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So, I got my 1st semester grades back, and I'm trying to decide what to do. I did very well, much better than expected, and ended up with a 4.14 GPA. Now, my school hasn't released rankings yet (and won't till after spring), but I estimate I'm in the top 5 percent. I'm at a T30 Boston-based school.

My friends are telling me to look into transferring to Harvard, or maybe Yale. My soon-to-be fiancee is at Brown so I commute to Boston from Providence every day. I always planned to practice in Boston/New England so I'm not really looking into going outside of New England.

I guess my question is, would it be worth it if I did get into Harvard? Is the jump in pedigree THAT significant? Seems like a dumb question, I guess, but I'm worried I'll go from essentially being near the top at my current school to what I'd assume is somewhere middle, or possibly toward the bottom, at Harvard. How would BigLaw firms, for example, compare that? Would the mere fact that Harvard is on the diploma help me that much?

Also, I'm paying half-tuition as is. Has anyone ever heard of people leveraging a transfer in order to get an increase in scholarship money? I really like where I am now, and the only thing that really still scares me about law school is my debt - if I could knock that out, it would be more important to me than Harvard.

Sorry if these seem like easy questions, I'm really confused, I never considered this to be a possibility and I feel weird using the resources at my current school when it comes to this.

EDIT: UGPA was 3.6, LSAT was 170. Didn't apply to Harvard or Yale originally.

If you can get to YHS TCR is to go. Look through past questions for answers to your questions, they are standard.

Anonymous User wrote:So, I got my 1st semester grades back, and I'm trying to decide what to do.

Repeat those grades second semester, then apply. Unless you want to apply to GULC EA or Chicago ED (which it sounds like you're not going to do) then the only things to do at this point are keep your grades up and line up recommenders.

If you just want Boston biglaw and you're top 5% or higher at BC, (assuming w/ significant scholarship given your stats), why transfer to Harvard unless you're going to get significant aid?

ndirish2010 wrote:If you just want Boston biglaw and you're top 5% or higher at BC, (assuming w/ significant scholarship given your stats), why transfer to Harvard unless you're going to get significant aid?

I agree with this. Unless you know you're going to get more need-based at HY than your scholarship at BU/BC, there's no reason to transfer since you want to stay in Boston. If you're a "what if" person, send out apps over the summer and see what how you feel then.