in if you stay with your T20 school.

[jayn3]

unless there is something there so horrendous you want to shoot yourself in the face, stay.

[transferhopeful12]

I don't think these kinds of questions are really that helpful. In the end, who cares what some people on the internet think about YOUR situation. This is not to say that others' advice isn't helpful, but when you're making your final decision it comes down to what you want to do.

I'm around top 5% at a school in the 15-18 range and I am planning to leave for Boalt, although still waiting on Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia. You will still use your rank/old school during OCIP, so you'll be good with that. I think the factors are just LR vs. maybe no LR, location, and then the subjective factors that no one else can advise you on (leaving friends, etc.).

Good luck with your decision.

[olanderp]

^ UCLA + top 5% grades + LR >>> Boalt with decent but not top 5% grades and no LR for pretty much all jobs, including prestigious fed gov, like the DOJ, biglaw, and clerkships. OP has a really good shot at a 9th circuit clerkship given his grades and LR. If OP's school weren't t-20, OP were not on LR, and the school OP wants to transfer to was HYS instead, I might recommend otherwise, but these factors are not present.