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Hi everyone- I realize this is incredibly premature, but wanted to solicit some advice to have moving forward.

Currently I'm a 1L at NYU and while this is by all means an incredible institution, it isn't the institution I thought it would be. Coming into law school and having taken some time off prior to, I was really interested in an environment where the permeating feeling was an incredibly rich intellectual environment. While NYU does have that to an extent, I feel that the city of NYC sort of swallows the culture of NYU.

While I know this is likely to change as the semester progresses, I also know myself pretty well and know that I am not in love with the school in the way I initially wanted to be.

Due to this, I am entering 1L with the mindset that I want to obtain the grades to at least try and be competitive enough to transfer out to H (where I was waitlisted this cycle). Obviously my intention is to tell no one about this (sans anonymous posting) and to let things play out.

But, I am wondering what percentage of my class I would need to finish in for this to be a serious possibility and if anyone had any tips on how to set myself up to do this from the beginning of the year? Further, if anyone else has done this, any tips would be appreciated.

(Disclaimer- I know 1L grades are incredibly unpredictable and such, but I also feel that to a certain extent a lot of it is about time management and putting in the work... so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I do think it's possible that there are certain things that will set you up to be successful.)

I'm confused by your post. Don't NYU classes not even start until tomorrow?

But, whatever you do, do not go to any law school unless you will be happy graduating from there. That isn't something that normally needs to be said to NYU kids. That being said, do yourself a favor and worry about grades first and then transferring later.

Some of our classes/orientation has already begun and while officially the first day of classes is tomorrow, 1Ls have already had class for a few days at this point. Again, highly premature, but initial gut feelings have always been very on point for me personally.

i went to nyu and after three years i can maybe.. MAYBE see what you're referring as having some truth. but after seeing you've only been to a few classes, it's pretty clear that you've made up your mind much too quickly. you can't possibly have any grasp of whether NYU is the "institution you thought it would be" after only a few days. you just can't.

that being said - maybe at least top 20% to transfer to harvard? i'd throw in an application at top 25%, but from what ive heard you want to be higher than 20%. thats from limited anecdotes, so anybody can feel free to correct. check out the old harvard transfer threads for a better idea.

Are you related to Ted Cruz by chance?

But to answer your question, top 10%.

Yeah, 1Ls aren't allowed to post questions here until they have a semester of grades (see the rules stickied on the front page of this forum).

Also I'm going to do the obnoxious mod thing and lock this only after giving my opinion, which is 1) it is way too early to have reached an assessment of the school, and 2) I don't get the point of the "what grades do I need to transfer" question anyway (before you have grades. If you have grades it's another thing entirely, although the question then is really "are my grades good enough to transfer to X"). Good grades are of value whether you transfer or not, so it would seem you should aim for the best grades you can at whatever school you're at. Are you only going to aim for 30% if you decide not to transfer, as opposed to 20% if you do? What does that even look like in practice when you don't have any grades yet? And if there are certain things that set you up to be successful (which is highly debateable, to the extent they're any different from what everyone else will be doing), why would you not do those things regardless of whether you're transferring?

/rant

WRT how to get good grades, browse the guides in the law student subforum. This has been discussed many many times here. But if you have more specific questions about how to succeed, you can ask there. I'm not moving this because the OP is anon and the subforum doesn't have an anon function.