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I'm currently well above top 5% at a T20 in LA.

I'm debating whether I should transfer. If I did, I'd probably choose between H, S, or Columbia. I currently have a $75k scholarship (over 3 years). My main concerns are whether I would end up with $50k more debt and how I would fair at OCI at my new school. The way I see it now, I have a pretty solid shot at a V10 firm (yes, prestige does matter to me) in a great market.

Another concern is that I'm still looking for a job for this summer. I'm not sure how transferring would effect that if at all.

Any suggestions at all would be great. Thanks.

Anonymous User wrote:(yes, prestige does matter to me)

. . . would effect that if at all.

lolol

*affect...

In all seriousness, I could use some actual advice. I've heard that sometimes transfers don't do as well at OCI. In addition, would how would transferring affect my long term career goals? I'm not interested in academia. I plan on working at a firm for 7 or 8 years and then possibly going in house.

Anonymous User wrote:*affect...

In all seriousness, I could use some actual advice. I've heard that sometimes transfers don't do as well at OCI. In addition, would how would transferring affect my long term career goals? I'm not interested in academia. I plan on working at a firm for 7 or 8 years and then possibly going in house.

Where do you want to work and what do you want to do?

I want to work at a V10 firm, although I wouldn't mind settling for less. I'm interested in M&A, preferably something relating to hostile takeovers.

Geographic Area? Honestly LA isn't too bad a place to work. I'm from the bay area, so I wouldn't mind working in SF. I could also see myself working in NY.

Anonymous User wrote:I want to work at a V10 firm, although I wouldn't mind settling for less. I'm interested in M&A, preferably something relating to hostile takeovers.

Geographic Area? Honestly LA isn't too bad a place to work. I'm from the bay area, so I wouldn't mind working in SF. I could also see myself working in NY.

Why draw the line at V10? Some of the best firms in LA/SF aren't V10 (e.g. Wilson Sonsini, MoFo, MTO, etc). If you're limiting yourself to V10 then you're looking at the California offices of NY firms and Kirkland, which may not necessarily be wise choices depending on what you want to do.

it doesn't sound like you have a clear understanding of what you want to do and are just using both V10 and M&A as proxies for "prestigious corporate work"

You still have another semester to think about it, so I would suggest putting your goals under more scrutiny. Where do you want to work? What kind of work do you want to do? What kind of exit options do you want if you eventually leave BigLaw? Generally the most prestigious corporate work is in NYC but it's more complex than that. Hostile takeovers is pretty niche. Hostile takeovers don't happen particularly often and while many of the stronger NYC firms do that kind of work occasionally, the only firm that consistently does it is Wachtell, which you're not getting from USC/UCLA and likely won't get as a transfer anyway.

If you want to work in LA, then you're probably already in the best place for that since USC/UCLA are the premier schools in the market. But if you want better chances at the stronger NYC corporate firms then transferring may be helpful. Try and find out how your school places with those firms (start by looking at the "Summer Class" threads and just asking 2L's and 3L's)

ETA: I'm not saying you need to know EXACTLY what you want to do. But you need more precise goals than "V10"

this bro has to go to USC

no way he'd consort with the plebeian trash one tends to find at a public school

and if he did go to UCLA, there's no way he would have allowed people to think he attended a school two USNWR spots less presftigious

Plz do not insult TLS' knowledge bank with your dumbass.

Only a literal dumbass would be top 5% at a T20 and not have a 1L summer secured. Plz KYS.