T-6 or Bust? Forum

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staygoldenponyboy

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T-6 or Bust?

Post by staygoldenponyboy » Tue Jan 25, 2022 4:16 pm

Hello, I posted an earlier post asking about my transfer chances. I am top 1% at a T-30.

I hope to be able to land a prestigious clerkship, work in a big law position for a while (in a dream world do appellate work), and then attempt to join academia.

When I spoke with a prof about writing a LoR, I was told that if I didn't get into a T-6 (or Berkely), transferring would not help these goals. I understand that I can reach big law from where I am at now (although the pressure will be on to continue to be a top ranked student), and additionally, my school has a lot of alumni judges on the local fed district court, and justices on the state supreme court, who hire top students from my school regularly. So clerkship (albeit not the most prestigious but still a fed district court with a chance (slight) to move on to the circuit court), is reachable from where I am at as well.

The biggest turning factor would appear to be whether academia is more achievable from a T7-14 school than from where I am located when compared to paying sticker at new school (1/3ish scholarship now).

Would you agree with my prof, and I should limit my applications to T-6 + Berekely? Or should I apply broadly to T-14? I don't want to be applying to schools that I wouldn't consider going to (besides maybe one safety school to negotiate scholarship $$$ with if nothing else works), due to costs/time.

Thanks.

Goldie

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Re: T-6 or Bust?

Post by Goldie » Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:48 pm

If you maintain your performance this semester, I'd be a bit surprised if you didn't get into half or more of the T6. Any T14 school makes your chances of academia go up significantly (from very slim to somewhat less slim), and the higher the school, the better your chances are. Whether that boost is worth the debt is a harder question. If you're dead set on going into academia, probably. If it's just a "that might be nice," I wouldn't transfer for that reason. Too many other people already at those schools want it much more than that.

I had similar goals (although I was less interested in academia) when I applied to transfer, and I focused my applications in the T6. I also applied to I think two of the T7-14 schools too, but decided by the time I got my acceptance to one of them (Michigan) that a transfer there wouldn't be worthwhile. As I saw it by the time I started getting acceptances, transferring made sense for my goals (maximizing biglaw, government, and clerkship opportunities) if I got in to HYS + Chicago, but I wasn't sure it was worthwhile for anything further down the list.

staygoldenponyboy

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Re: T-6 or Bust?

Post by staygoldenponyboy » Wed Feb 02, 2022 2:08 am

Goldie wrote:
Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:48 pm
If you maintain your performance this semester, I'd be a bit surprised if you didn't get into half or more of the T6. Any T14 school makes your chances of academia go up significantly (from very slim to somewhat less slim), and the higher the school, the better your chances are. Whether that boost is worth the debt is a harder question. If you're dead set on going into academia, probably. If it's just a "that might be nice," I wouldn't transfer for that reason. Too many other people already at those schools want it much more than that.

I had similar goals (although I was less interested in academia) when I applied to transfer, and I focused my applications in the T6. I also applied to I think two of the T7-14 schools too, but decided by the time I got my acceptance to one of them (Michigan) that a transfer there wouldn't be worthwhile. As I saw it by the time I started getting acceptances, transferring made sense for my goals (maximizing biglaw, government, and clerkship opportunities) if I got in to HYS + Chicago, but I wasn't sure it was worthwhile for anything further down the list.
I hear that this transfer class will be a little crazy due to overenrollement and highly competitive admissions last year (more people looking to transfer up, less spots). I believe I can repeat my performance, but concerned that if I don't take advantage of Chicago's ED, and falter a bit, I would have made a big mistake. How different will my clerkship/academia chances be from Chicago as compared to HYS?

Access

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Re: T-6 or Bust?

Post by Access » Wed Feb 02, 2022 2:53 am

Chicago has very solid clerkship stats, some years better than HLS. The tricky part is if as a transfer you'd be able to form the relationships with profs you'd need (same question with yhs to). Also pretty solid academia results. I'd put it ahead of CN for both of those factors.

Biglaw you can get where you are.

nixy

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Re: T-6 or Bust?

Post by nixy » Wed Feb 02, 2022 8:30 am

Re academia, when you’re talking about Chicago vs HYS, I think your shot at success will be determined much more by what you bring to the table. If you can get then publications necessary to make you a viable academic candidate, no one is going to have an issue with Chicago on your cv rather than HYS. What school you go to can make some difference in opportunities to publish, but the difference between HYS and Chicago is still going to be minimal.

If you have a research agenda planned for academia, you could also look at the professors in that field at each school, to see what kind of support/resources you could have. It’s not going to be like a PhD program where you have an actual assigned advisor, but faculty support in your area could be helpful. Chances are that Chicago and HYS each has ample resources for what you want to do, but it’s something to consider. (Going into academia is the *only* reason I would ever recommend anyone does this - in every other context, profs’ academic research is irrelevant except to the extent it leads to connections that can help a student get a job.)

staygoldenponyboy

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Re: T-6 or Bust?

Post by staygoldenponyboy » Wed Feb 02, 2022 6:09 pm

nixy wrote:
Wed Feb 02, 2022 8:30 am
Re academia, when you’re talking about Chicago vs HYS, I think your shot at success will be determined much more by what you bring to the table. If you can get then publications necessary to make you a viable academic candidate, no one is going to have an issue with Chicago on your cv rather than HYS. What school you go to can make some difference in opportunities to publish, but the difference between HYS and Chicago is still going to be minimal.

If you have a research agenda planned for academia, you could also look at the professors in that field at each school, to see what kind of support/resources you could have. It’s not going to be like a PhD program where you have an actual assigned advisor, but faculty support in your area could be helpful. Chances are that Chicago and HYS each has ample resources for what you want to do, but it’s something to consider. (Going into academia is the *only* reason I would ever recommend anyone does this - in every other context, profs’ academic research is irrelevant except to the extent it leads to connections that can help a student get a job.)
This is great advice, I appreciate it.

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