the transferring faq, part 1

Lately I've been receiving an unusual amount of blog email, as the spring semester grows long and restless 1Ls begin to ponder their transfer options. (Don't worry, emailers, your identities are safe.)

So here's the first post in what will hopefully become a small series on transferring law schools: an amalgamation of actual questions I've been asked in email, actual responses of mine, other questions that I've been asked outside of email or asked myself, and potentially a few rants. I promise to try and keep those last to a minimum.

And if you've got a question of your own, feel free to email me at suasponte_org NOSPAM at SPAM-ME-NOT yahoo I MEAN IT dot com. Or just leave a comment. :)

I'm thinking about transferring law schools. Should I? Why did you do it?

I arrived at law school intending to transfer, for no good reason apart from the fact that I'd already decided it would be so. I wouldn't recommend this approach: there's a lot of built-in misery in going somewhere solely with the intent to wind up somewhere else, particularly if you don't know where else you want to be or why.

Here's the approach I'd recommend now. Look at where you are, look at how you're doing there, and make two lists: reasons to leave, and reasons to stay/things you'll lose by leaving. Then look at your potential range of destinations, and for each one list out the advantages (and disadvantages) to being there compared to your current school. (I am a compulsive listmaker; YMMV.)

For example: if you've got a solid GPA or class rank in your current school, have made it onto moot court team, feel that you've got a good shot at law review or a topical journal you love, etc. these are all reasons to stay. But if you're dissatisfied with the culture of your school, class size, administration, and so forth, these are also factors to consider.

Most law schools zero out the first-year transcripts of transfer students. No schedule, no grades, no class rank is preserved. My current official transcript doesn't even mention the courses I took last year, specifying only "Credit Awarded for Academic Work Done At [School]. Hours: 40. Grade: P." Given my 1L experience, I was perfectly thrilled to have the entire year reduced to one pass-fail line item on the 'script. But if you did better than I did as a 1L -- and you probably did, if you're seriously considering transferring -- losing your hard-earned grades and high class rank may bother you. Keep this in mind. Do you want to trade them in for blanks?

Be sure to research opportunities for things like journals and moot court at your potential transfer school(s). Can you write on to a journal? What is the school's policy of accepting transfer students on to law review? Is there space for you on the moot court team, and if not, can you still work on the board or coaching organizations if you wish? And if you can't get involved in these things at your new school to the extent that you could if you stayed at your first-year school, is it still worth transferring for other (e.g. location, cultural, career opportunity, etc.) purposes?

Don't forget that you may be making the decision for more than one person. If you're in a relationship, are married, have children, need to live near family, or otherwise have responsibilities that keep you in a particular place, give these appropriate consideration. Make the decision that's best for you given a particular value of you. Disregard hypotheticals (e.g. my husband's ill-fated question, "Well, what would you do if you were single?"). It doesn't matter what you'd do in an imaginary frictionless environment; the question is what you should do given your actual situation.

Will transferring law schools hurt my job prospects?

I doubt it. There is a strong presumption among recruiters that transfer students were at or near the top of their 1L classes, which translates into immediate if conditional respect when you walk into the on-campus interview. I felt I was received at least as well as, if not better than, my "native" fellow 2Ls during fall interviews. Of course, the first question any interviewer will ask is why you transferred. If you can give them a reasonable, thoughtful answer (N.B. "this is a much better school" does not count, regardless of how true a motivator it was for you) then you should be fine. Just remember Rule #1: speak no ill of your ex-law school.

(Note that you will need to bring a copy of your 1L transcript to on-campus interviews, as your new law school will not provide it to recruiters but they'll still want to discuss it. So they *will* see your 1L grades; they'll just see them as a conversation piece rather than a feature of your permanent record.)

How much transferring will help your job prospects depends on the degree of disparity between your origin and destination schools (particularly if one is known for a certain specialty). Two of my fellow transfer students started out at nearby top-25 law schools, where they probably had quite similar on-campus recruiting options, at least in terms of law firms. In fact, more than half of our transfer class came from schools within the USNWR first tier. The firm where I'll be working this summer recruits at my former law school; I believe this is true for several of my fellow transfers as well. Were we more likely to be hired by these firms at our current law school than our ex-law schools? Hard to say. But for the people who transferred from lower-tier schools (see also my rankings rant), the increase in opportunity was appreciable.

For me, the main career advantages of transferring were peripheral to law firm recruiting. My new law school places strongly into federal clerkships, government, and legal academia, all things that I would love to try. Certainly nothing prevented me from pursuing these options at my ex-law school, but here I have a lot more doors already open. This is particularly important to me since I don't have my heart set on a particular career path, but want to experiment as much as I can.

The mere existence of a higher USNWR ranking, however, doesn't necessarily mean that the range of potential career opportunities offered at that school will markedly exceed those available at a lower-ranked school. Be sure to consider this. Research your options. Make sure you know what you're getting, and make sure it's what you want.

Forthcoming: the numbers game, improving from fall to spring semester, letters of recommendation and more.

thus spake /jca @ April 5, 2004 05:04 PM