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I read through Arrow's very helpful post and through some of the other topics here. My mind is mostly made up that I am not going to seek a transfer, but I thought I'd post this just to see if anyone could think of a reason I should.

As for my chances of transferring from STCL to UH in Houston, I think they are favorable. I'm not really asking about chances here, more just "Is it worth it?" Yes, I know there is a paragraph titled "Is it worth it?" in Arrow's post, but I think my situation didn't quite fit into one of his categories.

So here's the deal:

I am PT. I applied to UH (tier 2) and STCL (tier 4) last year, of course UH was my first choice. At the time, UH was significantly cheaper than STCL. I was rejected from UH, accepted at STCL, and I am attending there. I love STCL, the students, the faculty, and everything about it that one may experience in the course of completing one semester. I feel very at home here, and I am impressed with the caliber of my classmates. The tier 4 designation means almost nothing to me. This school is held in high regard in Houston, and though job prospects are grim everywhere, I would venture to guess job prospects from STCL are at least equal with many higher tiered schools based on being located in a strong market. I really don't know a whole lot about UH except that it is the highest ranked law school in Houston.

As for employment, I work full time for a company I've worked for for 13 years, and my most likely first step out of law school would be to obtain either quasi-legal, or legal employment with my company. That being said, I do not want to rule out the possibility of throwing my name in the hat for firm or government legal careers when I graduate if I keep getting good grades.

I did not enter school with any scholarships, but I have a plan to keep my debt moderately low and pay it off almost immediately upon graduation. Based on first semester performance the school wil start giving me partial scholarships. Here's the real kicker, at least according to the information I can find, UH tuition now exceeds STCL by $5000 per year for a PT student.

This leaves me wondering: It will cost $15k more to do the remaining 3 years at UH, I will not receive any scholarships, It (may) be harder to succeed/class rank will drop/miss out on law review (though I'm not sure about this), and I'm not sure the "prestige" of a T2 over a T4 will help me much if I'm just going to move down the hall with my company. I am unsure how much of a difference there really is among the big firm market between UH and STCL, but since I may be interested in these opportunities, I'd like to know.

Like I said, I'm leaning towards not transferring, but I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts on reasons I should.

TL:DR version:

1. Is it worth transferring from T4 to T2 in Houston when employment is not a huge issue?
2. Even if I don't want to transfer, should I apply to attempt to negotiate higher scholarships? (I got this idea from Arrow's post).
2b. If negotiation is my goal, do I actually have to go through the full motions of applying, or can I just say "this is what I am thinking about doing, can we talk about scholarships?"

Thanks for reading.

1) almost everyone on here will tell you to transfer. Your school name stays with you forever, and it's pretty hard to predict employment options in the future. I think saying "employment is not a huge issue" is a overly-confident generalization, IMHO. Remember you're not only competing with UH students, but UT, SMU, Baylor, other TTT schools in Texas, as well as t14 schoolers seeking Texas employment. But you seem pretty comfortable by having a long history with your current company, so i'll let someone else with WE give advice on that. I still say transfer. 15K is nothing compared to what a better degree will likely offer.

2 and 3) I say yes apply. And from what I've read, you do need to have acceptance letters in hand. Quoting Arrow, "Go to the Dean, acceptance letter in hand, tell him you would love to stay, but can't because of financial reasons, and bargain for that scholarship".

I also think soft factors like "i like the students I'm here with" and "everyone is nice and "i feel at home here" should not affect your decision at all.

Edit: what is your rank?

Very interesting. I didn't expect to find many with your viewpoint, but it helps me think about the other side a bit.

To clear things up, when I say "employment is not that much of an issue" I'm not being cocky and declaring that a law firm is going to snatch me up, I just mean with my current long term employer my risk of being unemployed at graduation is extremely low.

I would like to be marketable to other legal employers however, just in case. That being said, I wish I knew just how different employers view grads of UH and STCL. I don't expect anyone to be able to answer that, but it is at the root of my dillemma.

mbusch22 wrote:1)
Edit: what is your rank?

ranks and stats haven't been posted yet, and I don't fully understand how my gpa relates to the FT class (I think it's mixed in) but if my gpa was applied to last year's fall semester I would be in the neighborhood of 2%.

rdcws000 wrote:

mbusch22 wrote:1)
Edit: what is your rank?

ranks and stats haven't been posted yet, and I don't fully understand how my gpa relates to the FT class (I think it's mixed in) but if my gpa was applied to last year's fall semester I would be in the neighborhood of 2%.

Aim higher than UH.

patrickd139 wrote:

rdcws000 wrote:

mbusch22 wrote:1)
Edit: what is your rank?

ranks and stats haven't been posted yet, and I don't fully understand how my gpa relates to the FT class (I think it's mixed in) but if my gpa was applied to last year's fall semester I would be in the neighborhood of 2%.

Aim higher than UH.

Yeah i was going to say, if you're top 5% you can transfer into really good t1's. You even have a shot at t14.

And again, yes almost everyone here will tell you to transfer. It's an elitist ranking-conscious website, but probably well-suited for an elitist ranking-conscious profession.

I would be all over shooting higher than UH, but I'm limited by job and PT status. My wife is a stay at home mom, and we can't sacrifice my income. My job is in Houston, so I'm not quite as flexible as some, which is why UH and STCL were the only schools I applied to.

Thank you for your thoughts.

I apologize for shamefully bumping a very old thread of mine, but I have had a really difficult time finding anyone with some answers to questions I have.

Are there any students out there who have transferred from a T4 to UH or SMU? I have some specific questions to ask while I think about whether this is really worth it or not.

I guess the fact that there seems to be no student at SMU or UH who transferred from a T4 is in fact more of an answer to my question than I could have received by other means

Point taken.