Changes for transferring to T14?? Forum

[moor0190]

Currently go to a school ranked in the 70's. Ranked 3rd in my class with a 3.9 GPA. I'm applying to Stanford, Harvard, NYU, Chicago, and Texas. Working for a mid-sized firm for half the summer then clerking with a federal judge for the other half. Chances of getting in?

[purplegoldtornado]

FWIW, I think you have a shot at the schools you listed, but one of the professors who is giving me advice said that it's a really good idea to apply to lower T14s and use their acceptance as a way to get in.

(I know nothing about this process and if this is good advice.)

[moor0190]

FWIW, I think you have a shot at the schools you listed, but one of the professors who is giving me advice said that it's a really good idea to apply to lower T14s and use their acceptance as a way to get in.

(I know nothing about this process and if this is good advice.)

Thanks, I will definitely look into applying to other schools. I didn't think about using that as a way to get into my target schools but its always worth a shot!

[purplegoldtornado]

FWIW, I think you have a shot at the schools you listed, but one of the professors who is giving me advice said that it's a really good idea to apply to lower T14s and use their acceptance as a way to get in.

(I know nothing about this process and if this is good advice.)

Thanks, I will definitely look into applying to other schools. I didn't think about using that as a way to get into my target schools but its always worth a shot!

Like I said, I mean I never did either, and I really have no other way of saying that it will work other than an academic telling me, BUT I guess for the $85 fee, it would be worth the 4% chance that it worked and you got into Harvard...

[plurilingue]

Currently go to a school ranked in the 70's. Ranked 3rd in my class with a 3.9 GPA. I'm applying to Stanford, Harvard, NYU, Chicago, and Texas. Working for a mid-sized firm for half the summer then clerking with a federal judge for the other half. Chances of getting in?

I think it is ill-advised to only apply to five schools. I understand the logic here — a few schools from across the selectivity scale (though note absence of MVPBDCNG) — but it doesn’t work like that. Transfer cycles like these are extremely unpredictable and it’s possible that, for example, Penn would admit you along with nobody else other than GULC. It’s not as clear cut — or in other words, the market is not as efficient — as with JD admissions. The only logical way to avoid this situation is to actually apply everywhere.

There is some amount of randomness in how admissions committees decide whom to admit given that the only real criteria for admission is your 1L grades, and there are 50 other schools that are more or less fungible with yours generating transfer applicants. It would be a disservice to try to save $1,000 and not have a fair shot at the best transfer outcome. Apply to every T14 school minus Yale and see where the chips fall. That way, you can avoid the outcome where NYU denies you but Columbia would have admitted you.

Also, it seems like you’re in Texas. I still think going to an MVPBDCNG school could be the right decision over Texas and it’s worth the few hundred dollars to have those options at the end of the summer.