Transferring. Should I write on at current school? Forum

[DeSimone]

Got accepted to GULC EA and might be applying more based on spring grades. Whatever the result, I'm 99% sure that I will transfer (assume it's 100% for purposes of this thread). So should I participate in my current school's write-on competition? The only potential benefit that I see is being able to put a line on my resume stating that I got an invitation. Would not having it be a disadvantage at OCI?

Any other thoughts or advice appreciated.

[transplantedbuckeye]

Got accepted to GULC EA and might be applying more based on spring grades. Whatever the result, I'm 99% sure that I will transfer (assume it's 100% for purposes of this thread). So should I participate in my current school's write-on competition? The only potential benefit that I see is being able to put a line on my resume stating that I got an invitation. Would not having it be a disadvantage at OCI?

Any other thoughts or advice appreciated.

No, it will not be a disadvantage. Don't waste your time and the time of the students grading the write-on.

[Lawl Shcool]

I would focus on the write-on for the transferee school. It will be a much bigger advantage. Since 1Ls don't (typically, there may be exceptions) do anything for LR having it on your resume is just a proxy for good grades, which OCI interviewers will know you have anyways since you were able to transfer.

[zomginternets]

I would write-on. You never know what's going to happen between now and August, and you'd be pretty effing pissed if you needed (for whatever reason) to stay at your current school and not have LR.

[Journeybound]

I was accepted GULC EA, and I wrote on at my old school. The original school found out I was transferring right before the results came out, and I was removed from the competition from the EIC. So I NEVER found out after all that work. And I had ruined a good two weeks of my summer. I did the competition at my new school, but I did not get on. So it was a horrible experience. The overall transfer was still worth it. But I think that I would have enjoyed my summer if I hadn't attempted the original school's write on.

Focus on preparing for OCI instead!!! Heck, I would even recommend mailing resume's to as many resumes to firms that aren't coming to OCI as you can in late JULY. But this is all advice only if you are certain you are transferring.

[glewz]

Don't waste your time and the time of the students grading the write-on.

This. And I'm kinda confused at what you'd write on your resume..."Invited to Law Review?" Since you are set on GULC, you have little to gain.

[kings84_wr]

Don't waste your time and the time of the students grading the write-on.

This. And I'm kinda confused at what you'd write on your resume..."Invited to Law Review?" Since you are set on GULC, you have little to gain.

Yeah you write exactly that. I doubt it helps that much.

[Big Shrimpin]

I was accepted GULC EA, and I wrote on at my old school. The original school found out I was transferring right before the results came out, and I was removed from the competition from the EIC. So I NEVER found out after all that work. And I had ruined a good two weeks of my summer. I did the competition at my new school, but I did not get on. So it was a horrible experience. The overall transfer was still worth it. But I think that I would have enjoyed my summer if I hadn't attempted the original school's write on.

Focus on preparing for OCI instead!!! Heck, I would even recommend mailing resume's to as many resumes to firms that aren't coming to OCI as you can in late JULY. But this is all advice only if you are certain you are transferring.

W/r/t the write-on, it's really your call, OP. I tend to think that, depending upon the relative timelines of your transferor/transferee school write-on competitions, you should be hedging your bets and participating...especially ITE. What I mean by this...if your transferor school write-on is, say, from June 1 - June 10, and your transferee school write-on is from June 10 - June 20, then I'd be hesitant to complete the latter in lieu of the former, merely for convenience/a few more hours of sleep. So, if I was an employer...and I was interviewing you at GULC OCI...and you answered my question to you about why you didn't write-on/grade-on to LR at your transferor school, with "I just wanted to chill/enjoy my summer/get ready for the GULC write-on the week before GULC's write-on instead of doing my transferor school write-on," then I'd probably question your judgment/think you were kind of lazy. ITE, everybody, especially transfers, need to do everything humanly possible to maximize the potential for an OCI jerb. Employers really like to hear that a transfer wrote-onto LR because it showcases both writing ability and motivation (I did, and employers loved it...IMO, contributing to my offer choices).

Biglaw doods crush billable hours. When you start working your biglaw jerb, you will also be crushing billable hours and not spending much meaningful time with family and friends. Maybe not participating in the competition won't be such a big deal at OCI. Maybe some interviewer will think you're soft. Either way, if having participated can show an interviewer that you're determined/like to write/whatever, then why not do it? (you did well in first semester, right?) If you want biglaw ITE, when THOUSANDS of law students would KILL for biglaw jerbs: don't be lazy, do anything you can to get a leg-up on your competition, and get used to writing...you'll be doing it for your jerb anyways, so why not show them your skillz now?

