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Does anyone know how judges factor in grades from the school you transferred from?

For example, I have around a 3.9 currently, but I had around a 3.1 at my previous school (which isn't factored into my current gpa and is only based on 1 semester bc of covid). How much will these previous lower grades hurt me?

I think you are a very rare kind of transfer student that has a lower GPA at your previous school than at your current school. Did you transfer to a school further down in rankings?
Regardless, yes, judges will look at each semester of your grades. If your current GPA puts you in a high percentile in your class, that fact could get you out of the pile, but some judges, upon seeing your whole transcript, may change their minds on interviews. I think this is doubly true if you transferred to a lower-ranked school; a judge could see the lower GPA from the higher-ranked school and assume that your increase GPA is just from a drop in competition among your peers rather than some increased aptitude.

namefromplace wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 08, 2021 11:07 am

I think you are a very rare kind of transfer student that has a lower GPA at your previous school than at your current school. Did you transfer to a school further down in rankings?
Regardless, yes, judges will look at each semester of your grades. If your current GPA puts you in a high percentile in your class, that fact could get you out of the pile, but some judges, upon seeing your whole transcript, may change their minds on interviews. I think this is doubly true if you transferred to a lower-ranked school; a judge could see the lower GPA from the higher-ranked school and assume that your increase GPA is just from a drop in competition among your peers rather than some increased aptitude.

Yea, I think I am pretty rare. My new school is a little lower ranked than my old school, but not by much. Both are in the 20-30 range. Would that much of a difference matter to judges?

tulip718 wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 08, 2021 12:48 pm

namefromplace wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 08, 2021 11:07 am

I think you are a very rare kind of transfer student that has a lower GPA at your previous school than at your current school. Did you transfer to a school further down in rankings?
Regardless, yes, judges will look at each semester of your grades. If your current GPA puts you in a high percentile in your class, that fact could get you out of the pile, but some judges, upon seeing your whole transcript, may change their minds on interviews. I think this is doubly true if you transferred to a lower-ranked school; a judge could see the lower GPA from the higher-ranked school and assume that your increase GPA is just from a drop in competition among your peers rather than some increased aptitude.

Yea, I think I am pretty rare. My new school is a little lower ranked than my old school, but not by much. Both are in the 20-30 range. Would that much of a difference matter to judges?

It could. At the very least, it's unusual for someone to have what I would assume to be below-median grades first semester and then what I would assume to be Top 5% grades in their second year. If you were to average out your current GPA with your 1L gpa you would probably be somewhere around the Top 1/3 of your class, which is unlikely to turn many heads in the judiciary coming from a T30. Again, some judges won't care, but coming from a T30 you're already at a disadvantage and this complicates things further.

However, the professors at your new school likely won't care a whole lot about your grades at your previous law school--they care about how you did in the classes you took from them, which appears to be well. I'd try to leverage those connections into interviews, particularly with any judges that regularly hire from (or attended) your law school.