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What's the COA situation at each like? Generally speaking, this move doesn't tend to work that well for folks. Keep in mind that OCI happens at the start of your 2L year, so all employers have to look at are your 1L grades, which will be at your old school. I very much doubt employers differentiate between a GW student (just taking a random T20) with a 3.7 from GW and a Penn student with a 3.7 from GW. The only tiny advantage would be that more firms may come to your MVP OCI. But you said your school places well in the market you desire, so I'd probably just stick with that.

I think there's no way to answer this without COA. If you are paying sticker at T20 then transfer, if you have full ride then don't even consider it, and in between it will depend on the cost.

You're in a great spot.

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It also depends on what interested in means. Do you have ties to those other markets? If not it really shouldn't enter into your calculus.

Also if the MVP is not within your market A read GW to UVA you might be jeopardizing your shot at market A. DC and NYC are the only markets that don't care too much about ties. With others any move away is a bad signal for them. Maybe UVA places better than Minnesota in Chi (no idea) but the move out of the midwest would be a red flag for Chicago firms.

So you're at GW? Like others have said, how much you paying

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mlblaw wrote:10k/year scholly. Targeting DC, Atlanta, Texas.

Then absolutely transfer. 10k is enough to forego for access to OCI. And all 3 will have lower COL than DC.

10k probably is not enough to forgo transferring into MVP, but it is very close. To be honest, unless you have strong ties to Atlanta/TX, you will get dinged from MVP. In fact, you will even get dinged from CCN in my experience. Now, I assume you are targeting those secondary markets because you do in fact have some ties that you think are strong, but just saying you have family there, or have visited, etc. is not enough. Have you lived in Atlanta/TX for an extended period of time before? If so, why did you leave? If you got into GW, you certainly could have gone to Emory. If you were able to transfer to Michigan, you certainly could have transferred to UT. This will be the line of thinking coming from firms at OCI. Generally, I think transferring to MVP makes sense if you are gunning for NY biglaw. Otherwise, it can be a very close class.

I think you should best consider gunning and finishing top 5% to open CCN and maybe even H/S. Those would be more clear choices imo. Or, try to leverage a higher scholly from GW.

MVP will not improve your chances at ATL. The large firms mainly hire people with top GPAs from Southern schools.

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mlblaw wrote:

rad lulz wrote:MVP will not improve your chances at ATL. The large firms mainly hire people with top GPAs from Southern schools.

I take it V is not "Southern" for the purposes of southern biglaw hiring?

It is, but it may be hard to enjoy the benefits with top 10% from GW. ATL is a shitshow.

mlblaw wrote:

rad lulz wrote:MVP will not improve your chances at ATL. The large firms mainly hire people with top GPAs from Southern schools.

I take it V is not "Southern" for the purposes of southern biglaw hiring?

You'll probably need legit ties to the city to get serious looks either way. If you have 'em, Atlanta's a possibility, though not a strong one. If not, I wouldn't transfer for the hope that it'll help with that market - can't say much about the other two.

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I transferred from a T20 to CCN. Definitely worth it. But be prepared to start over and have to make friends again. Also be prepared for your new classmates to be really smart.

mlblaw wrote:Is the concensus V would hurt for DC, giving up grades and possibly Law Review? My school is all preselect.

I don't know if it is the consensus, but it probably should be. The top flight D.C. firms are notoriously grade and law review selective. I think you'd have trouble getting hired at the top of the D.C. food chain without law review coming from anywhere short of HYS. And even HYS students strike out in D.C. with regularity.

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mlblaw wrote:A transfer from a T20 with Law Review numbers has a strong chance of striking out in DC coming from Virginia? Is this credited?

DC is the freaking holy grail. M transfer here, the transfer class generally did very well at OCI and many of us sought DC, but I only know one person in the class who got DC and it was a last-minute thing. Know people who crushed it at OCI and still couldn't crack DC.

Do know several people here going to TX this summer, however ties are a must. Can't speak to ATL.

mlblaw wrote:A transfer from a T20 with Law Review numbers has a strong chance of striking out in DC coming from Virginia? Is this credited?

Well first of all, Law Review numbers != Law Review. If it was the same, about 75% of people would decline given how much of a waste of time it is.

To quantify the "D.C. is murder" trope, the NLJ 250 data released the other day indicates that about 40% of UVA is landing BigLaw. LST indicates UVA places a little less than a quarter of its class in Washington D.C.

Though not a perfect extrapolation, these numbers seem to indicate only about 10% (.4 * .25) of UVA grads land D.C. BigLaw. With those odds, D.C. BIgLaw isn't even a lock for UVA + Law Review. I think "strong chance of striking out" is a pretty good way to sum up a transfer's chance.

You're not a lock for D.C. BigLaw with GW Scholar + Law Review either, but the Law Review will help with the prestige / credential whorish nature of the D.C. market.

Assuming money is no object, which would have better job prospects?