Top Law Schools

I am a 1L student in T100 law school with a 3.27 GPA. Most of my grades are B+ and one B from last semester. My rank is property top 30-40% in the class. I want to transfer to a T50 law school. What are my chances of transferring to a T50 law school?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 12, 2023 8:42 am

I am a 1L student in T100 law school with a 3.27 GPA. Most of my grades are B+ and one B from last semester. I want to transfer to a T50 law school. What are my chances of transferring to a T50 law school?

Where in class ranking does that put you? I wouldn't transfer to a T50 unless you are on 0 scholarship funds for your current school. Location is also important. If you are in Georgia, for example, and at GSU with no scholarship money, being in the top 30-40% of the class ish, it makes sense to jump to UGA. But if you've got basically a fullride at GSU and you're in the top 30%, I'd just stay put.

Thank you for your reply.
I don't have a scholarship and am in the top 30-40%.
Do you think there are chances of transferring?

crazywafflez wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 12, 2023 3:35 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 12, 2023 8:42 am

I am a 1L student in T100 law school with a 3.27 GPA. Most of my grades are B+ and one B from last semester. I want to transfer to a T50 law school. What are my chances of transferring to a T50 law school?

Where in class ranking does that put you? I wouldn't transfer to a T50 unless you are on 0 scholarship funds for your current school. Location is also important. If you are in Georgia, for example, and at GSU with no scholarship money, being in the top 30-40% of the class ish, it makes sense to jump to UGA. But if you've got basically a fullride at GSU and you're in the top 30%, I'd just stay put.

What do you want to do with your degree and why do you want to transfer?

nixy wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 12, 2023 10:08 pm

What do you want to do with your degree and why do you want to transfer?

I was a paralegal. My former boss has offered me a position if I have a JD degree. My current law school actually provided some scholarship but not much.

I don't like the staff system of our school. It is so hard to connect to them when I have a problem. Whenever I send them an email regarding my issue that needs to be addressed immediately, they reply to it after two weeks.

And, if there is an opportunity for me to get into a higher-ranking law school, why not give it a try?

Even though my law school is not ranked highly, it is a famous regional law school, and top students have the opportunity to work for big law after graduating.

I had an offer from a 60-ish-ranking law school with more scholarships, but it would be hard for my boyfriend to find a job around that location.

So you are receiving no money from your current school?

If you've got some money (idk what that is- but let's say something akin to 25%) then I'd stay put (unless this is a private school and going to an instate school would be cheaper). It's just tough to tell you how best to proceed though. Xferring also loses your connections and doesn't necessarily improve your outcome (a great deal many of the schools ranked 20ish through 60ish are peer schools and do well in their markets- U of Arizona is a peer school to U of TN etc). And if you're on law review I'd further consider staying (some schools do not allow law review write ons for xfers).

What market do you want to be in? If you want to be in the market your school is currently in, I'd stay put.

I mean, say for example you are at Tulane or Wake, and you're considering xferring to UGA or Emory. I wouldn't do this unless I knew I wanted to be in Atlanta. Additionally, these are all basically peer schools and just because Wake is ranked 55 this year doesn't mean it won't be 32 next year (I think the year I applied UNC was 45th or something and then it was 28th).

There are certainly some T50 schools that do exceptionally well in BL placement, like ND, BC, BU, USC (this may be T20, idk), Fordham, but the rest are largely fungible, for the most part. SMU, UTk, Tulane, Wake, UNC etc will all have similar amounts of people getting BL, with UTk a bit on the lower end and UNC a bit on the higher but roughly the top 20% all having a shot.

I think your career goals and geographic preference should be your main considerations (as well as tuition).

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 13, 2023 12:49 pm

nixy wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 12, 2023 10:08 pm

What do you want to do with your degree and why do you want to transfer?

I was a paralegal. My former boss has offered me a position if I have a JD degree. My current law school actually provided some scholarship but not much.

I don't like the staff system of our school. It is so hard to connect to them when I have a problem. Whenever I send them an email regarding my issue that needs to be addressed immediately, they reply to it after two weeks.

And, if there is an opportunity for me to get into a higher-ranking law school, why not give it a try?

Even though my law school is not ranked highly, it is a famous regional law school, and top students have the opportunity to work for big law after graduating.

I had an offer from a 60-ish-ranking law school with more scholarships, but it would be hard for my boyfriend to find a job around that location.

Most school administrators aren't particularly helpful. The good news is that you literally never have to interact with them. So don't change schools based on that.

As discussed earlier in the thread, the reason to not try for a higher-ranking school is that it sounds like you can't really shoot for a school that would be substantially better than where you are now, and it would likely be more expensive. I'm also confused about why your boyfriend's job prospects were a consideration a year ago, but not now.

And just to be clear, top students at any school have a chance of working biglaw. It doesn't sound like you're one of those students, so you need to be focused on your prospects.