Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride Forum

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kewlwhip55

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Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by kewlwhip55 » Sun May 25, 2008 1:18 am

I'm a soon to be 2l--aka rising 2L at the appalachian school of law. I'm in the top 10, and am debating about whether I should transfer to a better school or stay at ASL if they offer me a free ride. I have really wanted to transfer since before i stepped foot into ASL. I didn't do that great on my LSAT and I guess I am one of the exceptions who was able to do pretty good their first year. I really hate ASL-- location, not the best school, lack of area of concentration's etc. A part of me hopes that the school doens't offer me anything bc they I know what my decision will be. I am currently applying to law schools as a transfer student. Usually my school only offers students money after they get in--- a way to keep the top students. I'm not from a wealthy family and i'm probably going to be in close to 150,000 in debt if I were to go the normal route. My best friend decided to not go to law school and has been hammering into me that it be better to go to the tier 4 and it wouldn't hurt my chances of getting a job, etc. I know i'd like to practice law in either NY, DC, N.VA. I'm applying to schools in those states for that reason. I'm already in school in VA, but the school is 7 hours from where i'd like to be. The school as already mentioned is a tier 4. I guess my question is what would you do, or reccomend. I know money cannot buy happiness and I know i'd be happier eleswhere. I'm 14 hours from home and it does take it's toll. I do think I would do better academically. My other question is based on transferring. I'm in the top 10 now, but still waiting for all grades to come out. As of right now i'm in good shape-- my question is on what schools I should/could get into. I really want to go to school in the DC/VA area I think. That's what i'm leaning towards-- better job market. I'm just not sure about my chances since transferring from a tier 4 to a tier 1 can be very hard. I'd really like to apply to george mason, but they basically told me that I had little chance since I was coming from a tier 4-- should I apply there or not bother? I am applying to American and Catholic. One of my friend's who isn't in law school is telling me that I can only transfer laterally--- well I have a friend who did transfer who thinks i should be applying to georgetown, etc-- but she came from a already good school to transfer(SU). As of right now i'm applying to American, Catholic, Buffalo, Syracuse (debating-- very expensive, but that was my number 1 2 yrs ago and i got rejected there twice and I might be a lil bitter... I almost want to apply just bc it would mean something to me personally to know that i got in), Albany, and two tier 4's as a safety. I personally think the best thing for me is to transfer which is why I have a safety. I'm not happy at ASL at all. I also want to be able to get a good job, and i'm not sure ASL can give me that. I'm not sure what type of law I want to practice yet. I like a few different types. Any opinions are good. I'm pretty sure I will transfer over anything--- I just can't see myself not. Even my roomie who is a 3l now wishes considered taking his 2l year again and transferring.

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MTal

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by MTal » Sun May 25, 2008 1:19 am

If you can transfer to GULC, do it

Master Tofu

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by Master Tofu » Sun May 25, 2008 2:01 am

Congrats on being in the top 10; that's really impressive. I'd say apply to more Tier 1 and Tier 2 schools; I have not been through the transfer process but my gut tells me that you're undershooting by applying to too many T4 schools. There is a yahoo group called transfer apps that have a bunch of data on what students from what school made it to where with what stats. I would look that up if I were you.

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sbjohnsn

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by sbjohnsn » Sun May 25, 2008 2:18 pm

If you want to pratice in Virginia, you should apply to UVA

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Corsair

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by Corsair » Sun May 25, 2008 3:06 pm

..

