Which Schools Do I have a Shot At? Forum

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:29 pm

Hello everyone - hope y'all are staying safe during the craziness.

I am a 1L at Miami paying $32k in tuition after scholarship. 3.45 gpa after last semester and P/F this semester. Originally from NC, parents live outside of Atlanta. My hope was to improve my GPA a tad with spring semester grades but now that my 3.45 is locked in, I am trying to narrow my list of target schools to apply to. I am BigLaw or bust (want to do banking/finance law). 2 years of prior work experience in finance. Paying for school and living expenses through loans. Here is my current list of target schools (in order of rank).

Duke, Cornell, GULC, Wash U, Vandy, GW, Emory, UNC, Fordham

Please feel free to be brutally honest if I don't really have a snowball's chance in hell of getting in. Any suggestions are welcome!

ignorantfoot96 · Post by **ignorantfoot96** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 11:00 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Hello everyone - hope y'all are staying safe during the craziness.

I am a 1L at Miami paying $32k in tuition after scholarship. 3.45 gpa after last semester and P/F this semester. Originally from NC, parents live outside of Atlanta. My hope was to improve my GPA a tad with spring semester grades but now that my 3.45 is locked in, I am trying to narrow my list of target schools to apply to. I am BigLaw or bust (want to do banking/finance law). 2 years of prior work experience in finance. Paying for school and living expenses through loans. Here is my current list of target schools (in order of rank).

Duke, Cornell, GULC, Wash U, Vandy, GW, Emory, UNC, Fordham

Please feel free to be brutally honest if I don't really have a snowball's chance in hell of getting in. Any suggestions are welcome!

Transfer admissions are different from 1L from like the perspective of some schools seem to be kind of all over the place with admissions numbers: I would assume that Duke and Cornell are off the table, you are pretty beneath the 25th percentile at GULC but it might be worth an application simply because of the amount of transfers they take, well within the range for WashU but idk if that is worth it personally, you stand a pretty limited chance at Vandy (they are weird about school ranking), probably for sure at George Washington, I would say a 60/40 chance at Emory, UNC doesn't take a ton of transfers and have a decent median when they do admit transfers so maybe a 30/70 chance of getting in, and then Fordham is probably a slight reach.

Although, I would evaluate some of these schools before deciding to transfer. I mean to each their own, but some of those schools don't do particularly well in BigLaw placement. I am not entirely sure if your odds at Big Law would be that much higher going to WashU or Emory or UNC and being like middle to lower end/a transfer than being presumably at least near the 20% of your class mark at Miami. However, I don't know much about Big Law stuff so take that with a grain of salt. A lot of it also matters about your finances, I guess it wouldn't be a significant increase in tuition for two more years from what you are currently paying.

cavalier1138 · Post by **cavalier1138** » Thu Apr 09, 2020 5:51 am

Anonymous User wrote:I am BigLaw or bust (want to do banking/finance law).

Ok, but what are you going to do when you don't get biglaw? It looks like you're not in a position to snag a biglaw job from Miami, and I agree with the prior poster that you probably won't be increasing your chances at biglaw by transferring to the schools you have a reasonable shot at. So what's your plan?

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:33 pm

Thank you to all who have reached out so far, the honest input is very helpful.

@ignorantfoot96 - I would agree with the majority of what you are saying. The T14s here are very much a reach. Emory is attractive because I could live at home and save $$$ in living expenses. Based on employment data, Miami BigLaw placement (not true BigLaw, really any firm with 101+ people) is 10.1% versus 34% at Emory, 30.8% at GW, 27.4% at UNC. Emory and GW have both delayed OCI until January, giving me fall 2020 semester to get new GPA and class rank beforehand. I feel that the tuition increase is justified given the placement percentages. Another option may be using admissions to other schools to leverage an increase in my current scholarship.

@cavalier1138 - You are absolutely correct, nothing guaranteed. If BigLaw not an option after graduation, I would look towards a regional midsized firm for a few years and try to lateral. Again, even if that is not guaranteed, I would think that a firm would give a JD from a school ranked in the 20's a longer look than current school ranked @ 67. Do you have any thoughts on leveraging admission to higher ranked schools to get more money from Miami?

decimalsanddollars · Post by **decimalsanddollars** » Thu Apr 09, 2020 1:29 pm

Biglaw is going to be really tough from the schools you could get into. If you lucked out at Vandy (if you got in) or Emory, maybe you'd get biglaw attention. There's a lot of banking/finance work in North Carolina, even outside of biglaw, so I'd argue UNC is a fair option (especially if you can somehow swing in-state tuition); Duke is picky and takes very few transfers.

Otherwise, you've got a few more high hurdles to clear for your goals, and I'd recommend hard work at exploring contingency plans for if it doesn't work out.

KPUSN07 · Post by **KPUSN07** » Thu Apr 09, 2020 10:46 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Hello everyone - hope y'all are staying safe during the craziness.

I am a 1L at Miami paying $32k in tuition after scholarship. 3.45 gpa after last semester and P/F this semester. Originally from NC, parents live outside of Atlanta. My hope was to improve my GPA a tad with spring semester grades but now that my 3.45 is locked in, I am trying to narrow my list of target schools to apply to. I am BigLaw or bust (want to do banking/finance law). 2 years of prior work experience in finance. Paying for school and living expenses through loans. Here is my current list of target schools (in order of rank).

Duke, Cornell, GULC, Wash U, Vandy, GW, Emory, UNC, Fordham

Please feel free to be brutally honest if I don't really have a snowball's chance in hell of getting in. Any suggestions are welcome!

Looking at your schools list - Wash U seems like your BEST / Realistic option - the median GPA is 3.29 (or something around there) and the Big Law (100+ attorneys) is 96 out of 209

crazywafflez · Post by **crazywafflez** » Thu Apr 09, 2020 10:58 pm

Think WashU may be the best one you get into but the price tag is hefty. If you are cool with being in NY maybe Ford but I don't know NY market at all and has a price issue as well. UNC would be a good choice if you could get in state your final year. Plus, Charlotte has got a good market and you're from NC. I told another transfer person to look at UGA as well and I'd recommend the same for you. Best of luck.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:50 pm

OP Here...

@decimalsanddollars - Have a lot of family in NC and lived there entire life before law school so could probably swing in state for 3L.

@KPUSN07 - Thank you and yes, would heavily consider Wash U if I could get in.

@crazywafflez - I have looked into UGA but they only took 2 transfer students last year, will still apply, not sure if UGA or Emory is better for Atlanta BigLaw.

Thank you again to all!

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