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I just got grades back and am below median at a top 20 school. I really don't like being here and am homesick and would like to transfer closer to family. My grades are terrible though. I am panicking that I am stuck. What can / should I do?

Anonymous User wrote:I just got grades back and am below median at a top 20 school. I really don't like being here and am homesick and would like to transfer closer to family. My grades are terrible though. I am panicking that I am stuck. What can / should I do?

Sorry to hear that. What rank are the schools that would be closer to your family?

All you can do is identify what went wrong this semester and work harder. Your spring grades do count and can help!

don't resign yourself so early, you can recover in the spring. People frequently become overconfident or despondent after their first term. Did all of your grades come out? Or is it just 2 out of 3 or something?

toothbrush wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I just got grades back and am below median at a top 20 school. I really don't like being here and am homesick and would like to transfer closer to family. My grades are terrible though. I am panicking that I am stuck. What can / should I do?

Sorry to hear that. What rank are the schools that would be closer to your family?

All you can do is identify what went wrong this semester and work harder. Your spring grades do count and can help!

The school I want to transfer to is within 2 spots. It's not t-14 though.

toothbrush wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I just got grades back and am below median at a top 20 school. I really don't like being here and am homesick and would like to transfer closer to family. My grades are terrible though. I am panicking that I am stuck. What can / should I do?

Sorry to hear that. What rank are the schools that would be closer to your family?

All you can do is identify what went wrong this semester and work harder. Your spring grades do count and can help!

I am also curious to know this. Would this be considered a lateral transfer? Would getting median or slightly above be sufficient? I know this is obviously not an exact science, but any wisdom would be appreciated.

lawkid12345 wrote:

toothbrush wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I just got grades back and am below median at a top 20 school. I really don't like being here and am homesick and would like to transfer closer to family. My grades are terrible though. I am panicking that I am stuck. What can / should I do?

Sorry to hear that. What rank are the schools that would be closer to your family?

All you can do is identify what went wrong this semester and work harder. Your spring grades do count and can help!

I am also curious to know this. Would this be considered a lateral transfer? Would getting median or slightly above be sufficient? I know this is obviously not an exact science, but any wisdom would be appreciated.

Yes; it would be a lateral transfer. Hardly anyone on here laterally transfers so our ability to give you any sort of definite answer is deeply lacking. Laterally transferring does not make any financial sense, unless your parents are bankrolling your education. My advice is just apply and hope for the best.

CounselorNebby wrote:

lawkid12345 wrote:

toothbrush wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I just got grades back and am below median at a top 20 school. I really don't like being here and am homesick and would like to transfer closer to family. My grades are terrible though. I am panicking that I am stuck. What can / should I do?

Sorry to hear that. What rank are the schools that would be closer to your family?

All you can do is identify what went wrong this semester and work harder. Your spring grades do count and can help!

I am also curious to know this. Would this be considered a lateral transfer? Would getting median or slightly above be sufficient? I know this is obviously not an exact science, but any wisdom would be appreciated.

Yes; it would be a lateral transfer. Hardly anyone on here laterally transfers so our ability to give you any sort of definite answer is deeply lacking. Laterally transferring does not make any financial sense, unless your parents are bankrolling your education. My advice is just apply and hope for the best.

So just to be clear, 2-3 spots higher is considered a lateral transfer? Why wouldn't this make economic sense?

Because there's no real advantage to transferring laterally for the schools we're talking abt here. If you went to Columbia and were hell bent on academia then MAYBE transferring to Yale is worth it. But going from WUSTL to Vanderbilt? Almost always not worth it unless you're gunning Nashville jobs or something I guess. This is assuming you have some kind of scholarship at your original school. So we just mean it's not worth giving up your scholarship for lateral transfer in most cases unless cost isn't a concern for some reason

Fair, but worth of transferring aside, are "median grades" enough usually to successfully transfer a few spots up?

lawkid12345 wrote:Fair, but worth of transferring aside, are "median grades" enough usually to successfully transfer a few spots up?

Yes.*

*No one here can answer this question. But I gave you what you're looking for.

lawkid12345 wrote:Fair, but worth of transferring aside, are "median grades" enough usually to successfully transfer a few spots up?

I mean based on just the few people I've seen transfer with median grades, I'd say so in most cases outside of the upper T14. Median kids from my old school went to GW, Michigan, Vandy, UT.

cusenation wrote:

lawkid12345 wrote:Fair, but worth of transferring aside, are "median grades" enough usually to successfully transfer a few spots up?

I mean based on just the few people I've seen transfer with median grades, I'd say so in most cases outside of the upper T14. Median kids from my old school went to GW, Michigan, Vandy, UT.

