Top Law Schools

Anyone have any advice or insight?

Transferring from a local NY/NJ AREA school in the 55-65 range as a part time student with 24 credits and 3.9 gpa.

Is Columbia possible?

From Columbia's website:

Applicants are eligible to apply for transfer admission into the second year class after having accrued a minimum of 28 credits from law schools that are either members of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) or approved by the section on Legal Education of the American Bar Association.

Is there any authority out there to counter this seemingly clear-cut policy?

Yes.

"The Office of Admissions receives approximately 400 transfer applications each year, and we anticipate that 45 to 60 students will enroll in the Law School’s transfer program each year. Applicants are eligible to apply for transfer admission after having accrued a minimum of 28, and a maximum of 32*, credits from law schools that are either members of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) or approved by the American Bar Association’s section on Legal Education.

*Please note that we are able to consider applicants with fewer than 28 credits and more than 32 credits; applicants to whom this applies must include a written explanation with their application for admission. After you have transferred, a review with the Director of Academic Counseling will determine how many credits will be eligible toward your Columbia Law School J.D. degree."

http://web.law.columbia.edu/admissions/ ... er-student

Then I will say you're competitive for transfer so long as:

1) You have a fantastic class rank to go along with that high GPA and

2) The admissions office has no particular aversion to accepting part-timers.

The second prong I cannot speak to, but apparently Columbia is very transfer friendly even from an 'upper' T2. Also, you have the added benefit of already being in NY so you can sell ties.

sandwhich wrote:Then I will say you're competitive for transfer so long as:

1) You have a fantastic class rank to go along with that high GPA and

2) The admissions office has no particular aversion to accepting part-timers.

The second prong I cannot speak to, but apparently Columbia is very transfer friendly even from an 'upper' T2. Also, you have the added benefit of already being in NY so you can sell ties.

Sorry I was unclear, I'm from a local NY/NJ school. They took 1 person from my school last year, but it was probably a FT student.

Do you think that softs matter assuming I have a high class rank 1-5?

I only think softs matter in transfer decisions as a tie breaker. If you have softs that are likely to help you to get a job and another similarly situated applicant does not, I think you would win out. Otherwise, I think the general belief is that the influence of softs is negligible.