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1L at Temple/Villanova (#67)
Fall grades are in: 3.61 GPA on 3.0 curve, 162, 3.38 UG
Based on past distributions, I think that should be right on the borderline for top 10%. Top 10% grade onto law review.
Prefer to work in Boston or New York after graduation

My impression is my current grades are borderline to transfer to a T14, but please correct me if I am mistaken about that.

So my question is: Assuming I make the same grades next semester, do I transfer to BU/BC if I do not get into a T14?

Scholly at your current school?

If you wanted to work in Boston or New York, you should have gone to law school there in the first instance.

How important is law review to you (other than as a resume-booster, of course)? Do you have a something you really want to write about?

OP, I was in almost an identical situation as you last year. PM me for details.

Current scholly is 10k/year.

Both of those markets are so saturated that ITE, I could not justify going to any school in Boston other than H/BU/BC. Same in NY with Columbia/NYU/possibly Fordham. I was waitlisted and rejected to both BU & BC and outright rejected to Fordham so none of those were options at the time. If it came down to it, I would work in Philly, but I would just rather be in the other two markets than here, especially now that I have the option.

My plan right now is to EA to Georgetown. If I get in I figure that would be superior to BU/BC anyway so I would RD only to higher school. If I don't get in, I'll apply to BU/BC.

I should also add that I am well networked in both NYC and Boston.

I don't have anything specific that I want to write about but LR would be nice if I could turn it into a federal clerkship.

I'm unsure of exactly what I want to do but I would like to get into corporate transactional work. I'd probably go for biglaw if the option was available to pay off loans and then lateral elsewhere.

edit:

No disrespect to Northeastern, but PI is just not my thing and the lack of grades bothered me (justifiably, it turns out since I ended up with better grades than most here)

I'll defer to BigShrimpin, but I question whether transferring to GULC is going to better position you for biglaw in Boston than BU or BC. Your scholarship is negligible at this point, given the increased exposure a Boston school would give you to one of the most insulated legal markets in the country. I agree with your assessment that you shouldn't transfer to a Boston school that's not BU or BC. I'm fairly confident in predicting that you won't get HLS with your LS GPA/LS rank.

patrickd139 wrote:I'll defer to BigShrimpin, but I question whether transferring to GULC is going to better position you for biglaw in Boston than BU or BC. Your scholarship is negligible at this point, given the increased exposure a Boston school would give you to one of the most insulated legal markets in the country. I agree with your assessment that you shouldn't transfer to a Boston school that's not BU or BC. I'm fairly confident in predicting that you won't get HLS with your LS GPA/LS rank.

Agreed. I don't know why GULC would even be in the picture here if you want to work in the New England area AND you are well connected to the region. HLS is definitely out, BC and BU are possible. If you want to work in the Boston/Mass area, I would transfer out to BU or BC.

patrickd139 wrote:I'll defer to BigShrimpin, but I question whether transferring to GULC is going to better position you for biglaw in Boston than BU or BC. Your scholarship is negligible at this point, given the increased exposure a Boston school would give you to one of the most insulated legal markets in the country. I agree with your assessment that you shouldn't transfer to a Boston school that's not BU or BC. I'm fairly confident in predicting that you won't get HLS with your LS GPA/LS rank.

I forgot to mention a quip about GULC v. BC/BU in my PMs analysis to OP, but this is spot on w/r/t biglaw chances.

I've waivered a bit on the market throughout the process. Part of me says I want to maximize my job prospects in general (independent of market) and part of me is drawn to Boston/NY. My thoughts with Georgetown were that it would be much easier to get into NYC than it would at my current school and NY/Boston is a pretty much a wash for me.

Also Georgetown offers EA where the other schools do not, so it figured applying early there insulated me from some risk.

If I do not do as well this semester but am admitted to GULC EA, and end up in, say, the top 25%, I would be glad that I applied early to Gtown because I probably wouldn't get into BU/BC regular decision, no?

I think you should stay if you make law review (either by grading or writing on). Write something. Get published.

Writing my Note for law review has been by far the most rewarding thing I've done in law school.

patrickd139 wrote:I'll defer to BigShrimpin, but I question whether transferring to GULC is going to better position you for biglaw in Boston than BU or BC. Your scholarship is negligible at this point, given the increased exposure a Boston school would give you to one of the most insulated legal markets in the country.

This. And when people during OCI ask "Why did you transfer?", you can tell them "because I want to work in Boston" and win bonus points.

But as said, not worth it for anything less than BC/BU. Good luck.

Do BC/ BU have transfer write-ons?

It seems that BC allows transfers to write onto the lesser journals. BU's site is a bit less clear.

megaTTTron wrote:Do BC/ BU have transfer write-ons?

I made law review this way. It can be done. But you have to make the jump first.

How big are your cojones, OP?

Danteshek wrote:

megaTTTron wrote:Do BC/ BU have transfer write-ons?

I made law review this way. It can be done. But you have to make the jump first.

How big are your cojones, OP?

Actually, you can sometimes compete in the normal write-on before you get an admissions decision (Chicago, Harvard).