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I'm a 1st year part-time student, and I'm thinking about transferring up, pending grades, of course.

My question is one that stinger35 touched on briefly a while back - what about transferring after my 2nd PT year? Does anyone have a sense of whether/how this might be easier than transferring after my 1st PT year?

I'll only have 24 credits after 1st year (which would leave me eligible to transfer to a small subset of schools), but I'll be up to ~45 credits after 2nd year. I know I would lose some of those credits in a transfer, but for the right place it would be worth it. I guess I'm just not sure where the line is between transfer and visiting student for PTers...

Any thoughts?

there are limits on the number of credits you can bring with you when you transfer...also, each school requires you to complete a certain number of credits at their school in order to graduate. so, if you were going to transfer after your second year, you would have too many credits. i'm in my first semester as a 2L and i'm facing this situation right now. you could either apply to schools that take mid-year transfers (which are not too many); or, sit out second semester 2L year, apply in the regular transfer cycle, and then begin as a proper 2L the following fall. I'm choosing the latter option.

teebone51 wrote:there are limits on the number of credits you can bring with you when you transfer...also, each school requires you to complete a certain number of credits at their school in order to graduate. so, if you were going to transfer after your second year, you would have too many credits. i'm in my first semester as a 2L and i'm facing this situation right now. you could either apply to schools that take mid-year transfers (which are not too many); or, sit out second semester 2L year, apply in the regular transfer cycle, and then begin as a proper 2L the following fall. I'm choosing the latter option.

So the question in my mind is, what if I'm willing to give up those "extra" credits and spend the two full years at the new institution? Has anyone out there had success with this approach?

Also, I would think it looks bad to take a semester off. But maybe not?

why would you be willing to give up those extra credits? law school is really expensive.

FWIW, I know someone who took a year off from law school, and then transfered from a T50 to CCN. But she had extremely compelling (and distressing) reasons to take that year off, and extremely compelling family reasons to be in the CCN city.

Not quite the situation OP is considering, but evidence that you can still transfer after taking a leave.

xenophile wrote:

teebone51 wrote:there are limits on the number of credits you can bring with you when you transfer...also, each school requires you to complete a certain number of credits at their school in order to graduate. so, if you were going to transfer after your second year, you would have too many credits. i'm in my first semester as a 2L and i'm facing this situation right now. you could either apply to schools that take mid-year transfers (which are not too many); or, sit out second semester 2L year, apply in the regular transfer cycle, and then begin as a proper 2L the following fall. I'm choosing the latter option.

So the question in my mind is, what if I'm willing to give up those "extra" credits and spend the two full years at the new institution? Has anyone out there had success with this approach?

Also, I would think it looks bad to take a semester off. But maybe not?

I transferred after my 2nd PT year to a FT program at another school. And yes, I had to give up a certain number of credits to do so. It was worth it for me, but obviously it's not for everyone (feel free to PM me for more info). However, if I had the opportunity to do it over again I would have transferred after my 1st year or after the 1st semester of my second year, as some of my classmates did. Some schools will allow you to just give up the credits, others won't consider you if you've taken a certain number of hours already, no matter if you're willing to give up the credits or not. You have to check with each school.