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Simple question here, if I start L1 this spring, when would I be able to transfer? Do spring starters transfer after a semester, year, year and a half?

Schools all require you have to completed some number of credits (equal to a year) before you can transfer, so you wouldn't be able to transfer after a semester. The problem with transferring after a year is that most schools run their transfer applications on a once-a-year model like regular admissions with the deadline in the summer for a fall admission, so you'd finish 1L in December wouldn't be able to apply/start at the new school until after the following semester anyway. So you'd have to apply after a year and a half. However, schools also only take up to a certain number of credits from your old school, and I don't know the exact number, but you'd very likely "lose" a bunch of credits from the third semester, where they wouldn't count to your degree.

So basically if you start in the spring somewhere and want to transfer, you're probably going to end up doing a semester's worth of classes that won't count toward the degree.

nixy wrote:Schools all require you have to completed some number of credits (equal to a year) before you can transfer, so you wouldn't be able to transfer after a semester. The problem with transferring after a year is that most schools run their transfer applications on a once-a-year model like regular admissions with the deadline in the summer for a fall admission, so you'd finish 1L in December wouldn't be able to apply/start at the new school until after the following semester anyway. So you'd have to apply after a year and a half. However, schools also only take up to a certain number of credits from your old school, and I don't know the exact number, but you'd very likely "lose" a bunch of credits from the third semester, where they wouldn't count to your degree.

So basically if you start in the spring somewhere and want to transfer, you're probably going to end up doing a semester's worth of classes that won't count toward the degree.

+1 to the above.

Also, the old wisdom applies: Don't matriculate at any law school you wouldn't be comfortable graduating from at median, with a corresponding employment outcome. Law school performance isn't predictable ex ante, no matter how high your GPA or LSAT are. You must assume median performance going in. Do not make the mistake of assuming you'll perform well enough to transfer after 1L. Do not assume you'll end up in the top 10%, or make Law Review, or anything. I say this not to be mean, or negative, but to be realistic.

Believe me, I too once thought I'd outperform 90% of my classmates. After all, I did well in college, regularly outperforming the vast majority of my peers. I did well on the LSAT, outperforming the vast majority of my fellow testtakers. The only problem? All of my law school classmates were there because they'd also outperformed the vast majority of their peers. I wasn't any smarter than they were, and they were equally as determined as yours truly.

If the prospect of being a median graduate from the law school you're considering attending is unappealing, then don't attend. Apply for fall 2019 admission - it isn't too late, and you'll have MANY more schools to consider than the very few schools that offer a spring start date. If needed, retake the LSAT and wait for the next cycle.