Top Law Schools

What are the chances of transferring to a top 14 school if I am in the top 10% of my class at a Top 30 school?

Does anyone know how financial aid works if you transfer?

December373 wrote:What are the chances of transferring to a top 14 school if I am in the top 10% of my class at a Top 30 school?

Does anyone know how financial aid works if you transfer?

Chances are very high. Perhaps a better question would be "How low in the T14 is it worth it to transfer from my T30?"

Financial aid works exactly the same at your new school as your old school with one singular (and usually important) factor: you get no scholarships at your new school. You can usually move any private, non-school scholarships you might have to your new school, but you'll have to forward all the FAFSA stuff to new school and go through their financial aid process. I would recommend building some savings to get you through the transition period if possible, just in case loan money gets disbursed late for whatever reason (or, like some on this board, you transfer days before classes start).

patrickd139 wrote:

December373 wrote:What are the chances of transferring to a top 14 school if I am in the top 10% of my class at a Top 30 school?

Does anyone know how financial aid works if you transfer?

Chances are very high. Perhaps a better question would be "How low in the T14 is it worth it to transfer from my T30?"

This. Your odds of being able to transfer are good; the question of whether it's worth it in your situation is another matter entirely. Transferring is stressful, requires leaving behind the positive connections and opportunities you've developed at your old school, and puts you in an awkward position in 2L while you have to work to get used to a new school at the same time you're doing OCI/callbacks that affect the course of the rest of your life.

I'm not saying transferring is never worth it. I did it and at this point I'm glad that I did. But I am saying that it was very situation-specific for me, and not every chance to transfer is one worth taking.

patrickd139 wrote:Financial aid works exactly the same at your new school as your old school with one singular (and usually important) factor: you get no scholarships at your new school. You can usually move any private, non-school scholarships you might have to your new school, but you'll have to forward all the FAFSA stuff to new school and go through their financial aid process. I would recommend building some savings to get you through the transition period if possible, just in case loan money gets disbursed late for whatever reason (or, like some on this board, you transfer days before classes start).

This is true. When you transfer upward, schools generally do not offer you merit aid. Part of the point of accepting transfers is that they're people willing to pay full tuition for the privilege of going to the better school. If you tell them you won't transfer without a scholarship, well, they probably have someone else waiting who would, and they'll just offer the spot to that person next. You don't get to wait very long to make a decision and commit (a week in my case, some schools give you less) and they have no qualms about passing on you and going to the next applicant.

The point about trouble getting financial aid set up at the new school is also credited. If you're considering transferring, make sure you put the schools you're considering transferring to on your FAFSA now. Go ahead and share that info with them, so that if you do apply to transfer, they already have it and you don't have to worry about getting it to them after you've been accepted. Since you can put up to 10 schools on your FAFSA app, you can just list the one you're currently attending and up to 9 that you think you'd like to apply to as a transfer.

Having savings so you can survive the first month or two is also important, as is having money for moving expenses and whatever cost you might incur to break your lease in your old city. By the time you hear from a school it'll be June or July and you'll likely have had to renew your lease at your current place already in case you end up staying. Early termination clauses tend to carry steep fees, and you'll also have to pay deposits and first month's rent at a new place (which you'll have to find very quickly since you'll only find out you've been accepted as a transfer a month before fall classes start).

Like I said before, transferring is stressful and can suck. It can be worth it, but there's a lot of unpleasant parts to it that are worth considering.

I'm wondering about this situation too. Any ideas about how far up the T14 you could go if you're at a T30 and top 10% of the class? What about top 5% of the class? Thanks.

LogosEther wrote:I'm wondering about this situation too. Any ideas about how far up the T14 you could go if you're at a T30 and top 10% of the class? What about top 5% of the class? Thanks.

I believe there's a big difference between top 5% and top 10%, in that the top 5% person has a better chance of getting into the upper T14 than the top 10% person. However, I have no specifics because I did not personally research this in great detail, and I will say that a lot of it depends on softs and non-grade factors once your grades are high enough to at least be considered by a school.

You cannot transfer up significantly without top grades, but just how top they have to be depends on 1) the rest of the transfer applicant pool at that school and 2) what else you offer. If your grades are good enough for them to read your app but not for them to automatically accept you, then your softs could still get you in if they're truly distinguishable. If you don't have truly great softs, you're going to need much stronger grades.

