Top Law Schools

I am currently attending a T2 (55-65) and I'm in the top 1-2% of my class. I don't have a scholarship, I'm in a flyover state, and the sticker that I'm paying is "cheap," compared to most law schools.

I don't have big ambitions for big law (although I wouldn't turn it down!). I would be satisfied with a mid law gig or a good federal job (yeah, who wouldn't). I have 10 years of work experience, some of it as a business owner and some if it in public service.

If I can manage to continue to do well, I probably have a shot at the mid law firms that my school can place to, with an annual salary of $100k-$110k starting out (cost of living is very low).

I've considered transferring for a few reasons:

- Better employment prospects/reach a larger number of potential employers
- Keeping a door cracked for possible academia (Yes, I know how ridiculously hard it is to obtain/lucky one has to be; however, it's not a real possibility at my current school)
- Increased chance at a clerkship opportunity
- Prestige of the degree granting institution (both for personal reasons and because I could see it helping to acquire/re-assure clients)

Cons:

- I've grown up in the area and would likely want to return here or close to here at some point, if not right after graduation. Which means that at some point, I'd probably want to try and shoot for the same mid law firms that I might already be able to reach if I keep up knock 'em dead grades.
- Family is mostly in the area.
- Increased tuition cost (I already pay my own cost of living/not taking out loans for that)

I have business interests in Chicago, so that's naturally a place that I'm interested in. I also have always liked GULC (although I know it receives a lot of hate on TLS).

If I stay, I'd definitely want to try and leverage a transfer acceptance for a scholarship at my current institution. Any one manage to succeed at doing so and, if so, have any advice?

So my question is--what would you do?

If I stay, I'd definitely want to try and leverage a transfer acceptance for a scholarship at my current institution. Any one manage to succeed at doing so and, if so, have any advice?

i would do this. you can search for threads about it but basically you just get into better schools and talk to your dean (often they will ask to sit down with you when you ask for your dean's certification or transcript or whatever) and say you like where you are but it's hard to turn down a transfer opportunity when the costs are roughly equal

I mostly think the renegotiating scholarship with transfer acceptance is flame.
With top 1-2% you can get into CCN. Do well this semester and apply regular decision cycle at CCN and whatever else you want below it.

OP here. That's not the first time I've heard that negotiating a scholarship is a flame. My school does provide some form of scholarship to those who rank high in subsequent years, so it sounds like they will proactively give some money. I'd be happy to hear from those who've managed to negotiate with a transfer acceptance as leverage, but I haven't seen anyone on TLS post about that experience.

I'm still very much interested in the idea of transferring for several of the reasons I highlighted above. UChicago interests me quite a bit, because I have a business that has assets there and it's a great school (if not a great area...). I don't see any advantages to ED'ing there, unless I'm missing something. Also, looking at last year's Chicago ED thread, it doesn't look like anyone on TLS even made it through without first being transferred to the regular decision queue.

I'm also slightly concerned that even though my grades are good enough to likely allow me to fair well in my local mid law market, there are very few decent paying jobs in this market that are open in any given year. Plus, I would need to maintain absolute amazing grades. I don't plan on slacking, but still... The alternative is shit law. Or a federal job if I can land one of those (which I'd be perfectly happy with doing, but those are hard to get, as well).

Transferring to CCN will help tremendously for job prospects. I worked at a federal agency over 1L, transferred to CCN, was applied and accepted an offer from a federal OGC 2L gig, which only takes 5 2Ls. They I just can't see myself obtaining such a sweet gig from my 1L T2.

It obviously helps for BigLaw prospects too.