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Does all ABA accredited schools calculate units the same way? For example, if one school gives 4 units for taking torts and the other gives 5 units for taking torts, one would have more or less units when transferring to a new law school compared to those stayed?

1L, School A = 30 Units
1L, School B = 35 Units

Transferring from A to B means one would need to make up 5 units while transferring from B to A one would need to take 5 less units to graduate?

The ABA strictly calculates units based on total minutes of class instruction. So in theory, the number of units at one school are the same as the other.

In practice, my 4 unit Property class had so many cancelled classes that we lost a lot of minutes. And in practice, my 3 unit Conlaw class had twice the amount of required work as my Property course.

So, the number of units refers only to minutes of class instruction time, not necessarily what you learned or how much time the course required.

Not sure how transferring from B to A works...

But I'm in a similar position from A to B. At my 1L school my Civ Pro course was 5 units, meanwhile at my new school its 6 units. I fulfilled the Civ Pro requirement but just have that 1 unit to make up elsewhere in order to graduate.

Fairly certain most schools allow you to transfer up to however many credit their 1Ls take. If your total credits gained your 1L year is more, you'll loose a few credits; if it's less, you'll need to make up a few. I don't think the number of credits your school spends on a subject v. the number they spend is relevant.

What schools really care about two things:

1) Whether you met the ABA requirements for 1L. If you were at an ABA-accredited law school, enrolled full-time, and passed all your classes, you likely did this. Once you meet hours requirements, they only care what courses you took. If there are required 1L classes that for some reason you haven't taken, you'll have to make that up by taking the course before you graduate.

2) Whether you meet the ABA required hours requirements at your new school. If you're transferring from an ABA-accredited law school, you satisfied the first-year requirements (see point 1). After that, they just care whether you meet the enrollment requirements for the last two years. Transfers typically get their own separate "you must earn X credits here during your second and third years" requirement, instead of a "you must have X+Y hours total, including Y hours from your old school" requirement.

If you attended an ABA-accredited school and met their 1L enrollment requirements, the number of hours taken at your old school shouldn't ever come up again after you've transferred.

There is a transfer cap on the number of credits accepted at a new school. I believe it is 31 but I do not have a cite atm. While the number of credits allotted to a certain class do no matter, as the previous poster mentioned, whether you took a require course or not is the focus. There are situations (I am in this boat) where the new school gave 33 credits to their 1Ls, I only transferred with 30 credits, so I am 3 credits behind from meeting the graduation requirement of a total of 87.

I also had to make-up one 1L class that my old school did not require till 2L. Taking a 1L course as a 2L was miserable since you got tossed back into the misery of being a 1L all over again. But having to do this seems fairly common among transfers.

Dman wrote:

I also had to make-up one 1L class that my old school did not require till 2L. Taking a 1L course as a 2L was miserable since you got tossed back into the misery of being a 1L all over again. But having to do this seems fairly common among transfers.

I didn't think there was any misery involved. In fact, I felt like I had a HUGE advantage over the 1Ls as a 2L in Con Law.

Yeah there was an advantage grade-wise, but having to having to listen to 1Ls talk about their life and drama was painful.

Dman wrote:
I also had to make-up one 1L class that my old school did not require till 2L. Taking a 1L course as a 2L was miserable since you got tossed back into the misery of being a 1L all over again. But having to do this seems fairly common among transfers.

Yeah, taking ConLaw with 1Ls is going to be fun...