Top Law Schools

Here are my stats:

GPA: 4.0
Rank: ~Top 3%
Current School: Pepperdine (Ranked 54)
Goals: I want to live in Southern California. I am interested in mainly IP / Entertainment Law (specially video game law). Any-sized firm (so long as it is not 60-80 hrs/week)
Potential Schools: Any of the T14 schools
Scholarship: Covers about 50% of tuition
1L Summer Job: Public interest internship
Reasons for staying: keeping my rank, and allowing me to stay in Southern California
Reasons for going: employment prospects, better prestige

Is it worth it to transfer? And what are my chances of getting into the a T14 school? I know the top 3 is a long shot, but what about something like Berkeley Law?

Thank you in advance for any advise.

Shadowglaive wrote:Here are my stats:

GPA: 4.0
Rank: ~Top 3%
Current School: Pepperdine (Ranked 54)
Goals: I want to live in Southern California. I am interested in mainly IP / Entertainment Law (specially video game law). Any-sized firm (so long as it is not 60-80 hrs/week)
Potential Schools: Any of the T14 schools
Scholarship: Covers about 50% of tuition
1L Summer Job: Public interest internship
Reasons for staying: keeping my rank, and allowing me to stay in Southern California
Reasons for going: employment prospects, better prestige

Is it worth it to transfer? And what are my chances of getting into the a T14 school? I know the top 3 is a long shot, but what about something like Berkeley Law?

Thank you in advance for any advise.

Wow that is a hard choice. IMHO the best reasons to transfer are for either biglaw, clerkships, or government. If you are interested in none of those, you may want to think twice before expending a substantially greater amount of money on your legal education. Be that as it may, you have a strong chance at almost any school that you want to get into (HYS may be different), and the prestige is hard to turn down. If I were you, I would at least send out some applications and see what happens. If anything, you may be able to use an acceptance to another school as a negotiating chip for a larger scholarship at your current school.

At least apply USC/UCLA and try to negotiate a full ride at Pepperdine. You will need acceptances to those schools or better to negotiate. Your chances of a T14 are great, but Berkeley and Stanford are impossible to predict, so you'd have to apply to all T14.

Are you patent bar eligible?

Thank you guys for the response.

Is it possible to get a part-time position in biglaw? and if so would that make transferring more worthwhile?

also, unfortunately I am not patent bar eligible.

If on the rare chance I got accepted into Harvard, Yale, or Stanford, should I not pass up that opportunity regardless?

Thanks again for all the responses. I really appreciate it.

If you KNOW you do not want to work 60-80 hours/week, then I think you should stay and enjoy your current scholarship. Better yet, ask for more scholarship money! Top 3% at Pepperdine should be more than fine to get you a job. Only transfer to a T14 if you want BigLaw, otherwise -- given your current GPA/rank -- it isn't worth the cost. Think about it - you can leave Pepperdine with "DEBT" or leave a T14 with "DEBT x2(ish)," but either way your starting salary will be the same if you're serious about the hours/week thing. You don't need T14 to get a less-than-60-hours-per-week job...