Top Law Schools

Hey all,

This is another "should I transfer" thread.... but I actually have acceptance in hand so please have an opinion!

Currently:
1L @ GW
~top 10% rank
1L SA with large company
$10,000/year scholarship

GULC considerations:

OCI- Much better firm options
Prestige- down the road I'd like to get involved in politics, and GULC is perhaps flashier
Clerkships- I MAY want to clerk, and GULC has considerably more reach in that area

Thoughts???? How much $$ would GW have to put up to make it worth staying? (poll)

I'm not sure you'll realize the benefits of GULC, if you come as a transfer.

Is there something in particular you want to study at GULC?

idk. i think top 10% at gwu is more impressive than gu. congrats on the sa.

Danteshek wrote:I'm not sure you'll realize the benefits of GULC, if you come as a transfer.

Is there something in particular you want to study at GULC?

OP here-

I'm looking to go into litigation, ideally in-house counsel if at all possible. GULC has traditionally done a better job at placing in that sector. Having said that, my job this summer should put me on the fast track to in-house regardless. Ultimately the debt will be a negligible difference between them.

If it's not a firm, I'm not sure you'll be on a "fast track to in-house."

I suggest you stay at GW if you don't have an academic reason to be at GULC.

Danteshek wrote:If it's not a firm, I'm not sure you'll be on a "fast track to in-house."

I suggest you stay at GW if you don't have an academic reason to be at GULC.

This. Fast track to in-house would be a 1L V20 associateship.

GULC isn't nearly as prestigious, at least over GW, as you might think. Not that GULC is bad, but you'll have nearly equal opportunities coming top 10% from GW.

OP Again-

Does anyone know who I should be talking to about $$?

Anonymous User wrote:OP Again-

Does anyone know who I should be talking to about $$?

I'd zip your fly back up.... just in case these grades aren't necessarily always anonymous.

bananapeanutbutter wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:OP Again-

Does anyone know who I should be talking to about $$?

I'd zip your fly back up.... just in case these grades aren't necessarily always anonymous.

I'm fairly sure anonymity will be out the window when I sit down in their office - At this point it's a business decision.

Anonymous User wrote:

bananapeanutbutter wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:OP Again-

Does anyone know who I should be talking to about $$?

I'd zip your fly back up.... just in case these grades aren't necessarily always anonymous.

I'm fairly sure anonymity will be out the window when I sit down in their office - At this point it's a business decision.

You might as well wait till after all 1L grades are in (when they count much less for firm hiring).

Would be a really silly transfer.

Anonymous User wrote: GULC considerations:
OCI- Much better firm options

Uh, [Citation Need]. Where are you getting this from? Maybe you might see more NYC firms recruiting at GULC, but that's about it. As far as D.C. goes, there really aren't any big firms in the city that don't recruit at GW. The main difference between the two is that firms may go slightly deeper into the class for GULC students.

Prestige- down the road I'd like to get involved in politics, and GULC is perhaps flashier

Unlikely this would ever matter, but yes, GULC has more lay prestige. Not really in D.C. (lifelong D.C. resident, trust me it really doesn't) but nationwide it definitely seems to.

Clerkships- I MAY want to clerk, and GULC has considerably more reach in that area

Again, where are you getting this from? Over the last decade and a half GW has had something like 7-8 SCOTUS clerks, including two on the current term. GULC maybe has as many in recent history, but it's not "considerably more." Law school transparency reports GULC's federal clerkship rate at 3.7 percent and GW's at 3.8 percent.

Either way, I promise you a student at GW with top 10%+Law Review is far more competitive for clerkships than a transfer student at GULC. In fact, if you do actually transfer, you're probably killing any chance you have at transferring. You're fighting a serious uphill battle trying to land a clerkship from either school without law review.

Thoughts???? How much $$ would GW have to put up to make it worth staying? (poll)

Lol. The question you should be asking is how much money would GULC have to put up to make you consider leaving a shot at law review and a pure preselect OCI that heavily favors the top 15% at GW. GW won't put up a cent to keep you. Students with better grades and admissions to much better schools have tried and failed.

KidStuddi wrote:

Anonymous User wrote: GULC considerations:
OCI- Much better firm options

Uh, [Citation Need]. Where are you getting this from? Maybe you might see more NYC firms recruiting at GULC, but that's about it. As far as D.C. goes, there really aren't any big firms in the city that don't recruit at GW. The main difference between the two is that firms may go slightly deeper into the class for GULC students.

Prestige- down the road I'd like to get involved in politics, and GULC is perhaps flashier

Unlikely this would ever matter, but yes, GULC has more lay prestige. Not really in D.C. (lifelong D.C. resident, trust me it really doesn't) but nationwide it definitely seems to.

Clerkships- I MAY want to clerk, and GULC has considerably more reach in that area

Again, where are you getting this from? Over the last decade and a half GW has had something like 7-8 SCOTUS clerks, including two on the current term. GULC maybe has as many in recent history, but it's not "considerably more." Law school transparency reports GULC's federal clerkship rate at 3.7 percent and GW's at 3.8 percent.

