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I finished my first semester as a part-time student at Southwestern Law School with a 3.77. I made transferring a priority prior to attending Southwestern and it looks like it paid off first semester.

Here is where it gets complicated. I am going abroad this summer (6 units). I will have a total of 24 units including the summer units, which meets the minimum requirements for some schools, but unfortunately is after the application deadline.

I wanted to transfer into Southwestern's Full-time program as a back-up option next year, so my unit load will obviously increase.

Here is the problem. I know many schools cap the number of units they will accept (usually around 30) and I will go over in whatever program I choose. Is it better for me to stay in the part-time program next year or should I still switch into full-time? Since I will have to apply to schools in my second year, does that automatically mean I will have to do a total of 4 years of law school and is transferring even worth it at that point?

I want to stay in California. I went to Cal undergrad and would love to go back there, but my top choices are UCLA and USC. Sorry for the long post.

Contact admissions and ask - no one is going to be able to help you here.

ToTransferOrNot wrote:Contact admissions and ask - no one is going to be able to help you here.

Obviously, contacting admissions is the best route. But I would like some general advice from the forum, if that's ok with you?

ToTransferOrNot wrote:Contact admissions and ask - no one is going to be able to help you here.

Does not get much more general or advisory than that.

Going to contact UCLA and USC later today.

I am leaning toward staying in the part-time program and then transferring next year to another school. If I switch into fulltime at my school, not only will I lose my rank, but I will take on more units than schools are willing to give me credit for.

I transferred after 1 year of part-time. I took summer classes. I'm a 2L at HYS

Obviously, when I was applying to transfer, I had less than the number of credits schools require...ususally, the equivalent of 1/3 of law school courses (28/29 credits). Schools know and expect their part-time applicants to be lacking in credits. In my PS and my "Why part-time?" addendum, I stressed the number of credits I was taking that summer. I had 21 after 1L, and another 7 that summer. Because it looks like you will only have 24 at the end of the summer, and not 28/29, you will likley need to do another year of part-time, and eat the tuition you lose after you cap out at 30 credits.

I believe you must do 2 years at your new school, which is why, tranferring to full time during your second year will not allow you transfer schools.

Of course, if I were you, I'd shoot an email to the schools directly. Good luck.

I appreciate the response.

I decided that if I stay here, I will not transfer to the full-time program at my school for the exact reasons that you mentioned.

I also contacted USC and received some good news. Hopefully UCLA tells me something similar.

Any other suggestions you may have just from your personal experience?

Thanks again.

Another PT transfer here. A bigger problem for you is going to be the abroad credits in general. I looked into doing the same thing and almost every t10 school said that they would not accept abroad credits. Just FYI

Yeah I did not realize that the summer credits could be a problem. USC seemed fine with it, but I'm not sure if they thought I was just talking about summer school and not studying abroad. UCLA did not give me a clear answer. They obviously said that the grades would not apply toward my GPA, which is fine.

The way I see it, transferring credits from an abroad program should not be a big deal since most schools allow students to participate in other ABA approved law school study abroad programs. So technically, if I was a student at UCLA I could participate in Southwestern's study abroad program and the credits would transfer. It should work the other way too.

I am going to arrange a meeting with the schools next week so I can get some definitive answers.