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I am currently median at a lower T10, 3.33 first semester GPA. I would like to transfer to Columbia or NYU, due to my interest in being in New York finance law.

What are my chances, and any way I could improve them? Thank you for your insights.

It is highly unlikely they are going to accept a median student as a transfer. There are more than enough top 10% students to fill up the transfer class at both schools. If you improve substantially and can get yourself into that top quarter or so, maybe that would change things. Though are you sure its really necessary? Pretty much all of the T10 schools have excellent nationwide reputations and should make you competitive for a big firm position in NY.

You should really only bother doing this if you have a spouse in NYC or something. Otherwise there's really no point.

kaiser wrote:It is highly unlikely they are going to accept a median student as a transfer. There are more than enough top 10% students to fill up the transfer class at both schools. If you improve substantially and can get yourself into that top quarter or so, maybe that would change things. Though are you sure its really necessary? Pretty much all of the T10 schools have excellent nationwide reputations and should make you competitive for a big firm position in NY.

UVA, Duke, and Michigan all send ~1/3 of their classes to NY. Berkeley only sends around 15%, but I'm assuming most of that is self-selection. https://www.lstreports.com/

AdieuCali wrote:

kaiser wrote:It is highly unlikely they are going to accept a median student as a transfer. There are more than enough top 10% students to fill up the transfer class at both schools. If you improve substantially and can get yourself into that top quarter or so, maybe that would change things. Though are you sure its really necessary? Pretty much all of the T10 schools have excellent nationwide reputations and should make you competitive for a big firm position in NY.

UVA, Duke, and Michigan all send ~1/3 of their classes to NY. Berkeley only sends around 15%, but I'm assuming most of that is self-selection. https://www.lstreports.com/

Thats what I figured. As someone who went to NYU myself and who helps recruit for my firm, I'm struggling to understand why its necessary unless its for personal reasons. I certainly wouldn't make that move just to increase chances at working in finance for big NY firm.

kaiser wrote:It is highly unlikely they are going to accept a median student as a transfer. There are more than enough top 10% students to fill up the transfer class at both schools. If you improve substantially and can get yourself into that top quarter or so, maybe that would change things. Though are you sure its really necessary? Pretty much all of the T10 schools have excellent nationwide reputations and should make you competitive for a big firm position in NY.

Fair enough. But, doesn’t a T10 have greater leeway? Median there isn’t median at your random TTT

Stackitup wrote:

kaiser wrote:It is highly unlikely they are going to accept a median student as a transfer. There are more than enough top 10% students to fill up the transfer class at both schools. If you improve substantially and can get yourself into that top quarter or so, maybe that would change things. Though are you sure its really necessary? Pretty much all of the T10 schools have excellent nationwide reputations and should make you competitive for a big firm position in NY.

Fair enough. But, doesn’t a T10 have greater leeway? Median there isn’t median at your random TTT

No doubt that median T10 is better than median at a TTT. But median T10 isn't going to get the spot over top 10% at a T20 or T30. And thats where a huge chunk of transfers will come from (as well as the top 1-3% from lower ranked schools).

kaiser wrote:No doubt that median T10 is better than median at a TTT. But median T10 isn't going to get the spot over top 10% at a T20 or T30. And thats where a huge chunk of transfers will come from (as well as the top 1-3% from lower ranked schools).

Esp. NYU/Columbia. There's a only a million law schools in the NYC area with students with NYC ties who would rather attend a T14 if given the chance.

OP here. Let's just say I have personal reasons for being in NYC, including spouse, location

Anonymous User wrote:OP here. Let's just say I have personal reasons for being in NYC, including spouse, location

Then thats the way to sell it. Just do as well as you possibly can this next semester. If you get up to that top quarter, may be a possibility, especially if you have compelling personal reasons for wanting to do so.

What's the GPA I should aim for?

Anonymous User wrote:What's the GPA I should aim for?

I mean, its sort of an odd question to ask. Shoot for the highest GPA you can possibly get. Its not like knowing a specific target GPA in advance should condition how you work this next semester. Just do the best you possibly can and see where the chips fall.

I'm just wondering what is the 25% gpa

Anonymous User wrote:I'm just wondering what is the 25% gpa

It depends on what school you go to lmao

25th percentile for Columbia is 3.68 and 25th percentile for NYU is 3.49

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