For those looking to transfer after your 1L experience, look here.

[WhiteyEMSR]

Hi Guys, just though I'd share my story as it might help some people out who are considering tranferring after thier first year. First and foremost of course, you have to do close to exceptionally well to be a contender at one of the higher ranking schools, but it is possible. I chose a school, the Unversity of Detroit Mercy because I saw a dean who was willing to work for his students. The dean has an advisory board that meets twice a year and is make up of partners from THE law firms. They speak about this and that and are able to get certain things accomplished that help the student body. Plus, I had nowhere else to go. Wayne dinged me, Michigan State dinged me, Ave Maria dinged me, Cooley accepted me, yay. Got a chance for an interview at Ohio Northern, but turned them down.

Like everyonther person in the class I knew my place belonged at the top. I worked hard as midterms and ended up first in the class. I took the finals and ended up 2/163, 3.7, graded onto law review. So now I'm a big fish in a small pond, but why not apply to a bigger pond?

I applied to Michigan, Notre Dame, University of Illinois, Indiana Bloomington, Loyola Chicago, and USF. USF, the lowest ranking school I applied to did not accept me. Indiana Bloomington sent me a letter saying there is no room in the 2nd class and everyone gets their money back. I was also denied at Michigan, my top choice (say they usully take top 3 students, but apparently not this time.

Success, I was accepted into Wayne, a school that I would have loved to go to as a first year. But with my ranking and law review at UDM, I was happy staying at UDM when compared with Wayne, where I would lose those credntial from UDM and not have them at Wayne. As to Univ of Illinois, it is a great school, but it was a bit farther away than I tended to want to drive. I love my girlfriend enough so that I have to see her at least 3 times a week. Loyola Chicago was an option as they accepted me to but it meant kind of a long move. Notre Dame, top 20 school, top notch faculty, football games,etc. told me to go.

So, this fall I am transferring from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law (Tier 4) to Notre Dame School of Law (Tier 1). It was a hard decicion to make but one I don't think I'll regret. And it is possible.

I also say a girl with a 3.4 get transferred into Loyola Chicago, a girl got into DePaul and John Marshall as a transfer, a girl got into Syracuse but then decided to attend Buffalo Law School. One studet, bastard, supposedly did get into MI, but I have yet to confirm this. Just thought I'd share some personal experiences so you don't have to rely soley on law students that have not attended law school.

EMSR

[marvin]

Thank you for sharing

[UVA1l]

This is a fine story for people in your situation, who go to the best school that they can get into and don't have any other choice, but this is far from the norm.  Most people stay at the same school they start at and don't transfer.  Many people have much less success than they expect to going in.  What I am saying is don't BANK on transferring.  Your chances of being in the top 10 percent are about 10 percent even if you are the top student i.e. big fish in a little pond when you start.  I know people on substantial scholarships at law schools who are in the bottom of the class despite their constant hard work.

Again, this is a great inspirational story for people who didn't get into where they want to go, but would be happy at the school they did get into, but you shouldn't read this and think, "I will go to this 4th tier school on scholarship for one year and save money and since I am tops now I will be tops in a year and transfer to (fill in name of t14 school here). 

[greengrl]

First off, I'm just jealous that you get to go to Notre Dame. *sigh*...trying to be happy where I'm at...

Moving on...

You seemed to have made the best decision for you and that's awesome. However, I feel compelled to mention that making law review is a huge accomplishment and people who accomplish this at a lower ranked school should not feel that tranferring is their only option. being a big fish in a small pond can be really helpful

[WhiteyEMSR]

First off, I'm just jealous that you get to go to Notre Dame. *sigh*...trying to be happy where I'm at...

Moving on...

You seemed to have made the best decision for you and that's awesome. However, I feel compelled to mention that making law review is a huge accomplishment and people who accomplish this at a lower ranked school should not feel that tranferring is their only option. being a big fish in a small pond can be really helpful

Absolutely. It was a very hard decision to make. Giving up law review was something I was not willing to do at first, even with an acceptacnce from ND. I probably would have stayed had the dean offered me more than 25% scholarship, which I lost when I refused to committ due to the fact I had not heard form any transfer schools. 

[WhiteyEMSR]

In response to an earlier post, I would say that the top 25% of a tier 4 has a very good chacne of transferring up in the rankings. How much in the rankings, I don't know.

As an update, after interviewing in the OCI process at Notre Dame, I received many call backs. In Michigan Butzel called me back, Dykema, Dickinson, were the biggest, and I have yet to hear from a couple. Also had luck with Indianapolis. I recently accepted an offer for a summer with a top international law firm. They were my top choice, the people were wonderful, and I am happy with my decision to transfer.

My points-
1. Losing law review when transferring is not be all end all
2. Same with moot court
3. Top of class at tier 4 will still not get you interviews with many top law firms, but this tends to be because top law firms, sometimes, don't come to tier 4 schools. I know, I know, someone will respond saying that Skadden is interviewing at their tier 4 school, but go to that firm's website and do an attorney search by law school. See what you find.

[spicealicious]

OMG! I am so jealous. I want to go to Notre Dame so bad that it is eating me alive. Everyone keeps telling me that if I don't get a good LSAT score that I can just go to another school and transfer, but I didn't really think that Notre Dame took transfers. I'm so glad I read your story it makes me feel much better.
I have a question though. How do you like ND? Any advice?

[WhiteyEMSR]

Last year was the first year ND took more than 1 or 2 transfer students. I think they took 14. This year I believe they took 16, and you would be surprised at the differences in transfer schools, GPAs, etc. Some tier 4 transfers, some tier 1s. Some were top of their class, some only slightly above 3.0. Many of the transfer students did very well during OCI.

I love ND. The professors are very impressive, the course selection amazing and the campus is spectacular. It also doesn't hurt that so many huge firms recruit heavily from ND. They also have a stong public interest program, so don't think that BigLaw is be all end all.