Is it worth it?

[QUAKER OATS]

I'm struggling with whether or not to transfer.  I like my school and the area, but its a T4.  I have abosolutely ZERO ambitions for BigLaw.  However, I think I'd really like to be a LS prof after 15-20 years of practicing.

I'm in the top 15% and am trying to decide if it is worth it to transfer.  I know the down side of tranferring is being the outsider at the new school, losing a very good GPA, and limiting my ability to make law review, etc.

Is there really an upside to transferring if I don't care about BIGLAW?  With regard to the Professorship aspirations, I'll never be able to transfer to HYS or even T14.  Does T2 dramatically help with teaching positions over T4 (especially 15-20 years AFTER graduating LS)?

Please offer any advice.
Thx.

[Brisco]

A T2 might help you but its mostly going to depend on your accomplishments. There is a professor at Yale (not tenured) who went to Cooley.

How do you know what you'll want to be doing in 15 years? It may be worth it to go to a T2 just to get yourself in a better position starting out. Unless your current school is offering a full scholarship, it's probably not worth it to stick around.

[QUAKER OATS]

How does a T2 put me in a better position.  I don't care about BIGLAW.  I don't think smaller firms really care where you went to school, GPA, Law Review, Moot Court and those things are more important. Am I wrong?

[jacy85]

Of course smaller firms care about that stuff.  Why would they not?  They're a potential employer, and they would like to try to hire the most qualified candidates they can.

And I think that if you really want to teach, you shoudl try to transfer into the highest ranked school you can get to.  Yes, it may not be absolutely necessary, since once you get 10-15 years experience, author some articles, etc., you might be able to get a job teaching no matter where you go, the fact remains that being a law professor can be just as prestigious as BIGLAW. 

I think that if you look at bios for many, many schools, I think the T1 schools will be much more heavily represented than any other tier.  While it may not be true, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on the generalization that the higher ranked schools seem to be more focused on the philosophy and doctrine of the law, and not as much on the practice of law.  I'm not saying these generalizations are always true about all schools, but it's hard to argue that it's NOT true.  This may be part of the bias toward the T14's heavy representation in the academic community.