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Hi everyone,

I am a 1L student in St. Louis U law school. I ranked top 15% at the end of the first semester. If I could maintain this rank, what's the likelihood to transfer to Washington U law school?
Thank you very much for your help!

Why do you want to transfer? If you want to stay in St. Louis SLU arguably places better than Wash U. You would probably do pretty well job wise in the St. Louis area being at least top 15% at SLU

I'm pretty sure you'd be auto-admit...Do you wanna stay in St. Louis? I mean with your grades (and maybe if u do slightly better to break into top 10%) you'd have better options than us. And if you're 100% deadset on St. Louis, then won't you have a good shot with the firms in town with your grades from SLU?

sheila1s wrote:If you want to stay in St. Louis SLU arguably places better than Wash U.

False. SLU's employment rate is ≈ 50%. While almost all of their placements are in St. Louis, that is more a testament to how unemployable SLU grads are outside of St. Louis than how employable they are in St. Louis.

OP: Career Goals?

If you want to end up in a large firm, the move makes sense. Otherwise, not so sure.

transferror wrote:

sheila1s wrote:If you want to stay in St. Louis SLU arguably places better than Wash U.

False. SLU's employment rate is ≈ 50%. While almost all of their placements are in St. Louis, that is more a testament to how unemployable SLU grads are outside of St. Louis than how employable they are in St. Louis.

OP: Career Goals?

If you want to end up in a large firm, the move makes sense. Otherwise, not so sure.

I agree that SLU's better placement in St. Louis is partly a function of them not being able to place anywhere else, but it's true that top grades at SLU gives u great chance at landing STL BigLaw. At WashU it doesn't matter how high your grades are if you don't have ties to the city or region.

OP, if you only wanna stay in STL and you do top 15% or better after your spring term, then you should stay at SLU unless you didn't get any scholarship from them. It sounds like u have ties so whether you stay at SLU or come to WashU, you'll be fine for STL firms.

If you want to break into other markets, I recommend transferring somewhere other than WashU entirely. If you maintain your grades or do better then you could likely break into a T14

cusenation wrote: top grades at SLU gives u great chance at landing STL BigLaw. At WashU it doesn't matter how high your grades are if you don't have ties to the city or region.

Because employers know SLU kiddos don't have other options. Been saying this for years in the tie battle royals that spring up on this site.

Lord Randolph McDuff wrote:

cusenation wrote: top grades at SLU gives u great chance at landing STL BigLaw. At WashU it doesn't matter how high your grades are if you don't have ties to the city or region.

Because employers know SLU kiddos don't have other options. Been saying this for years in the tie battle royals that spring up on this site.

yeah i mean i'm sure that's partly why. I had 7 screeners with STL firms and 3 callbacks during 1L OCI. No offers. And every single one of them asked me if i had interviewed with other firms or asked why i wanted to stay in STL long term. I gave the best pitch I could but it wasnt good enough apparently lol

One of my mentors is gonna start at one of them after graduation and one of the recruiters told her that the firm had gotten burned by someone from my region before and felt that i was going to leave anyway.

But if OP has STL ties then this won't hinder her if she transfers to WashU, i'm just saying that if you have top grades at SLU and have STL ties, then you're probably just as likely to get an SA in STL...But in all fairness, i think all of us here just assume that Top X% at SLU has monopoly at the firms because almost all of us strike out. That could be very far from the truth.

If Top 10-15% from SLU doesn't give OP a secure chance at an SA here...then i guess the calculus changes

cusenation wrote:

Lord Randolph McDuff wrote:

cusenation wrote: top grades at SLU gives u great chance at landing STL BigLaw. At WashU it doesn't matter how high your grades are if you don't have ties to the city or region.

Because employers know SLU kiddos don't have other options. Been saying this for years in the tie battle royals that spring up on this site.

yeah i mean i'm sure that's partly why. I had 7 screeners with STL firms and 3 callbacks during 1L OCI. No offers. And every single one of them asked me if i had interviewed with other firms or asked why i wanted to stay in STL long term. I gave the best pitch I could but it wasnt good enough apparently lol

One of my mentors is gonna start at one of them after graduation and one of the recruiters told her that the firm had gotten burned by someone from my region before and felt that i was going to leave anyway.

But if OP has STL ties then this won't hinder her if she transfers to WashU, i'm just saying that if you have top grades at SLU and have STL ties, then you're probably just as likely to get an SA in STL...But in all fairness, i think all of us here just assume that Top X% at SLU has monopoly at the firms because almost all of us strike out. That could be very far from the truth.

If Top 10-15% from SLU doesn't give OP a secure chance at an SA here...then i guess the calculus changes

In 2013, SLU only placed 31 of 301 in firms of 101+, and only 11 of those were firms of 501+. In 2012, SLU placed 25/276 in firms of 101+, but only 5 in 501+.

Data says you're looking at a 10% chance. Even if WUSTL places poorly in St. Louis (and I can't imagine they do), it can't be much worse than ≈10%. There have to be more than 30 or so jobs across St. Louis for firms of 101+, and I imagine WUSTL and Mizzou are taking the rest of the slots.