Top Law Schools

Top 15% at T-35 that may or may not be in Virginia. Okay fine. It is.
VA Resident.
Went to another well regarded VA public college for undergrad (like that matters at all...)

Ultimately interested in working in Virginia. In fact, I couldn't really see myself being anywhere else.

Also: I really like where I am now. A lot. As a result, I'd only even consider transferring if I could make the jump up to UVA.

If (and I know it's a big if) I can keep my grades up, do I have a shot?

denimchickn wrote:Top 15% at T-35 that may or may not be in Virginia. Okay fine. It is.
VA Resident.
Went to another well regarded VA public college for undergrad (like that matters at all...)

Ultimately interested in working in Virginia. In fact, I couldn't really see myself being anywhere else.

Also: I really like where I am now. A lot. As a result, I'd only even consider transferring if I could make the jump up to UVA.

If (and I know it's a big if) I can keep my grades up, do I have a shot?

Considering your desire to ultimately end up in VA, your current school's location in VA, and your take-it-or-leave-it attitude re not transferring anywhere else (can't decide if that's good or not, but I'll count it as a positive for now), I think you should definitely send out a transfer app to UVA. I don't have first-hand knowledge of their standards of admission, so I can't predict with any certainty whether you're in or not. On that I'll defer.

However, considering the above, please send out an app. I can't help but think you're competitive, especially if you can articulate your desire to stay in VA (as opposed to, say, jumping ship to DC). If you get in, fantastic. Welcome to your 'dream' school. If not, you'll avoid spending the rest of your life wondering 'what if' and you'll graduate ~top 15% at a T35 in the state where you want to practice. Win.

Forgot to mention:

167 LSAT, 3.45 UG GPA

denimchickn wrote:Top 15% at T-35 that may or may not be in Virginia. Okay fine. It is.
VA Resident.
Went to another well regarded VA public college for undergrad (like that matters at all...)

Ultimately interested in working in Virginia. In fact, I couldn't really see myself being anywhere else.

Also: I really like where I am now. A lot. As a result, I'd only even consider transferring if I could make the jump up to UVA.

If (and I know it's a big if) I can keep my grades up, do I have a shot?

It's really not that big of an IF, most people keep it up. Disaster stories seem to be few and far between. The fact that you are already in VA and a resident I can say your chances are pretty damn high of getting in at top15%...as in EXTREMELY high. Whether or not you have a scholarship is huge and likely the deciding factor if I were in your shoes. Big law is also a huge component. Fact is, even in the T1, you are down to about 20% of big law (http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... hbxlogin=1) as opposed to 50% at UVA. That being said, you have a good shot at being the 20% if you are in the top 15% of the class. Tough call really.

Also: UGPA/LSAT probably matters 0% - though yours would be fine.

denimchickn wrote:Forgot to mention:

167 LSAT, 3.45 UG GPA

This will have zero bearing on your transfer app.

These are the things that matter for transferring to UVA, in roughly the right order:
1) VA residency
2) Having top 1L grades
3) Your school's rank
4) Softs/work experience/etc.

LSAT and UGPA don't even come into the picture. Those are used for initial law school admissions because they're a way to predict how you'll do in law school and your likelihood of passing the bar. However, actual law school grades are a far better predictor for both of those things, and they don't have to report LSAT/UGPA of transfers to USNWR, so it just simply does not matter.

However, it's important to realize that UVA heavily favors in-state transfers in order to boost their in-state admissions numbers (they're required by law to have a certain % of students enrolled by in-state), so that's a big plus to you. Having rather good grades and being at a T1 law school are also things in your favor.

Do what you can to boost your GPA this spring, work your butt off, because every little extra bit will help. But you at least have a shot now, it's worth the app fee IMO. Good luck.

vanwinkle wrote: However, it's important to realize that UVA heavily favors in-state transfers in order to boost their in-state admissions numbers (they're required by law to have a certain % of students enrolled by in-state), so that's a big plus to you. Having rather good grades and being at a T1 law school are also things in your favor.

Good to know. Any other T14's known for that (Mich, Boalt)?

vanwinkle wrote:

denimchickn wrote:Forgot to mention:

167 LSAT, 3.45 UG GPA

This will have zero bearing on your transfer app.

These are the things that matter for transferring to UVA, in roughly the right order:
1) VA residency
2) Having top 1L grades
3) Your school's rank
4) Softs/work experience/etc.

LSAT and UGPA don't even come into the picture. Those are used for initial law school admissions because they're a way to predict how you'll do in law school and your likelihood of passing the bar. However, actual law school grades are a far better predictor for both of those things, and they don't have to report LSAT/UGPA of transfers to USNWR, so it just simply does not matter.

However, it's important to realize that UVA heavily favors in-state transfers in order to boost their in-state admissions numbers (they're required by law to have a certain % of students enrolled by in-state), so that's a big plus to you. Having rather good grades and being at a T1 law school are also things in your favor.

Do what you can to boost your GPA this spring, work your butt off, because every little extra bit will help. But you at least have a shot now, it's worth the app fee IMO. Good luck.

Creeddddited. I transferred from a VA school last year as well to CCN. With the same grades as you. UVA takes a couple transfers from W&L/ W&M each year. PARTICULARLY, like Van said, residents. You should have a decent shot if you keep your grades up.

Well, my spring grades were just posted. I did slightly better and moved up to a 3.71, but it's still probably not enough to crack the top 10%. Oh well. At least I still have a fairly strong shot...

I'm about to ask a couple of professors for LORs, but I had a quick question for everyone. It says on the UVA website that one LOR must be from a law professor, but the other can be "one you used to apply to law school."

What do y'all think? I really only have one law professor who knows me well enough to write a good, personalized letter. If I have a really strong LOR from an UG professor who personally knew me, should I go ahead and send that in instead of a boilerplate LOR from a law prof? Or would sending the UG prof letter disadvantage me?

Your stats are great, but UVA takes very few transfers. It will be tough.