According to the new ABA form, my old school at 12 transfer out, but I only know 3 of those. I wonder if someone will compile data on 1L school -> 2L schools.*

*If someone wants to really procrastinate on their note, they should compile this data. (not me)

CounselorNebby wrote:

cusenation wrote:

lawkid12345 wrote:Fair, but worth of transferring aside, are "median grades" enough usually to successfully transfer a few spots up?

I mean based on just the few people I've seen transfer with median grades, I'd say so in most cases outside of the upper T14. Median kids from my old school went to GW, Michigan, Vandy, UT.

According to the new ABA form, my old school at 12 transfer out, but I only know 3 of those. I wonder if someone will compile data on 1L school -> 2L schools.*

*If someone wants to really procrastinate on their note, they should compile this data. (not me)

This is WUSTL:

Harvard: 3
Columbia: 1
Chicago: 1
NYU: 1
Penn: 1
Michigan: 2
Northwestern: 1
UT: 1
Vanderbilt: 1
GW: 1

cusenation wrote:

CounselorNebby wrote:

cusenation wrote:

lawkid12345 wrote:Fair, but worth of transferring aside, are "median grades" enough usually to successfully transfer a few spots up?

I mean based on just the few people I've seen transfer with median grades, I'd say so in most cases outside of the upper T14. Median kids from my old school went to GW, Michigan, Vandy, UT.

According to the new ABA form, my old school at 12 transfer out, but I only know 3 of those. I wonder if someone will compile data on 1L school -> 2L schools.*

*If someone wants to really procrastinate on their note, they should compile this data. (not me)

This is WUSTL:

Harvard: 3
Columbia: 1
Chicago: 1
NYU: 1
Penn: 1
Michigan: 2
Northwestern: 1
UT: 1
Vanderbilt: 1
GW: 1

How long did that take? Or did you know all of that off-hand?

Knew it off hand, might have missed one person, but that's everyone who went T14

1.) how far from median are you?

2.) are there any t-14's close to the target school and how many schools are ranked below it in the state? this is relevant because it may be easier if fewer people apply to transfer in. for instance, i know people who got into t-20's but were denied at Cardozo because NYC has too many schools.

OP - I was sort of in your spot a year ago. I know the feeling of anxiety over grades and wanting to leave your current school. However, the best advice AT THIS POINT is to bust your ass in the Spring. Does people here telling you "median is fine" make you feel better? If so, ok, but regardless you should be shooting for above median - since your grades do matter for getting jobs in the future.

To be realistic, at most t-1 schools the majority of students are within .1 of the median. It's unlikely to be able to transfer anywhere from the bottom quarter, and even if s/he did how will employment work?

I am slightly above median. Within .05.

The school I wang to transfer to is one of a few in my "home region" but it is the highest ranked. Not sure if that matters.

Nothing matters until the end of May. I have faith in you.

You are not screwed. First year of law school is tough. I was certainly below median first semester. Took it as motivation to study more and was above median semester 2. This averaged to about median for the entire year, and I moved from a T20 like you to a MVP. You don't judge a man based on how hard he gets knocked down, but by how he picks himself back up. I had tough questions during SA interviews about my 1L grades, but crafted a narrative of the steps I took to improve, talked about leadership activities in law school, my note topic (and did everything I could to make the case grades were only x% of what I could offer). I have a respectable SA lined up (not bragging at all but showing that everything doesn't need to go to hell). However make sure to keep networking, cause the job came from networking not EIW and I started calling/emailing/and met recruiter before I even stepped foot in law school. Keep the faith

JDMonkey - I think it'd be helpful if you state specifics on what made your application stand out. Your success is atypical. There must have been something that made you standout.

AReasonableMan wrote:JDMonkey - I think it'd be helpful if you state specifics on what made your application stand out. Your success is atypical. There must have been something that made you standout.

Well the thing about admissions which we all know is that there is no feedback at the end of the process. The envelope that arrives at your house is either large or small and is always filled with boilerplate language. Some schools say nicer things when rejecting a candidate than others do when accepting him/her. With that being said, I applied as soon as I got back my last grade (early), I spent a lot of time getting to know a professor for a LOR, I ignored the common app essay prompts and wrote my essay about a number of goals I wanted to accomplish in law school and how I saw the new school helping me reach each one (so the reader could tell that there was a lot of thought put in). I also only applied to one school and let them know I would come if I was accepted. None of this is exact, because maybe the year I applied the new school needed more full tuition payers, or wanted more students from ivy undergrads, or some other nonsense and all of my decisions were moot. If anybody wants my personal statement later on when they are transferring I can send it. At the end of the day you miss every shot you don't take, so I'd encourage people to apply to transfer with whatever grades they have if that's what they want. The worst thing that happens is you are right back where you started.