Whittier vs Cal Western for 1L

[StevePirates]

I've known people transfer from CW to Hastings and Davis from the top 10%.

[allaboutlydia]

Hmmm, San Diego resident here.  Cal West is competitive.  The San Diego legal market is flooded with lawyers.  I know two recent grads of Cal West who were on law reivew and are looking for work.   

Whittier will have the problem of being 10 miles from the first wave of grads from UCI.  That is going to hurt.  People dont transfer from Whittier and Cal West to UCLA.  Never.

Be happy with the school you choose and be honest with yourself about your prospects.

Unless you have access to all transfer records.. you're not in a position to say "never". Actually my friend transferred from Whittier to Loyola.. so your point is moot.

[Manwithaplan]

I'm not even going to read any of the responses. Just going off of your original post, let a recent USD Law grad speak from the heart.  You may think you will work harder than everyone else in the world, that you have the fire inside, that no one knows what you are capable of, that the world has yet to reckon with a legal mind like yours....but transferring is tough man.  I knew a few cal western transfers to USD...thats pretty much where they all aim to transfer to over there, and they are one ruthless bunch.  you have met your match.

Iv Gotten a lot of feedback from this site. appreciate all of it!

I'm debating between Whittier (11,200 scholarship) or Cal Western (no scholarship).......I plan to be at the top of my class and transfer (I know I know, everyone who plans on attending T4 schools plans to transfer, and I understand that it will not be easy).
If any of you knew that you would not be retaking the LSAT again (154), which school would you attend based on the premise of being top 10-15% of class and seeking to transfer to:

UC-HASTINGS
UC-DAVIS
BERKLEY
UCLA
USD
ASU
possibly USC, STANFORD

Also, I understand that alot of 1L's @ T4's go in with the idea of transferring, does this mean that your average T4 1L class  could have very stiff competition in terms of GPA, considering that sooo many students are looking to pull off 4.0 GPA in hopes of transferring. Even stiff-enough competition to be on par with T3's? T2's?

ANY feedback is much appreciated  :mrgreen:

[big - fat - box]

Transfer here. Went from tier 2/3 school to T14. Getting the top grades at a low ranked school is much harder than you think. I knew a lot of hardworking, very smart students who lost scholarships that required a top 25% ranking after 1L. Many of these people were lifelong overachievers and they didn't make top 25% much less top 10%. Trying to predict who will do well in law school is a loser's game. It's very unpredictable.

Bottom line: competition is stiff and you have no idea where you will land in the curve. Do not even think about transferring until you have a semester's worth of grades from law school.

Personally I wouldn't go to either of these schools unless I could afford to pay tuition in cash and already had a legal job lined up before starting law school. A much better strategy is to get your LSAT score up and look at schools where you can get in-state tuition or a full ride with no lL gpa strings attached.

[big - fat - box]

One more thing: no one gets a 4.0 at schools like these. That's because the curve is set so low to make it virtually impossible to get As. It isn't unusual for schools like these to have curves set as low as 2.5 or worse. That means half of the class will have under a 2.5 after 1L. Also, the low curve leaves very little room for error. Screw up something on a couple of your exams and your chances of moving to a higher ranked school are out the window.