Transferring Twice

<p>Does it look bad on your law school application if you transfer after your freshman year, and then you transfer back after your sophomore year to the institution from which you came?</p>

<p>Speculation: At the very least, they'll want you to explain. Anything short of a fairly-good explanation will be considered strange.</p>

<p>off topic-I think transferring as a frosh is the dumbest thing anyone can do</p>

<p>As a headhunter, I can tell you that you will be explaining it for a long time so make sure you have really good reasons - I'm sure you do since it would be a complete hassle.</p>

<p>An afterthought - inquire into what impact the transferring will have on your GPA and honors. Some schools do not allow transfer grades to go towards honors designation.</p>

<p>A former acting Boalt Hall dean transferred to Harvard his second year of law school, and returned to Boalt his third year.</p>

<p>When I transferred from Cornell to Stanford as an undergrad, a dean at Cornell suggested that I take a leave of absence, so that I would have the option of returning without having to apply to transfer. She said that it wasn't uncommon for people to change their mind after transferring.</p>

<p>Another student had transferred from Cornell to Stanford the year before I did after her boyfriend was killed in a freak accident (an errant puck at a hockey game). She returned to Cornell her senior year.</p>

<p>Finally, my cousin transferred twice as an undergrad, then returned to his original university for law school. He's now the dean of another law school.</p>

<p>In short, I haven't seen much anecdotal evidence that law schools look askance at undergraduate transfers.</p>

<p>I completely misread the OP. I was thinking the transfers were for law school so --- never mind. I agree it is not such a big deal but may be questioned somewhere along the way. Not sure how universities treat transferred grades with regard to rank so you still may want to check into that.</p>

<p>Yeah, I actually ended up doing that during my sophmore year of undergrad. It was completely due to financial issues that luckily sorted themselves out over the course of the year.</p>