Discussion: Stay at Cornell or Transfer to Harvard Forum

[Arbiter213]

Why don't you leverage the Harvard acceptance against Cornell for more $cholly? With desire to clerk, and costs the same, I would stay at Cornell, b/c there is evidence that transfers struggle to land clerkships compared to similarly ranked students at their old schools.

Yeah I tried that. Got the reply today. It was more or less "thanks but no thanks." I get it, but still super lame, especially with their recent fancy $25 million donation

The donation is actually a bequest, so they don't have it yet.

[fatduck]

Why don't you leverage the Harvard acceptance against Cornell for more $cholly? With desire to clerk, and costs the same, I would stay at Cornell, b/c there is evidence that transfers struggle to land clerkships compared to similarly ranked students at their old schools.

Yeah I tried that. Got the reply today. It was more or less "thanks but no thanks." I get it, but still super lame, especially with their recent fancy $25 million donation

The donation is actually a bequest, so they don't have it yet.

alright PinkCow, you know what to do.

[dixon02]

I guess it depends how badly you want to clerk and how much you care what kind of clerkship it is. With top 10% and LR at Cornell, you're not in the running for any feeder, but you probably have a shot at some COAs if you apply broadly, especially if you have good faculty relationships. Still not a sure thing by any means though; you could easily strike out at the circuit level.

If you transfer, going COA straight out is highly unlikely since it will be much more difficult to build the type of relationships you need in time. If you do well, you should still be able to land a district court clerkship. Of course, if you don't do well, you won't be able to clerk at all.

Personally, I'd transfer. It would be different if your rank was higher and you were giving up a shot at a feeder/SCOTUS, but you're not. Clerking sounds great, but I don't think it's such a great option that it's worth saving money by going to Harvard, especially since you'll still have a shot at it anyway. I don't think staying is a bad decision either though; if that's your gut, stick with it.

[stylus_go]

I don't think staying is a bad decision either though; if that's your gut, stick with it.

+1.

[3ThrowAway99]

Personally, I'd transfer. .