Top Law Schools

Hi everyone,

I'm a 1L at a law school ranked in the 50s in California. What do I need to do to transfer to a T14 school? I'm more inclined to transfer to another school in T14 in California, but I'm not limiting myself to it.

Thanks in advance for your helpful feedback!

Sigh.

Around abouts top 10% give or take a few percents depending on the school and some other factors...

Maybe I need to make a "Fall 1Ls" sticky also.

OP: There's only two T14s in California, and to transfer to either of them you'll need top 10%, and probably better. For now your goal should be simply to focus on your classes and attempt to get the highest grades possible. After you know what your grades actually are, you can come back and ask for advice on where you could transfer, and people will be able to actually help you.

#1 at golden gate has transferred to cal before. If that is any comfort.

Ivy0329 wrote:Hi everyone,

I'm a 1L at a law school ranked in the 50s in California. What do I need to do to transfer to a T14 school? I'm more inclined to transfer to another school in T14 in California, but I'm not limiting myself to it.

Thanks in advance for your helpful feedback!

Dropping out and retaking the LSAT would probably be easier, depending on your UGPA.

You have to be smart enough to find answers in the stickied posts on the TLS "Transfers" forum. Looks like you struck out. Sorry.

Is it me or does tls class of 2013 seem markedly dumber than previous classes? HAVE WE TAUGHT THEM NOTHING?

I think what everybody is saying, and not always so kindly, is that it is really hard to say this far out. What you can know is that your grades will have to be REALLY GOOD. So, find out how to get really good grades and concentrate on that for know. The hope of transferring should supply some added motivation. Good luck.

What a shame.

Ivy0329 wrote:Hi everyone,

I'm a 1L at a law school ranked in the 50s in California. What do I need to do to transfer to a T14 school? I'm more inclined to transfer to another school in T14 in California, but I'm not limiting myself to it.

Thanks in advance for your helpful feedback!

Why not focus on transferring to Davis, Hastings, USC, or LA? It would be much easier.

jarofsoup wrote:

Ivy0329 wrote:Hi everyone,

I'm a 1L at a law school ranked in the 50s in California. What do I need to do to transfer to a T14 school? I'm more inclined to transfer to another school in T14 in California, but I'm not limiting myself to it.

Thanks in advance for your helpful feedback!

Why not focus on transferring to Davis, Hastings, USC, or LA? It would be much easier.

Why not focus on getting really freaking good grades and then come back and ask this question in June 2011?

doyleoil wrote:

jarofsoup wrote:

Ivy0329 wrote:Hi everyone,

I'm a 1L at a law school ranked in the 50s in California. What do I need to do to transfer to a T14 school? I'm more inclined to transfer to another school in T14 in California, but I'm not limiting myself to it.

Thanks in advance for your helpful feedback!

Why not focus on transferring to Davis, Hastings, USC, or LA? It would be much easier.

Why not focus on getting really freaking good grades and then come back and ask this question in June 2011?

Obviously op is going to "bust his ass." Obviously the grades will come. So the question is relevent now...

reasonable_man wrote:Obviously op is going to "bust his ass." Obviously the grades will come. So the question is relevent now...

Except it's not obvious what grades will come, since "busting one's ass" does not correlate well to high 1L grades, and there's no way to know now whether OP will get the necessary grades to transfer anywhere or not. This is all just an exercise in hypotheticals until then, and as such largely a waste of time, until OP has real grades.

vanwinkle wrote:

reasonable_man wrote:Obviously op is going to "bust his ass." Obviously the grades will come. So the question is relevent now...

Except it's not obvious what grades will come, since "busting one's ass" does not correlate well to high 1L grades, and there's no way to know now whether OP will get the necessary grades to transfer anywhere or not. This is all just an exercise in hypotheticals until then, and as such largely a waste of time, until OP has real grades.

I think you might have missed the sarcastic tone of my post. I thought my excessive use of obviously would have gotten the message across that I belive op to be an idiot for wondering about this now, as he has to beat out 90% of his classmates before this is even worth discussing.

reasonable_man wrote:I think you might have missed the sarcastic tone of my post. I thought my excessive use of obviously would have gotten the message across that I belive op to be an idiot for wondering about this now, as he has to beat out 90% of his classmates before this is even worth discussing.

Sorry, my sarcasm detector must be broken. I'll send it in for warranty repair...

