Top Law Schools

Hi all, just wanted to get some sort of estimate of my transfer odds, as I'm largely in the dark here.

I finished in the top 20% at a school in the 14-20 range and I plan on throwing out applications to a few schools in the lower half of the T13. I've checked the 509s, but given the massive variance in curves it doesn't seem particularly helpful. Berkeley is my top choice, but their 509 transfer GPAs looked higher than even those of CCN.

There is debate about this on this forum, but I personally think it's the GPAs on the 509s that matter--not rank or curve or anything particular to individual schools. Law schools only have to report GPA and 1L school of their transfers, so why would they take into account these other circumstances in most cases?

This was at least my experience in 0L admissions. At my undergrad--T10 LAC which prided itself on its toughness and even its "grade deflation" while assuring us we would be okay in graduate school admissions because grad/professional school admissions officers "know" the school--I was at the top of my class with a 3.5. My undergrad was either delusional or misguided or straight up dishonest when they told us not to worry about UGPA. Anyway, I have no doubts the law schools I applied to "knew" my school and it's reputation, and from my CAS report they would have known where I stood ranking-wise...but if they only have to report the number at the end of the day, and the higher the better, why take that into account? When I spoke to admissions officers at GULC and UVA when I was applying, they told me as much. Looking at data from my college, only the rare student from my undergrad who actually was in T14 law school GPA midranges could get into those law schools. Thus, for an undergrad of our caliber, we seem to send far fewer students to top law schools relative to our peer schools with less stringent grading outcomes. (For perspective, we usually had, at most, one or two people out of 500 graduating with a 4.0 annually)

The TL;DR: I would look at the numbers. You probably get a boost if you're from a higher ranked law school since that looks nice on their 509 too, but I think the mid-ranges are the best guide regardless of curve variation.

Have you considered not transferring and possibly negotiating a scholarship with your school? If your only trying to move up a few spots in the rankings, often times it may not be worth paying sticker for it.

I appreciate the response, NoDayButToday--good food for thought.

CaliGeorge wrote:Have you considered not transferring and possibly negotiating a scholarship with your school? If your only trying to move up a few spots in the rankings, often times it may not be worth paying sticker for it.

I am fortunate enough that paying sticker for two years would not be a huge concern for me and wouldn't require taking out any loans. My main goal is to put myself in the best position possible to get a job in california, as my current school isn't super portable to there, and that's worth sticker cost for me.