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I have seen in a few places people talk about a downside of transferring as having to "start over" as it pertains to grades. What exactly does this mean? I have to imagine employer will still be able to see your grades and whatnot. I get that the new school will be giving new grades but I fail to see why that negates previous grades. Especially in the context of transferring between two schools that are not all too far apart.

Your GPA resets (obviously- otherwise comparing apples to oranges) but yes you’d send your grades from your 1L year as well to any prospective employer. Your previous grades aren’t “negated” of course, but (assuming you’re transferring up) they won’t weigh as equally as they would if you got them at your new school. Still, from previous (anecdotal) responses, the consensus seems to be that transfers generally do at least as well/better as they would have had they stayed in their previous school, as prospective employers think your new school has already “approved” you (if that makes sense).

SowhatsNU wrote:Still, from previous (anecdotal) responses, the consensus seems to be that transfers generally do at least as well/better as they would have had they stayed in their previous school, as prospective employers think your new school has already “approved” you (if that makes sense).

Yes - in general, transfers do at least as well/better as they would have had they stayed in their previous school, with the important caveat that transfers usually do not do as well as a "native" student with the same 1L GPA. Put another way, a Brooklyn Law 1L with a 3.9 who transfers to NYU is going to do as well/better in BigLaw hiring as they would have had they stayed at Brooklyn, but they still aren't going to do nearly as well as a NYU Law 1L with a 3.9. That doesn't mean transferring isn't "worth it" (if I was a BLS 1L with a 3.9, I'd almost certainly take the chance to transfer to NYU), just something to keep in mind in determining which firms to "target" as a transfer student (i.e., important to bid much more "conservatively" than one's new classmates).

As for "starting over": continuing with my example above, once the BLS student gets to NYU, they are starting over with regard to friends. Faculty networking. NYU Law GPA (the only GPA that's factored in to NYU Law honors calculations). And once they graduate from NYU Law, only their NYU Law GPA/honors will matter in future job applications. Basically the last time their BLS 1L GPA/1L honors will matter is at OCI (which NYU calls "EIW") right after they transfer.