the transferring faq, part 3

See also T-FAQ part 1 / part 2.

Commenter Jordan posted The Question in the comments section of Part 2 of the FAQ. You know The Question; if you've as much as pondered transferring schools, someone has asked it of you. Here is Jordan's eloquent distillation thereof:

I have never understood the transfer madness. Why WOULD anyone ever want to do such a silly thing? Why not just finish off where you started?

On its face, it's a simple question: why is this important to you? Why do you hope for something that represents such upheaval of your status quo? Or, in the past tense, why did you bother going through all that hassle? What could make it all worthwhile?

In the spirit of other such advice that was given to me, I'll first suggest my twenty most sensible responses to an interviewer who asks you The Question (or, if not an interviewer, then at least someone with whom you need to maintain a certain level of decorum).

1. Stronger faculty.
2. Smaller class size.
3. Better placement in [geographic area].
4. Stronger law firm recruiting.
5. Stronger public sector/public interest placement and career guidance.
6. A specialty that interests you.
7. Better social/cultural fit.
8. Better political fit.
9. Better positioning for clerkships/academia.
10. Stronger government connections.
11. A location more convenient to (family, etc.)
12. Greater variety of courses offered.
13. Greater diversity.
14. Greater diversity of opinion.
15. Strong social/professional/personal connections (e.g. legacy).
16. Strong clinical programs, particularly in your chosen specialty.
17. Potential joint degree programs.
18. Other strong features of the associated university/campus.
19. Affection for the location of the school (only works if you're transferring out of town).
20. Personal ambition/pursuing your dreams.

[These are off the top of my head; I reserve the right to come back and edit this post if a more sensible response than any of the above occurs or is suggested to me.]

Remember Rule #1: never speak ill of your 1L school. Phrase all your reasons for transferring as complimentary of your target school, not as any negative reflection on your current situation. If you find your 1L school too competitive, laud the noncompetitive culture at your target school. There is always a good answer to The Question, and it's *not* "I was miserable at my 1L school." That is both uninformative in a useful sense and highly informative in the sense that oops, you just made a bad impression. Not your goal.

At a subtext level, The Question gets heavier, laden as it is with all of the social stigmata associated with "misplaced" ambition. Why not just stay where you are? What are you, some kind of status jockey or prestige whore? Are you really going to walk away from all the good things you can do here, from law review, from the top of your class, to start over from scratch? What's wrong with your current school? Think you're too good for it, eh? Elitist. Snob. Opportunist pretender to a social status beyond ordinary folks like you. Etc. Etc.

You've heard it, thought it, feared it, perhaps had it suggested to you by people you'd never met. And you hardly need a self-esteem pep talk from a random stranger like me. I'll just say this: the naysayers are as wrong as you make them. You'll transfer because you want to, for the reasons that are important to you, not to them. If they don't believe in transferring, then wish them much happiness as they stay where they are. You, meanwhile, have every right to want to be wherever you choose. Exercising that right does not make you a snob any more than glancing guiltily at the USNWR grid makes you a rankings nut.

Forthcoming: back to the regular FAQ track.

thus spake /jca @ April 12, 2004 10:18 PM