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Can you be on law review at the school you transfer to? I know my school does write ons, but the write on competition will be finished by the time anyone could transfer in. I was wondering if this was the norm.

Also, when do people really start preparing to transfer, i.e. collect LOR's, prepare PS, send apps?

Depends on the school. Most schools' transfer websites state whether transfer students may participate in journals and oci. You may have to participate in the main writing competition (before you even apply or are admitted), or they may have a separate writing competition for transfer students.

I've done some looking in to this as well. You have to look at each individual school and find the procedure for writing on (or otherwise competing). Some schools (e.g., NYU) have a separate contest for transfers, some (e.g., Harvard) require transfers to compete in the same competition as their current students.