Interesting numbers that I found about law school transfers:
http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2012/02/transfer-game.html
My takeaway is that unless you get in to YHS, there’s little reason to be full-pay for 3 years of law school (and frankly, I would go to YHS just for the networking opportunities and recruiting opportunities in to banking/consulting/startups).
For “transfering up” . I would guess you would probably you have to do very well at your 1L school to be a compelling transfer candidate,no?
Can superior 1L performance be assured, simply because you scored a few points above the average of your class on the LSAT?
My guess is there is no guarantee of superior performance in 1L,. hence no guarantee of “transferring up”. for a given candidate, individually. Making a decision to attend a weaker school in 1L a somewhat risky strategy… Unless that school is “good enough” in itself, if you wind up “stuck” there.
@monydad, if you’re not paying anything to go there, you can argue that it’s a less risky strategy.
Except Biglaw @$160k starting maybe virtually impossible from the “free” school- where, if employed, we’re talking $60k starting -, but a very realistic destination from the costly one.
BigLaw isn’t really the life. For those hours, you can get more money and not have to pay as much tuition by going other ways.
@monydad: BigLaw recruits after your 1L. That means they only see the grades from your 1L. If you transferred to HYS from NoNameU, they see your transcript from NoNameU. They recruit accordingly. Transferring has the benefit of opening doors to interview rooms, but unless you went to a school the firm would otherwise recruit from anyways, they don’t care. There are plenty more law students where you came from.
If that’s the case, then the the strategy suggested in #1, start at a free 1L then transfer up, is a poor strategy for those “shooting high”. Can’t get big law even if you transfer, And for those “shooting low”, you may not need to transfer to get a $60k gig,
I guess it might increase the probability of getting that $60k gig?
@monydad: I expect that transferring helps with the post-grad job search. They’ll still see your transcript, but you’ll have the degree from the better institution which may help offset. Those jobs will not, however, be biglaw jobs. Plus, transfers are viewed as a ready source of cash by schools and therefore have to pay full tuition. If the student was already paying full freight at the lower school then this does not change much. If not, then transferring has a massive debt attached to it. Transferring is mostly a scam and students should rarely do it.
“…transfers are viewed as a ready source of cash by schools and therefore have to pay full tuition”
Right, but his argument was if you start at the better school you’d be paying the full freight for three years. Whereas by going free ride then transferring you only pay it for two years, but get the same degree. Which was the suggested path.
From what you said, I guess it could help, without much diminishing initial job prospects too much, in those cases where the firms do recruit at the 1L school anyway. Assuming they recruit at the 1L firm for the same jobs, and not “lower” ones.
Like maybe (Fordham, T10-T14) to (T1-T6)? I don’t know how many in that group give free rides, but they give half rides at least.(child just got offered one … :-j )
But then again, since they do recruit at your 1L anyway, and you did well enough there to transfer to T1-T6, then arguably you could get to the same initial job if you stay put, and continue to save the money?
But again, the problem is there is no guarantee you would really wind up being top of the class at that 1L. In which case you “are” where you initially matricuated, for good.
Not much of a “strategy”
As I hinted at in the original post, it’s a strategy mostly for non-law jobs.
I’m not sure it’s a great strategy for banking either. Because I-banks don’t take just anyone, merely because they have high LSATs & high GPAs. It may make it possible to get interviews, but employment is not assured. You could easily strike out at those places, if you don’t have the personality characteristics they want. And a lot of lawyers don’t. Their schools don’t screeen for being bankers.
@monydad, sure, but employment isn’t assured with any route chosen. All you can do is maximize your opportunities (and improve yourself).
If you can get in to or transfer in to YHS law (but strike out at an M7 or at least top 10 b-school), taking that spot likely makes the most sense.
@PurpleTitan: There are fairly few non-law employers that hire JDs. Going to law school for a non-law job is just silly. Every one of those other jobs has better ways of getting it.