Transferring

Lsat1376

I wanted to share my story about transferring even though almost everyone will advise you against my approach and recommend instead that you take another year off to improve your LSAT score. I agree that you shouldn't go to a law school you wouldn't be comfortable graduating from, but also wanted to share my story on how I went to my 1L law school with the intention of transferring, and ended up successfully transferring. There isn't a lot of information about transferring out there, and I would have appreciated reading more transfer stories myself when I first started looking into it.

I decided pretty late in the 2016/2017 application cycle to apply to law school. I purchased 7Sage after a lot of research on prep courses and completed the ultimate course. I loved the course and found that it improved my score quite a bit, but it took longer than I was expecting and I soon realized by December that the February 2017 LSAT was my last shot to go to law school in fall 2017. By the time I completed the course, I only had time to do about 3-4 practice tests. I think around that time I was scoring close to 160, but with a 3.5 GPA (from a top 25 undergrad), I knew that I wouldn't have a shot at a T-14 school. The advice I got from everyone I talked to, and the 7Sage forum, was that I should delay a year and work and improve my LSAT score to get into a better law school. However, I kept thinking about how starting law school fall 2017 would already put me at 3 years between undergrad and law school (I did a master's in between). At that point I realized that I didn't want to take an extra year working in a random job after I had already made the decision to practice law. Despite everyone's advice, I decided that I would apply and go to law school with whatever I scored on the February test. I scored only a 156 and applied the day I got my score back with the help of the 7Sage admissions program. After hearing back from schools, my best option weighing scholarships with rankings was a school ranked 45-55 that gave me a half ride. Because I wasn't happy with my law school choice and the city it was located in, I started looking into transferring that summer and decided that my ultimate goal that year would be to transfer.

My 1L year started before everyone else's. I bought E&E's and started prepping about 4 weeks before school started. I read Getting to Maybe, completed LEEWS, skimmed Planet Law School and the Delaney books, and then worked through parts of the E&E's. Looking back on it I wouldn't recommend doing the E&E's before, because it's really so dependent on your professor, but I do recommend reading the other books before starting 1L. I think going into 1L thinking about transferring the whole first semester really motivated me. There were times when I wanted to go out and not study, but each time I kept reminding myself how much1L grades matter, how I really didn't like the city where my law school was located, and how badly I wanted to transfer. I think this worked for me at least as added motivation. After I got back my first semester grades, I was pleasantly surprised and realized that my plans to transfer were feasible. I asked 1L professors for recommendations in February and submitted apps to some schools ranked 14-25 by March. The benefit of applying early was that I heard back from all of those beginning of May, which took the pressure off a little bit for exams second semester. I committed to one of those schools and submitted a deposit, but once I got my second semester grades back and realized I did just as well as I had first semester, I decided to apply to my dream law school. I was so shocked and happy when I got in in July, and it felt like all my hard work 1L year had finally paid off. I am now at a T-6 law school---a school that I would have probably never had a shot at even if I had spent another year prepping for the LSAT by virtue of my undergrad GPA. My experience so far is that there hasn't been a transfer stigma at my new school, and I had a pretty good outcome at OCI and will be working at a V10 firm next summer, so there doesn't really appear to be transfer stigma among employers at my new school.

Although I didn't get in the conventional way, I couldn't be happier with my decision to do it the way I did. Obviously, this approach will not work for most due to the curve, but I just wanted to provide an example of how it can work for some people, and how your LSAT score doesn't always have to be the final determinant for which law school you graduate from.

(Final note: I have a friend that transferred to a T-3 this year and was able to get a substantial grant from the school, so although financial considerations may be another reason to not transfer and improve your LSAT score instead, it might still be possible to receive need-based grants as a transfer).

jkjohnson1991

That's amazing. Close friend of mine transferred to a top 25 from a RNP so not quite the same but still a very steep climb. It is all possible with hard work! Congrats and appreciate you for sharing that.

Jonathan W S

That's dope! I started law school this semester with the intention of staying here through graduation. As the semester has progressed I've found many aspects of the school off-putting and I am now considering transferring. I haven't seriously looked into the process yet, I'll wait until this semester's grades are released.
In the meantime, any tips for civ pro? ha!

Lsat1376

@"Jonathan W S" said:
That's dope! I started law school this semester with the intention of staying here through graduation. As the semester has progressed I've found many aspects of the school off-putting and I am now considering transferring. I haven't seriously looked into the process yet, I'll wait until this semester's grades are released.
In the meantime, any tips for civ pro? ha!

Haha that was actually my best grade! But our professor was pretty terrible and didn't teach, so I took advantage of the fact that everyone was confused over Thanksgiving break and spent 10 days straight studying for it. Get the E&E for sure. Acing CivPro was pretty good and I really enjoyed the tapes from Richard Freer. He is a CivPro god and makes it so much easier to understand. It's worth the cost.

akistotle

Hi @kenziem,

Congratulations!!! It's true that almost everyone on online forums will advise against transfer, but it's because it's difficult. But you did it and you deserve it!

sx23

@kenziem Congratulations! So glad you made it. For us 0Ls still applying to law schools. Could you give a list of the books you read prior to law school to prepare? There were some abbreviations that I didn't quite understand (e.g. LEEWS). Any tips for studying? I don't want to get too far ahead of myself but it's always nice to have more information:) Thanks in advance!

lsatgodjk

Such a great story. Very impressed and happy for you OP.

JustDoIt

Amazing story! So happy for you!!

btownsquee

Congratulations and thank you for sharing!

Lsat1376

@sx23 said:
@kenziem Congratulations! So glad you made it. For us 0Ls still applying to law schools. Could you give a list of the books you read prior to law school to prepare? There were some abbreviations that I didn't quite understand (e.g. LEEWS). Any tips for studying? I don't want to get too far ahead of myself but it's always nice to have more information:) Thanks in advance!

Thank you! My biggest tip is to front load the work early on in the semester so you aren't still outlining right before exams and can practice hypos and memorize instead.

I read Arrow's guide for tips on what to do 1L year: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=77628

and then his guide for transferring if you're thinking about it: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=82937&hilit=transfer

And LEEWS is a program that teaches you how to write a law school exam. The author is Wentworth Miller. I would go through Delaney's two books and Getting to Maybe first and do LEEWS if you have time after.