Top Law Schools

Finished this semester with a 3.53 at Notre Dame. ND doesn’t rank, just sets the median for 1L year around 3.35. FWIW, my UG GPA was pretty terrible, LSAT was decent.

Looking at Cornell’s old 509 reports, it looks like I’d have a decent shot at transferring there (assuming my grades stay consistent). I’m also interested in HYS (lol), CCN, Penn, and Duke.

Am I correct in saying that I’m on track for Cornell but would probably need to raise my GPA in order to get into any of the other schools on my list?

Don't get too caught up in the 509 gpa's. It's mostly about rank. Problem with Cornell is that you are unlikely to be able to use their OCI (they admit transfers too late intentionally).
PM me.

I respectfully disagree, re: rank vs. GPA. GPA is what they have to report and not all schools rank, especially among the T20s/T13s. I was top 20% at my T1 when I transferred to CCN with that exact GPA. If you can maintain or go up, I think you have a good chance at NYU. If you can go up significantly, I think YS are still unlikely, but H is a possibility, as well as Chicago and Columbia. Penn doesn't take many transfers, so I'm not sure, but probably similar chances as Chicago and Columbia.

Agree with respect to OCI--most posters suggest that Cornell doesn't let transfers participate.

Fair enough. I'd think rank would matter because gpa varies amongst schools... but oh well.

For fun, I'm gonna say OP is 100% in at Cornell ... which he should not do unless OCI or a job already; likely at Penn and duke; maybe for CCN; no dice for HYS.

OP apply to GULC ED for backup.

Depending on where you want to go and what you want to do, top of ND + law review could outperform Cornell transfer. A friend of mine transferred ND>Cornell and regretted it terribly, he completely struck out at OCI. Northwestern/Chicago would probably be a completely different story.