Either way, I promise you a student at GW with top 10%+Law Review is far more competitive for clerkships than a transfer student at GULC. In fact, if you do actually transfer, you're probably killing any chance you have at transferring. You're fighting a serious uphill battle trying to land a clerkship from either school without law review.

Thoughts???? How much $$ would GW have to put up to make it worth staying? (poll)

Lol. The question you should be asking is how much money would GULC have to put up to make you consider leaving a shot at law review and a pure preselect OCI that heavily favors the top 15% at GW. GW won't put up a cent to keep you. Students with better grades and admissions to much better schools have tried and failed.

I have also heard that people waiving July acceptances have not been successful in getting GW to budge on funds, however know two separate people who faced a similar situation (GULC EA) and were given a new offer. I'd assume this is because the EA occurs so much earlier in the cycle, and the school hasn't yet exhausted the pool of available funds. Also, the only better-ranked school that offers EA is Chicago, and they're binding- hence no negotiating.

The OCI #'s came straight off the V20 list matched up with the lists of who attends OCI. I realize that most DC firms recruit @ GW, however there are several V25's that do not recruit GW (anymore- dropped after 2009-2010) but do recruit GULC still.

The clerkship #'s can also be misleading if you were to lump every federal clerkship into one bucket. In speaking with professors, the GW SCOTUS # over the last 10 years is actually closer to 3-4, and our success in getting clerkship beyond the district court level has not been great.

OP, if you really want to leave GW (i.e. you're not getting very much money or want to be in a different market or are just that much of a prestige whore), top 10% can get you a better school than GULC.

keg411 wrote:OP, if you really want to leave GW (i.e. you're not getting very much money or want to be in a different market or are just that much of a prestige whore), top 10% can get you a better school than GULC.

I think you need to reexamine your thinking OP. you are in a good spot now. If transferring, aim high.

NYstate wrote:

keg411 wrote:OP, if you really want to leave GW (i.e. you're not getting very much money or want to be in a different market or are just that much of a prestige whore), top 10% can get you a better school than GULC.

I think you need to reexamine your thinking OP. you are in a good spot now. If transferring, aim high.

OP Here-

Agreed on all counts. Ultimately I want to break into the CA (SF) market, and that's one reason OCI is so important to me. I'll also be applying to HYS/CCN/B come June, but as far as EA goes, I wasn't willing to bind myself to Chicago.

At this point I'm looking at a $600 deposit (to start with) at GULC, so I can't really depend on potential grades + potential acceptance @ a higher/geographic school until they're actually on the table.

Anonymous User wrote:

NYstate wrote:

keg411 wrote:OP, if you really want to leave GW (i.e. you're not getting very much money or want to be in a different market or are just that much of a prestige whore), top 10% can get you a better school than GULC.

I think you need to reexamine your thinking OP. you are in a good spot now. If transferring, aim high.

OP Here-

Agreed on all counts. Ultimately I want to break into the CA (SF) market, and that's one reason OCI is so important to me. I'll also be applying to HYS/CCN/B come June, but as far as EA goes, I wasn't willing to bind myself to Chicago.

At this point I'm looking at a $600 deposit (to start with) at GULC, so I can't really depend on potential grades + potential acceptance @ a higher/geographic school until they're actually on the table.

Personally, I think you're better off being top 10% at GW than random transfer at GULC. But it's your call on whether you want to spend the $600 or not to save your seat. Probably depends on how much extra cash you have lying around.

Anonymous User wrote: I have also heard that people waiving July acceptances have not been successful in getting GW to budge on funds, however know two separate people who faced a similar situation (GULC EA) and were given a new offer. I'd assume this is because the EA occurs so much earlier in the cycle, and the school hasn't yet exhausted the pool of available funds. Also, the only better-ranked school that offers EA is Chicago, and they're binding- hence no negotiating.

Well, good luck with getting more money. I've never heard of GW doing it. They have a pretty strict "you don't get need based aid if you're getting merit based aid," and $10,000 a year sounds like you're getting need based aid. It seems weird that they would adjust that up based on merit. But if you can get them to cough up more money, go for it. I just think it would be a silly move to transfer.

The OCI #'s came straight off the V20 list matched up with the lists of who attends OCI. I realize that most DC firms recruit @ GW, however there are several V25's that do not recruit GW (anymore- dropped after 2009-2010) but do recruit GULC still.

Again, like I said, you'll see more NYC firms recruiting at GULC. Vault rankings are pretty skewed towards NYC. That being said, I just looked at the V25 list and there is maybe two firms that recruit at GULC OCI but don't recruit at GW OCI (Quinn and Boies). Wachtell doesn't attend either's OCI (according to NALP). Fairly sure you're not getting either of those firms as a GULC transfer.

The clerkship #'s can also be misleading if you were to lump every federal clerkship into one bucket. In speaking with professors, the GW SCOTUS # over the last 10 years is actually closer to 3-4, and our success in getting clerkship beyond the district court level has not been great.

If you were comparing GW to HYSCCN, you'd have a slightly more valid point. We're talking about GW v GULC. If only 3.7% of GULC's ginormous class snags any AIII clerkship at all, you really think you're going to get a COA clerkship without law review as a transfer to GULC? Good luck.

GULC is a complete waste of time and money if going from GW. Aim T10 or don't bother.