Worth it to transfer to UChicago from T30? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I am hoping people can give me advice me on the transfer move I am thinking about. I am currently at a Top 20-30 school on a full-ride scholarship, and have a 3.9 GPA from my first semester. In addition, I have tentative A's in my year-long courses, which I expect to maintain through the end of the year, so roughy 70% of my 1L GPA is set at that this point. I am very optimistic about getting on law review.

In terms of my career goals, I am most interested in academia, federal government, politics, and maybe even becoming a judge. Not interested in big law. My current school has a good history of putting people in federal clerkships (which I would like to do), but obviously not at the rate of the elite schools.

I am very intrigued by University of Chicago's Early Decision program. This option would eliminate the risk of getting worse grades this semester (which is entirely possible, even though I'm working just as hard). In addition, it seems that Chicago does nearly as good a job of getting its graduates into academia as any school other than Yale. However, I understand that transitioning into a new school is probably difficult, and would require making new connections with professors. Transferring would also cost me an additional $100k, since I am paying no tuition at my current school and Chicago is ~$50k per year.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Nebby]

Is that a 3.9 on a 4.0 scale or 4.3? Whats your class rank? Class curve? Historical median?

[Anonymous User]

Is that a 3.9 on a 4.0 scale or 4.3? Whats your class rank? Class curve? Historical median?

4.3 scale. Historical median is a 3.3. Don't know my class rank, but would guess top 5%.

[WheninLaw]

I am hoping people can give me advice me on the transfer move I am thinking about. I am currently at a Top 20-30 school on a full-ride scholarship, and have a 3.9 GPA from my first semester. In addition, I have tentative A's in my year-long courses, which I expect to maintain through the end of the year, so roughy 70% of my 1L GPA is set at that this point. I am very optimistic about getting on law review.

In terms of my career goals, I am most interested in academia, federal government, politics, and maybe even becoming a judge. Not interested in big law. My current school has a good history of putting people in federal clerkships (which I would like to do), but obviously not at the rate of the elite schools.

I am very intrigued by University of Chicago's Early Decision program. This option would eliminate the risk of getting worse grades this semester (which is entirely possible, even though I'm working just as hard). In addition, it seems that Chicago does nearly as good a job of getting its graduates into academia as any school other than Yale. However, I understand that transitioning into a new school is probably difficult, and would require making new connections with professors. Transferring would also cost me an additional $100k, since I am paying no tuition at my current school and Chicago is ~$50k per year.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

For your goals, I do not think Chicago is worth giving up the full ride. I'd shoot for Y/S.

[Nebby]

Is that a 3.9 on a 4.0 scale or 4.3? Whats your class rank? Class curve? Historical median?

4.3 scale. Historical median is a 3.3. Don't know my class rank, but would guess top 5%.

I don't know what your school is, but if you're looking for federal clerkship, and your school is not on this list (link below), then you should apply to Chicago (and NYU, UPenn, Harvard, Yale, Stanford).

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/c ... clerkships

I don't agree with the poster above me. Not only does he not provide any reason for his statement, but Chicago does a fairly well job (top 10) of placing in federal clerkships. All of the schools in the T14 are good for big law (assuming you can stay in the top 1/3 of your class at the new school--which you will be able to judging by your previous efforts) and I know you aren't interested in that but see below:

You need only factor in employment prospects, and what schools do particularly well on what your certain employment interests are. If you want federal government, then I recommend any transfer to the T14. Though, if you want a more prestigious federal job, then I recommend doing biglaw for a few years after law school and then go into federal work.

I'm the lone person who thinks you should wait and transfer widely, because I think you have a shot (especially if you can defeat this semester) at HYS. However, if you want to go to Chicago over those, then most certainly apply ED. (My opinion only)

[WheninLaw]

I don't know what your school is, but if you're looking for federal clerkship, and your school is not on this list (link below), then you should apply to Chicago (and NYU, UPenn, Harvard, Yale, Stanford).

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/c ... clerkships

I don't agree with the poster above me. Not only does he not provide any reason for his statement, but Chicago does a fairly well job (top 10) of placing in federal clerkships. All of the schools in the T14 are good for big law (assuming you can stay in the top 1/3 of your class at the new school--which you will be able to judging by your previous efforts) and I know you aren't interested in that but see below:

You need only factor in employment prospects, and what schools do particularly well on what your certain employment interests are. If you want federal government, then I recommend any transfer to the T14. Though, if you want a more prestigious federal job, then I recommend doing biglaw for a few years after law school and then go into federal work.

I'm the lone person who thinks you should wait and transfer widely, because I think you have a shot (especially if you can defeat this semester) at HYS. However, if you want to go to Chicago over those, then most certainly apply ED. (My opinion only)

My reason: look at his goals. He primarily wants academia/big fed. You have a very, very small chance at getting those out of UoC. The only schools I'd say those are an attainable goal from are HYS (YS specifically for academia). The more likely route (if going government) is big law for a few years first. With his/her grades, that option is not foreclosed from a school in the 20's with those types of grades.

The last thing is Clerkships. Certainly a reason to transfer. He said his school does well, so I'll be generous and assume Chicago doubles his chance from 6 to 12%. The question then becomes is it worth paying $110,000 for that. If that is, go for it.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for all the replies! I am pretty surprised by the results of my poll so far. Figured it would be a landslide in favor of ED at Chicago.

I'm curious about where people are getting the info on academia/big fed prospects.

I haven't seen many studies of the federal gov job market, but In terms of academia, a lot of the research I've done indicates that Chicago does about as well as Harvard and Stanford in terms of placement (such as this analysis: http://www.leiterrankings.com/jobs/2009 ... hing.shtml)

[Nebby]

In terms of BigFed, I think me and Wheninlaw are in agreement that, honestly, your best bet is to do a few years of BigLaw first, due to the flexibility and skills it gives, and because it's easier to get hired into BigFed from a firm rather than right out of law school.

In terms of BigLaw prospects, I think that anything in the T14 will be a better investment, in the long-run, than where you are right now, especially to places like MVP, CCN, and HYS. That's just my opinion.

[Anonymous User]

In terms of BigFed, I think me and Wheninlaw are in agreement that, honestly, your best bet is to do a few years of BigLaw first, due to the flexibility and skills it gives, and because it's easier to get hired into BigFed from a firm rather than right out of law school.

In terms of BigLaw prospects, I think that anything in the T14 will be a better investment, in the long-run, than where you are right now, especially to places like MVP, CCN, and HYS. That's just my opinion.

That makes sense, and just to clarify, I should add that I am definitely not looking for a career in biglaw, but I am interested in biglaw insofar as it is necessary to getting into other fields like the federal government.