Most likely reason is that vanwinkle has merely been dumbed down by having to read and police the grade dispute thread.

bk187 wrote:Most likely reason is that vanwinkle has merely been dumbed down by having to read and police the grade dispute thread.

Busting one's ass correlates pretty well with 1L success. The problem is that typing speed has an even higher correlation :<

135wpm CONFIRMED.

http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com/

vanwinkle wrote:

reasonable_man wrote:I think you might have missed the sarcastic tone of my post. I thought my excessive use of obviously would have gotten the message across that I belive op to be an idiot for wondering about this now, as he has to beat out 90% of his classmates before this is even worth discussing.

Sorry, my sarcasm detector must be broken. I'll send it in for warranty repair...

No problem.. Mine goes out from time to time as well.

Don't let this get you down, but the only T-14's in CA are Stanford and Boalt.

It looks like you go to Loyola, Pepperdine, or USD. Transferring from any of those schools to Stanford is probably all but impossible - as in less than a 1% chance. Stanford looks to take MAYBE 1 transfer applicant from places like Davis or Hastings just about every other year and, even then, it's the *top* 1 person in the entire class.

So that leaves Boalt. On Boalt's website, there are two conflicting percentage ranges they give you. They say that you should be 3-5% in one place, and 5-8% in another. I can tell you, for certain, that they generally mean top 3-5% from any non-UCLA/USC school in CA. Consider that the top 10% of students in every CA law school are likely sending apps to Stanford and Boalt, so even if you make it into the top 3-5% at your school, you're going to have to stand out in your application to Boalt.

So, not to be overly harsh, but I conclude the guesswork with some guesstimated percentages based upon a student from your school in the top 10% range:
Stanford - 0% chance
Boalt - 50% chance

If I were you, I'd aim for boalt, but also set my sights to UCLA and USC (even though USC is a lot more regional). If you can be in the top 10% of your class, I think you might have a much better chance of making it into UCLA; USC is harder to predict.

Good luck

Badger3920 wrote:Don't let this get you down, but the only T-14's in CA are Stanford and Boalt.

It looks like you go to Loyola, Pepperdine, or USD. Transferring from any of those schools to Stanford is probably all but impossible - as in less than a 1% chance. Stanford looks to take MAYBE 1 transfer applicant from places like Davis or Hastings just about every other year and, even then, it's the *top* 1 person in the entire class.

So that leaves Boalt. On Boalt's website, there are two conflicting percentage ranges they give you. They say that you should be 3-5% in one place, and 5-8% in another. I can tell you, for certain, that they generally mean top 3-5% from any non-UCLA/USC school in CA. Consider that the top 10% of students in every CA law school are likely sending apps to Stanford and Boalt, so even if you make it into the top 3-5% at your school, you're going to have to stand out in your application to Boalt.

So, not to be overly harsh, but I conclude the guesswork with some guesstimated percentages based upon a student from your school in the top 10% range:
Stanford - 0% chance
Boalt - 50% chance

If I were you, I'd aim for boalt, but also set my sights to UCLA and USC (even though USC is a lot more regional). If you can be in the top 10% of your class, I think you might have a much better chance of making it into UCLA; USC is harder to predict.

Good luck

what a nice fellow

il give you a hint....
the game changed dramatically this year. I was in a similar situation as you and somehow i managed top 10% and LR. Got shut out from T14+ ucla/usc/tejas/vandy.

My friend was top 6% LR at 50th ranked school and didnt get a single school in the t14.
I know someone in my school who was top 5 students and got into columbia. num 2 student didnt get harvard. One person top 5% got into GT.

Emory/WUSTL/ND level is really easy to get into. Top 25% or so.
You need top 5% or better for t14. Prob need middle single digits to get usc/ucla/vandy.
The problem is that there is such a small diff between top 5% and top 10% yet a night and day diff between transferring prospects. There isnt a big diff between top 10% and top 30% or so.

Check yahoo transfer aps. Check 07-09 results and then check this year's results.

Sorry buddy it s likely that you missed the boat on transferring.

nematoad wrote:
what a nice fellow

Heh, my sarcasm detector rarely works on the internet so it's kind of a: *shrug* was trying to give him an honest lay of the land in CA from a person who was just in a similar position and knows the area well. T14 in California is just as difficult as anywhere else if not moreso because of the number of applicants simply flooding 2 schools. You get a lot of "I refuse to leave california, but want t14" there - which makes for innundation at Boalt

Is it hard to tranfer from the 50-100 to the 14-40 range?