Law School Discussion

First off I am a little confused have you completed 1L or have you been accepted as a transfer student to those schools one semester in? It just seems odd that any school would accept a transfer before 1L was complete, but if they did good for you.

With that said I know many people that transferred from my school and were miserable and others loved it so it is a highly personal decision. I think this are some factors to consider.

Location:
SMU is in Dallas and Tulane in New Orleans and STCL is in Houston as I am sure you are well aware. Now one thing many of my friends that transferred didn't consider was the reality of being in a new city for law school in an environment where they didn't know anybody. I know nothing about your life, but if you were born & raised in Houston have family, friends, and a whole support group there leaving that may be tough. Particularly when you attend a new school where all the 1L clicks have formed.

However, if you have a personality that is really outgoing or you simply don't really care about friends etc then it may not matter.  Also make sure those are cities you want to live in when you graduate. Odds are you will develop a lot of connections at whatever school you attend for the next 3 years and where your internships etc will be. If you do not want to live in New Orleans then going to Tulane might be a bad idea. If your gf lives in New Orleans, your a huge Saint's Fan, and your uncle has a huge law firm in New Orleans you could work in it would stupid not to go.

Point being is really think about the city you will be living in and how you will manage in it this will have a huge impact on your law school career.

COST
STCL is 26k compared to Tulane at 42k & SMU at 40k. I imagine if your in the top 2% you can get a solid scholarship offer from STCL not to transfer and possibly save yourself 70-80k accruing interest. If you attend SMU or Tulane you will paying 14-16k more in sticker a year assuming STCL doesn't give you a scholarship. Over two years that is 28-32k accruing interest at an 8% clip. If STCL gives you a 20k scholarship then you would pay 12k in tuition over the next two years opposed to 84k or 80k at SMU. I am a lawyer now and I can tell you the loans are no joke and the interest accruing on it is awful minimize it the best you can.

PERSONAL FEELING ABOUT THE SCHOOLS
I think this is extremely important it sounds like you are performing extremely well at STCL and if you have friends, connections with professors, etc then it may not be worth leaving. I went to STCL for a mock trial competition and really liked the feel of the school, but that was my personal opinion. If you hate it there and want to get out then you should do it.

However, I would recommend visiting Baylor and SMU from my experiences visiting various schools during mock trials I noticed that each school has their own vibe/culture to it. Some of the schools I loved others I hated and that is my own personal feeling. So if your going to transfer to either of these schools visit them interact with students, talk to professors, see how you feel there because once you transfer there is no going back.

RANKINGS
I'm in California and I honestly don't know what any of these schools are ranked, but I can tell you in the real world law school rankings mean very little unless it your at Harvard, Yale, etc and even then it doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot. Go into a real courtroom and see how often the attorneys mention what school they attended in a murder trial, or multi-million dollar lawsuit. I have yet to see it happen, but maybe one day it will.

Also remember U.S. News is a for-profit unregulated magazine offering an opinion and you shouldn't make a life altering choice based on it alone. U.S. News ranks more than law schools as well according to them Albuquerque, NM is the best place to live right now and South Dakota will be the best place in 2032. I am not making this up either here are the links. I personally am not going to move to Albuquerque which is #1 or Auburn, Alabama which is #2 because U.S. News says so. I am sure there are some legitimate reasons for the cities ranks, but I am not going to make a life altering move based on what a magazine says I suggest you use the same logic when deciding whether to transfer.

http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/slideshows/best-places-to-live

http://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/slideshows/best-us-regions-to-live-in-2032/3
 

I think I just responded to this post in a different thread, but as I said before you need an LSAT score. Being in model UN and having a research proposal etc is great, but most law school applicants have similar experiences. The soft factors are of minimal help in law school admissions from what I saw when I attended law school although I have never worked in a law school admissions office. However, you can imagine when 5,000 or so applications come in a guy who worked in college, participated in model U.N., and did a research project is not going to jump off the page at anyone. It is all good stuff, but if you have a 140 LSAT your not getting in anywhere.

It sounds like your doing well academically and involved which is all you can do at this point. Next step is the LSAT and practice is not the real thing until you have an official LSAT score you cannot know what your options are. Back in my OL days my practice tests ranged from 154-163 and I noticed one of the four books I was using I always got a higher score, but when real test day came I got a 157. With my 3.3 & 157 I got into numerous schools, but not Harvard-Yale-Stanford surprisingly : ).

Anyways take the LSAT and keep doing what your doing.

Good point Groundhog after being admitted don't particularly care how tight they make the admission rules for others kind of selfish, but the way it is. 

Philosphically I think if someone can meet all the standards for admission to the bar they should be able to practice law, but selfishly I am more than open to less competition for jobs.

Don't think your doomed  with a  3.7 GPA numerous school will look very favorably at that number. Class rank might make a difference and more importantly than anything is your LSAT score when dealing with law school admissions. Take that test and see what your options realistically are and once you have your UGPA & LSAT you can check out lawschoolnumbers.com to give you a realistic sense of your options.

 I want to point out that getting into a T14 school is tough and you will need to score roughly in the top 5% of test takers on the LSAT to even have a shot and there is a 95% chance you will not be in the top 5% of test takers. I think it is important for any 0L to understand that before starting law school. I remember on my first day of law school 100%  even at my non T14 school were convinced they would in the top 10% sounds like your major involves in some math and I think you can figure out 90% of people were disappointed. The same goes for law school admissions everyone when they start studying for the LSAT is considering Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, Georgetown then reality sets in once the LSAT score comes back .

Furthermore, do not simply set your sights on T14 schools there are lot of factors to consider when choosing a law school other than what some for profit unregulated magazine thinks.

Well there are quite a few jobs out there I have found for my friends if you know where to look. Here are some places I know that are very actively trying to hire recently law barred lawyers.

http://www.westcoast-atty.com/ 

http://www.lflm.com/careers.htm

and if you can Handle Alaska my friend was getting called day and night to come work here and he went to a Tier 4 school. I think they have a huge need for judicial clerks and it pays 70k. 

For more information, visit http://www.state.ak.us/courts/recruit.htm and select “Information for Prospective Law Clerks.” They are very eager to fill Bethel Alaska and are actively hiring clerks.

Another resource to find entry level jobs is the BYU intercollegiate Job Bank it has basically every law school's career service website on it and there are thousands of jobs to apply for. Below is the username and password.

Username: Jobfind
Password: Fall2012

From reading your post it sounds like you are one of the recent graduates that is not valuing themselves enough. Never and I mean never work for free after you have passed the bar unless you are doing pro-bono work and have a paying career.  If you fall for the work 60 hours a week for free and do not have anytime to apply for jobs etc you are shooting yourself in the shoot. I personally have a ton of errands you could do for free and I will give you a glowing letter of recommendation, but I would not take your application seriously for a real attorney job. If your an attorney you need to bill and make money if your working for free that doesn't show lot of business sense.

I know plenty of grads working for free, but they would all be much better served spending 8 hours a day drafting detailed cover letters and scouring the intercollegiate job bank for positions. I graduated and passed the bar without people flocking to me, but after a few months of searching I was offered several paying attorney positions. I personally turned down numerous unpaid internships when I passed the bar and I truly thought about taking them, but am very glad I did not let something like that take time away from my job search.

Again I know how depressing and awful it can be to look for a job, but keep going you have a long legal career ahead of you. Good luck.