Edit to add about some posts since I started writing this poast: take the advice of glewz/transplantedbuckeye with pause. In no way should your intention to stay at your current school affect your right to participate in your write-on competition. Unless your school/EIC (lol, sweet bro) has a provision preventing potential transfers from competing/being seriously considered, fck them. Moreover, writing "invited to X LR based upon writing competition..." can help at OCI. I wrote-on at my TT (just outside grade-on). Out of the 30 or so screeners/12 CBs (so around 100 total 20-30 minute interviews), I'd say that about 20% of interviewers asked me about writing-on to LR. At the very least, writing-on to LR provides a proxy for employers that you're not a fcking moron who can't intelligently string words together...which brings me back to my point above, why not attempt the write-on?

If anybody would like to argue with me about the benefit of writing onto LR (barring, of course, some obscure rules for throwing-out submissions of transfers or similar garbage procedures), then PLEASE do.

[Vronsky]

OP - there is one other consideration. Assuming your current school's LR competition is in late may/early june, you can use it as a tune-up for the GULC competition.

Of course, part of why I was hoping to get into GULC EA was so that I could ignore my school's LR competition and focus on the GULC transfer competition, as you suggested. I can't do that now, and you obviously can, but aside from the above mention about how every little thing helps if you are gunning for BigLaw, there may be some benefit in doing two competitions (assuming they aren't back to back and you aren't tired out).

You'll have already seen the format, and be more familiar with time management during the week. Of course, I'm assuming that the LR competition at most schools is fairly similar, but that seems like a reasonable assumption. Although you could just preview the material for any generic LR, if you give it a good faith effort I'm sure you will benefit more than just casually looking over the material.

[DeSimone]

Thanks for the responses. I'll definitely have to think more about it after the finals.

[patrickd139]

1) Complete the write-on if you want to hedge your bets against transferring not working out.
2) I would never put something on my résumé that I did not participate in. The value to potential employers in law review is the process, not the invitation. The only value in putting "invited to join law review" on your résumé is to signal that you had the grades to get there. A quick glance at your GPA ought to provide the exact same information.

[tycho_brahe]

if your job prospects at your transfer school are so tenuous that you need to do pointless crap like this to get an edge, i'd question your decision to transfer in the first place.

if an interviewer asks why you didn't make it on law review at your old school (they won't, why would they?!), just say you got accepted to your new school before the write on competition. how this answer would show some sort of failing on your part is beyond me... it isn't even being lazy, it's just being sensible. they're interviewing you because you attend your transfer school. if they wanted kids who made law review at your old school, they'd go interview there.

writing on for practice for your transfer school's write-on, or writing on to hedge your bets just in case transferring becomes unfeasible are legit reasons to participate.

[Big Shrimpin]

People are still missing the point here. Grades aren't necessarily indicative of writing ability. Just about anyone who can type 40wpm for 3 hours while providing pretty decent analysis/organization can get great grades in doctrinal classes (thus getting a great GPA/potential to transfer since LRW classes are usually like 1 credit, if any). If you've written onto LR, then you've arguably got the ability to write well. Like I said, the fact that you've been invited can serve as a proxy for your writing ability. Doing the competition is a hedge against not transferring, as well as not being invited to any journal at your transferee school.

I don't understand why people wouldn't put it on their resume for 2L OCI (that is the ONLY time you should have it on there). The best argument was patrickd's comment about the process, but if a transfer doesn't get onto a journal at transferee school, then why not put a line-item on there...anything ITE helps. Also, to the dood who said that interviewers won't ask about LR at your old school, are you a 2L/have you done 2L OCI? Interviewers asked me about my tranfseror school LR competition/topic (see my poast, above), so why advise OP otherwise?

[tycho_brahe]

they asked you about it because you put it on your resume. which can either mean two things a) they were impressed or b) they wanted to know why you would do such a thing.

my point was that if you don't put it on there, they won't ask why it's missing. they won't even know that it's missing, it likely will not cross their mind.

