Out of curiosity, since this is a subject you've studied in depth, do schools do this to fill the seats that were vacated because of attrition?

Or do different schools just have different philosophies.

For instance, school X may lose 10% of their 1L class and they go out and get an equal number of transfers so their 2L class will be the same size as their 1L.

Or, maybe school Y loses 10% of their 1L class, but recruits MORE than that number?  Does that ever happen?  The school does this to have a larger 2L class?

Or the other way around, schools just don't care who they lose out of 1L, and they just go with whoever comes back?

Also, it seems to me that most transfers into t14 or first tier schools probably come from the 3rd and 4urth tier.  Is that true?  The reason I suspect this is that if you're doing really well at your school and it's a 2nd tier school, you will probably have awesome job opportunities and not feel the need to transfer.

A lot of what you said is true.  Different philosophies for different schools.  Some schools ranked in the 30's to 50's just want to get a handful of transfers to get their 1L class back to its original status quo.  Some schools, like Georgetown or FSU, however, don't care how many leave per se, and just want to add transfers to beef up their class and revenue (and help their US News ranking).  It really all depends on the school, so that's why we made that chart in our book.  Many transfers into T1's do come from lower ranked schools of students who did very well (top 5%).  However, if you are attending a school in the geographic location you want to live and practice in, and you are in the top 10%, and your school is ranked 50-80 (T2) it may not make sense to leave.  You will most likely receive a scholarship and good job placement in that regional area (transfer students rarely, if ever, receive scholarships).  But remember, outside the T14, schools are regional, not national when it comes to job recruiting and placement.

Hey Jimmy, we are in the midst of making a website where we can update the numbers in the charts (i.e., transfer numbers for schools).  That information may change year to year.  For example, I went to the University of Florida which was not traditionally considered a "transfer friendly school," however, now they are.  So trends like that are important to look at.  As for the substantive writing of the book, we do have ideas for a second edition, but that information in particular does not change year to year as much.

If you private message me, I'll send you a copy of the book.  It is also available on Amazon.com for around $12 right now.

Cheers,
Andrew

How's the transfer process going for all?  Any questions?  Anyone interested in a free copy of our book?  I have two sitting around.

Where are your transferring from?  Where do you plan to practice?

Any thoughts on the Alabama Tax LLM.  It is online and is not ranked in the top 10 for Tax LLM's.  Anyone know about it or heard anything?