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I am assuming and hoping that my 29 first year credits will transfer. I am going to American? Is there any reason to think I will only be given 28 or some won't transfer over? Or any other horror stories?

It depends on the school you're transferring to and their credits policy. HLS only accepts credits for courses equivalent to required 1L courses, and (unlike most law schools) they don't require Con Law. This means Con Law is not transferrable for credit, nor are any 1L electives, unless those electives satisfy other HLS 1L requirements like admin or international law.

You need to contact your school and ask, wherever you're going. I can't imagine they won't accept the core 1L classes, but electives or differences in what they call "core" could mean a few credits don't transfer.

Why does it matter? If the new school has a cap on transferable credits, it's just to put you on equal footing with their own rising 2Ls.

Do any of you think that taking summer courses during 1L summer would affect transfer decisions already made? I have yet to call the admissions office (but I did email - NR).

boogieboo wrote:Do any of you think that taking summer courses during 1L summer would affect transfer decisions already made? I have yet to call the admissions office (but I did email - NR).

You mean to overturn a rejection? I would think not, but it can't hurt to try if you got a good grade.

No, i mean overturn an acceptance.

vanwinkle wrote:It depends on the school you're transferring to and their credits policy. HLS only accepts credits for courses equivalent to required 1L courses, and (unlike most law schools) they don't require Con Law. This means Con Law is not transferrable for credit, nor are any 1L electives, unless those electives satisfy other HLS 1L requirements like admin or international law.

You need to contact your school and ask, wherever you're going. I can't imagine they won't accept the core 1L classes, but electives or differences in what they call "core" could mean a few credits don't transfer.

To clarify a little on this, HLS treats transfers as having fulfilled the "credit" requirements needed during 1L. Your HLS transcript will not show anything about your 1L year, and in terms of graduation requirements, the school will basically just ignore your 1L year. From talking to transfers at a few other schools, this seems to be the prevailing approach. Of course, as the esteemed Mr. Winkle stated, it's definitely worth checking with your transfer school.

The Con Law issue arose when certain of us tried to get into courses that required Con Law as a prerequisite, and they told us that our 1L Con Law courses wouldn't count because we didn't take them at HLS and HLS 1Ls don't take Con Law. However, upon further pestering (and sending our syllabi), I believe all of the transfers who wanted to were able to convince the HLS Office of the Registrar that our 1L Con Law courses should satisfy the prerequisite to take courses like Fed Courts.