Do I need to transfer?

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>As a HS senior, I got into a less than stellar undergraduate college (UC Davis). I'll be starting school there this fall. If I want to attend one of the top law schools, should I make an effort to transfer to a better undergrad (Ivy League, Small Liberal Arts, Privates etc.) after 2 years of Davis? If not, can I still get into a t8 law school with good numbers (GPA, LSAT) and decent ECs? </p>

<p>I figure that graduating from a great undergrad can help when applying to a top law school. However, there's the opportunity cost of restarting EC activities and getting re-acclimated to a school. </p>

<p>So should I try and transfer or stay put?</p>

2

<p>GPA is more important than undergrad in law school admissions. If you think you can maintain a similar GPA or better at the undergrad you wish to transfer to, go for it.</p>

3

<p>To add to my original question:</p>

<p>If I decide to stay at UC Davis, should I bother pursuing their honors program. It has students go through a tougher class or two and requires them to attend a seminar each year that they’re in the program. Do LS’s even care about honors within a college?</p>

<p>So far though, thanks for the response.</p>

4

<p>Law schools do not care about honors within a college, but at least that’s something you could put down in the “honors and awards” section of the application. A high LSAT and GPA will overcome a weak undergrad.</p>

<p>You can take a look at the 2007 results of Berkeley graduates to get an idea of the difficulty in getting into a top law school, unless you’re an under-represented minority:</p>

<p>Accepted / Applied (non-minority)
Yale 0/16
Harvard 6/23
Stanford 0/25
Columbia 5/22
NYU 7/27
Chicago 3/18
Total 21/131</p>

<p>So out of 131 applications to the top 6 law schools from Berkeley, only 21 were admitted. Yale and Stanford did not accept a single application out of 41. And keep in mind that the strong students will have multiple acceptances, so those 21 acceptances could represented as few as 10 people or fewer. The chart shows that 9 students enrolled at the top 6 schools combined, out of a student class of more than 6,000. Your chances coming from UC Davis are likely lower than even that.</p>

<p>[Career</a> Center - Profile of Law School Admissions - UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://career.berkeley.edu/Law/lawStats.stm]Career”>http://career.berkeley.edu/Law/lawStats.stm)</p>