[Big Shrimpin]

they asked you about it because you put it on your resume. which can either mean two things a) they were impressed or b) they wanted to know why you would do such a thing.

my point was that if you don't put it on there, they won't ask why it's missing. they won't even know that it's missing, it likely will not cross their mind.

lol o rly?

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I'm assuming your conclusions have some basis for support? Are you a biglaw recruiter/attorney?

[DeSimone]

they asked you about it because you put it on your resume. which can either mean two things a) they were impressed or b) they wanted to know why you would do such a thing.

my point was that if you don't put it on there, they won't ask why it's missing. they won't even know that it's missing, it likely will not cross their mind.

[Big Shrimpin]

they asked you about it because you put it on your resume. which can either mean two things a) they were impressed or b) they wanted to know why you would do such a thing.

my point was that if you don't put it on there, they won't ask why it's missing. they won't even know that it's missing, it likely will not cross their mind.

amirite?

[concurrent fork]

I think that the "Invited to join X Law Review" line is pretty standard for OCI purposes. At least, I've seen it on the sample transfer resumes for multiple schools.

Is it going to hurt you if you don't have it? Probably not. But why risk it if you have the time to participate?

[Lawl Shcool]

Big Shrimpin' is totally spot on here. My earlier post was too simplified and he is correct, it is a good way to show off your writing ability IF you wrote on.

However, for the people suggesting you do both. I highly doubt you have done one of these write-ons, they are all consuming ultra time-sucks. Doing 2 in a summer would BLOW.

[transferhopeful12]

I did the write on at my old school because I wasn't sure if I was going to transfer and I wrote (invited) on my resume. Employers liked it and a bunch of them mentioned it, but I was coming from a T20 school and no one was able to solely grade-on so I think it was more significant.

I think it's a plus, but not worth the time if you already know you're transferring (I know a few students who also transferred but did not do the write on and did extremely well in OCI) especially if you can grade-on at your old school.

Concentrate on applications to other schools (don't settle for Georgetown unless you have personal reasons) since it won't be that much additional work and if you really want LR then do the write-on at these schools and pay attention to which ones require you to write-on before you are admitted.

Best of luck

[Rurik]

Big Shrimpin' is totally spot on here. My earlier post was too simplified and he is correct, it is a good way to show off your writing ability IF you wrote on.

However, for the people suggesting you do both. I highly doubt you have done one of these write-ons, they are all consuming ultra time-sucks. Doing 2 in a summer would BLOW.

I agree. It's not exactly rare at even top schools that half of the people who start the competition don't end up finishing it. I personally wouldn't do two, especially if it's the second one at the school you're transferring to that really matters. It's tough. I've talked to a lot of people who have been on T10 LRs - they have pretty much all said that at some point during the competition, they felt like giving up. I can't even imagine what two in such a short time span would be like.

[DeSimone]

How ridiculous would it be to write something like "did not write on to LR as received transfer acceptance prior to competition"?

[tycho_brahe]

they asked you about it because you put it on your resume. which can either mean two things a) they were impressed or b) they wanted to know why you would do such a thing.

my point was that if you don't put it on there, they won't ask why it's missing. they won't even know that it's missing, it likely will not cross their mind.

lol o rly?

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I'm assuming your conclusions have some basis for support? Are you a biglaw recruiter/attorney?

are you? if not, then how do you know that they would notice that it's missing? i would assume they wouldn't, but you're free to assume otherwise.

i'm contending that your insinuations that it would be a negative to not participate are groundless, as your experience is of someone who did participate. the fact that they seemed to care in your case only reflects the fact that you brought it to their attention by putting it on your resume.

i can't imagine an employer would view someone's decision to not participate in two write-on competitions, something which the vast majority of law students do not do, as a sign of laziness or other negative qualities.

i don't dispute that it can provide a small bonus. however, i do question, as subsequent posters have, whether or not the effort involved would be worth that small advantage.

[tycho_brahe]

How ridiculous would it be to write something like "did not write on to LR as received transfer acceptance prior to competition"?

definitely don't do this. all you'd do is draw attention to the fact that you didn't participate. resumes are a place to sell yourself, not make excuses.

[Rurik]

How ridiculous would it be to write something like "did not write on to LR as received transfer acceptance prior to competition"?

Might be something that you could mention at OCI if asked, but I would leave it off the resume. I'm fairly certain that nobody is going to look down on you for not doing a LR competition at a school that you're not even attending in the fall in conjunction with another competition (the one that really matters).