And it also depends on what schools you're looking at. HYS are going to be getting the very top of the top from the best schools. The only person I know of who successfully transferred to Yale last year was top 2-3% at a T10 and had graded onto LR. They were willing to give all that up to go to Yale, and every year there will be people like that filling the 10-12 transfer seats Yale offers. On the other hand, I believe Columbia takes more transfers than Harvard and Yale combined, and presumably a lot of the people they take would've gone to Harvard or Yale if they could have. The farther down the list you go, the better your odds.

You'll likely cap out at CCN if this coming cycle is anything like last year. This past year, HYS generally required coming from a T14 (top 5-10%), maybe top 17, with some exceptions I'm sure. Even #1's at T30's seemed to all get shut out.

The 2009 cycle was completely different, and a top 3% from a T30 would often net Harvard.

Younger Abstention wrote:You'll likely cap out at CCN if this coming cycle is anything like last year. This past year, HYS generally required coming from a T14 (top 5-10%), maybe top 17, with some exceptions I'm sure. Even #1's at T30's seemed to all get shut out.

This is a slight exaggeration. I know several people who made HLS from T30 this past cycle, and a few that were even lower T1 or upper T2. I don't know the exact grades from most of them but I suspect they were mostly top 1-2%; the point, though, is that they did it from those schools, and it was more than just one or two "exceptions".

vanwinkle wrote:

Younger Abstention wrote:You'll likely cap out at CCN if this coming cycle is anything like last year. This past year, HYS generally required coming from a T14 (top 5-10%), maybe top 17, with some exceptions I'm sure. Even #1's at T30's seemed to all get shut out.

This is a slight exaggeration. I know several people who made HLS from T30 this past cycle, and a few that were even lower T1 or upper T2. I don't know the exact grades from most of them but I suspect they were mostly top 1-2%; the point, though, is that they did it from those schools, and it was more than just one or two "exceptions".

+1
I made HLS from T30 last year, as did quite a few others. I was well within top 5% but not #1.

concurrent fork wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:

Younger Abstention wrote:You'll likely cap out at CCN if this coming cycle is anything like last year. This past year, HYS generally required coming from a T14 (top 5-10%), maybe top 17, with some exceptions I'm sure. Even #1's at T30's seemed to all get shut out.

This is a slight exaggeration. I know several people who made HLS from T30 this past cycle, and a few that were even lower T1 or upper T2. I don't know the exact grades from most of them but I suspect they were mostly top 1-2%; the point, though, is that they did it from those schools, and it was more than just one or two "exceptions".

+1
I made HLS from T30 last year, as did quite a few others. I was well within top 5% but not #1.

My buddy from T30 was likely #1 got into H. Two others (easily) inside the top 5% were rejected.

.

megaTTTron wrote:

concurrent fork wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:

Younger Abstention wrote:You'll likely cap out at CCN if this coming cycle is anything like last year. This past year, HYS generally required coming from a T14 (top 5-10%), maybe top 17, with some exceptions I'm sure. Even #1's at T30's seemed to all get shut out.

This is a slight exaggeration. I know several people who made HLS from T30 this past cycle, and a few that were even lower T1 or upper T2. I don't know the exact grades from most of them but I suspect they were mostly top 1-2%; the point, though, is that they did it from those schools, and it was more than just one or two "exceptions".

+1
I made HLS from T30 last year, as did quite a few others. I was well within top 5% but not #1.

My buddy from T30 was likely #1 got into H. Two others (easily) inside the top 5% were rejected.

RIP treydeuce

seespotrun wrote:

megaTTTron wrote:

concurrent fork wrote:

vanwinkle wrote: This is a slight exaggeration. I know several people who made HLS from T30 this past cycle, and a few that were even lower T1 or upper T2. I don't know the exact grades from most of them but I suspect they were mostly top 1-2%; the point, though, is that they did it from those schools, and it was more than just one or two "exceptions".

+1
I made HLS from T30 last year, as did quite a few others. I was well within top 5% but not #1.

My buddy from T30 was likely #1 got into H. Two others (easily) inside the top 5% were rejected.

RIP treydeuce

a-men.