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TTT-LS

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by TTT-LS » Sun May 25, 2008 5:04 pm

-
Last edited by TTT-LS on Sun Jun 20, 2010 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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NewHere

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by NewHere » Sun May 25, 2008 6:25 pm

And another echo:
Apply to every DC/VA school. You'll regret it later if you don't at least try.

kewlwhip55

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by kewlwhip55 » Mon May 26, 2008 1:31 am

Thanks for the advice. I decided that applying to two tier 4's is well a waste with my ranking-- I was just worried bc I HATE ASL and just incase if I did miserable this semester I wanted to make sure I could transfer. The tier 4 I applied to was free anyway. I also am debating on whether to apply to albany since according to the yahoo group I should be able to get into all of those schools and I can only go to one school. My number 1 is American. Unfortuantly georgetown, and george mason don't accept people from tier 4 schools. I was told this basically from George Mason when I called. Does anyone know if George Washington is like that as well. I'm thinking of applying instead of one of those three to U of MD, U of Penn or North Eastern. I'm from MA, but I hate MA-- so i doubt i'll apply to North Eastern bc I don't see myself going there. Actually, I just have no desire at all to live in MA ever again. U of MD or U of Penn are possibilities. I'm still waiting for the rest of my grades. I don't get them until June 3rd. I have one grade and I did pretty well. Even with U of MD and U of Penn I think i'd rather go to American still since I want to practice law in the DC or NY area.

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Curious George

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by Curious George » Mon May 26, 2008 2:51 am

kewlwhip55 wrote:Thanks for the advice. I decided that applying to two tier 4's is well a waste with my ranking-- I was just worried bc I HATE ASL and just incase if I did miserable this semester I wanted to make sure I could transfer. The tier 4 I applied to was free anyway. I also am debating on whether to apply to albany since according to the yahoo group I should be able to get into all of those schools and I can only go to one school. My number 1 is American. Unfortuantly georgetown, and george mason don't accept people from tier 4 schools. I was told this basically from George Mason when I called. Does anyone know if George Washington is like that as well. I'm thinking of applying instead of one of those three to U of MD, U of Penn or North Eastern. I'm from MA, but I hate MA-- so i doubt i'll apply to North Eastern bc I don't see myself going there. Actually, I just have no desire at all to live in MA ever again. U of MD or U of Penn are possibilities. I'm still waiting for the rest of my grades. I don't get them until June 3rd. I have one grade and I did pretty well. Even with U of MD and U of Penn I think i'd rather go to American still since I want to practice law in the DC or NY area.
Wait, really?

I'm a little surprised that they would have this policy, but I'm more surprised that they would just outright say that to you.

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jeff2486

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by jeff2486 » Mon May 26, 2008 10:39 am

How about Fordham, Brooklyn, or Cardozo, if you are interested in NY? Also it seems like you are not necessarily interested in Philadelphia schools but if you want to make sure you get away from ASL you could try Villanova and Temple as well.

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NewHere

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by NewHere » Mon May 26, 2008 10:43 am

How do you know you're in the top ten if you're still waiting for most of your grades?

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ari20dal7

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by ari20dal7 » Mon May 26, 2008 1:13 pm

Definitely apply to every DC/VA school from UVA to Catholic. Shoot, I'd hit up places like UCLA and UT too. I mean, why not? You need to buy lotto tickets here......

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aleph209

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by aleph209 » Mon May 26, 2008 1:26 pm

way to go. you worked hard, showed you can hack it, you've earned the right to be somewhere you'll be happy. get the f out of there.

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NewHere

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by NewHere » Mon May 26, 2008 1:54 pm

I agree with all of the others: if you're still at the top of your class after you have all your grades, apply everywhere. I don't think many schools will simply refuse to take people from T4 schools, but arguably it will be easier to transfer to a T2 than to a T1, etc.

Having said that, in response to
I decided that applying to two tier 4's is well a waste with my ranking
, I don't think it's a waste. I haven't done transfer applications myself, but from what I've heard it's a hit and miss game. You never know, they might not like your personal statement or whatever. While your chances to transfer to a better school are probably good if you have a good ranking, if you want to be as sure as you can of transferring out, applying to some T4s won't hurt you (except financially, a little bit). If all you want is to get out of your current school, nothing is lost by applying to schools across the board.

lamdo13

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Re: Transferring or staying at a tier 4 with a free ride

Post by lamdo13 » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:21 pm

How could you be in the top 10%. In 2008 ASL had their silly and abusive grading scale. There was no class rank. Better question, how did you get around it?

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