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I am in my 2nd semester at Cooley with a 3.25 GPA and will do better this semester. Does anyone know what type of GPA I would need to get into DePaul? As well as any tips on how to make myself more competitive outside of academics would be greatly appreciated.

lawstudent212121 wrote:I am in my 2nd semester at Cooley with a 3.25 GPA and will do better this semester. Does anyone know what type of GPA I would need to get into DePaul? As well as any tips on how to make myself more competitive outside of academics would be greatly appreciated.

Depaul isn't technically a t1. What's your class rank? ... I'd imagine with the Cooley curve you are probably in the top 10%, which means you should have a good shot. But transferring anywhere from a school like Cooley is going to be a huge crapshoot since the school has so much negative stigma that a lot of other schools won't take your application seriously (absent doing some amazing things, such as rocking a 4.0 at Cooley). In other words, there's really no way anyone can accurately predict where you might be able to transfer since a (1) number of schools just won't want to take Cooley transfers, unless you did shockingly well, and (2) Cooley's class size is so large and everyone there wants to transfer, meaning you have a lot of competition (i.e. even top 10% at your school comprises of something like 300+ students). Generally t4 --> transfers are nearly impossible to predict and fairly random as to what happens, but Cooley (among the worst 5 law schools in the nation) --> transfer is impossible to predict.

Can you explain the Cooley curve? I have heard about the negative sterotypes surrounding Cooley I try not to buy into all of them

lawstudent212121 wrote:Can you explain the Cooley curve? I have heard about the negative sterotypes surrounding Cooley I try not to buy into all of them

I beleive they have a C+ curve (although they claim to not have a curve), which means that half the people in your class will fall at a C+ or better, and half will fall at a C+ or worse (i.e. a 2.33 GPA median). I've read of people who said they were in the top 5% with around a 3.4x GPA at cooley, so a C+ curve sounds very likely. Do you not know your class rank?

I was enrolled at Cooley and am currently applying for transfer to DePaul (DePaul is one the weird schools who take transfers in the spring semester). I ought to be hearing back from them in the next week and I can let you know whether I was accepted. Our academic standing may be too far apart to be comparable, but, if I get in, I can likely ask what a competitive standing would be for transfer applicants from Cooley. If they've already accepted me I imagine they'll be more likely to give a frank response.

My understanding is class rank makes the strongest case for potential transfers.

FWIW, a friend of mine that practices locally spent a year at Cooley in Lansing, finished 1L in top 5%, transferred to Univ of South Carolina.