Mastering the Law School Transfer Application
After passing through a rigorous and sometimes disappointing law school admissions process, many law students are left feeling unsatisfied with the result; for one reason or another, they think that they could have gotten into a better law school.
Perhaps a student’s undergraduate grades were sub-par, or they had trouble with the LSAT. Maybe when the student arrived in law school, they hit it out of the park—pulling grades and building relationships that placed them at the top of their class. Students who fit this description may want to transfer to a school that’s higher-rated, provides more career opportunities, or is simply a better fit.
It is possible to transfer law schools, and many do it successfully. While not always easy, it is an option if the law school you're attending does not meet your needs.
Law School Transfer Timeline
Students who wish to transfer usually do so after their first year of law school. The most common timeline is as follows: after completing their first semester of law school, students will make the decision during their second semester to transfer. They will submit a transfer application around the conclusion of their first year, either late spring or early summer, to begin a new school in the fall.
Other students won’t consider a transfer until they’ve completed their first year. These students will often transfer during their second year, applying in the fall to begin a new school in the spring. In rare cases, students will even transfer into their third year.
Law schools differ in their transfer application deadlines. If you have a law school in mind, you should explore the deadlines posted on their admissions page. Email the admissions department directly if you have any trouble finding information about the law school transfer application process.
Note that early decision or early action deadlines for transfer applications may differ for those law schools that offer them. Consider an example: Georgetown Law School. Currently, Georgetown Law begins accepting transfer application for the following fall in February. The deadline for early action transfer applications is March 15, while their deadline for regular transfer application is June 8. Late applications are accepted until August 1.
It's important to approach transfer application deadlines like those of normal applications. Prepare to apply earlier in the process because, as time goes on, your chances of admission decrease. The same is true for spring transfers.
Do Grades Matter for Law School Transfer Applications?
When considering a transfer application, it’s important to think about law school grades. Recall that, in regular applications, the purpose of undergraduate grades is to evaluate your competency as a student and a member of a rigorous law school community.
If you did extremely well during your first semester of law school, consider transferring as soon as possible. Unlike in college, where grades are largely the by-product of continuous hard work, law school grades tend fluctuate. For one thing, grades are more often predicated on single measures of your comprehension, like a culminating exam.
Alternatively, if your first semester didn't go well but you feel like you can do better in the second semester, wait to transfer until you’ve secured those second-semester grades. Then you can submit your transfer application with a full transcript.
Reasons to Transfer Law Schools
Many applicants want to transfer to a more highly ranked or more prestigious law school. This can be tricky. The more competitive law school is, the harder it is to transfer in. Applicants can find themselves disappointed unless they have exceptional grades.
But attending a more prestigious school isn’t the only reason to transfer. Sometimes people transfer because of a specific career focus: they realize they want to do election law or international law, and their current school doesn't have a strong program in their interest. The school may also lack a professor to support them in pursuing their work of interest.
Others may transfer as a means to secure more financial aid. A transfer application sometimes brings a fresh aid package and potentially a new opportunity to negotiate. However, be warned that, like with an early decision application, transfer students may face reduced bargaining room around their aid package. Generally, if you’re applying to transfer simply because of your aid package, I’d advise that it’s better to first approach the financial aid advisors at your current school. Inform them of your situation and attempt to negotiate better financial terms with the goal of staying. They may be more amenable than you would imagine.
A student may want or need to move locations. Justice Ginsburg famously transferred from Harvard to Columbia because she lived with her husband in New York. Others may transfer because they don't feel like they fit in their current school environment, or because they believe they would do better at a different campus—perhaps at a smaller or larger school. Remember that, regardless of where you attend law school, you can take the bar exam for any state. You are absolutely not obligated to switch schools to prepare for your career.
[Next Read: How to Write a Great Addendum for your Law School Application]
Reasons Not to Transfer Law Schools
While there are many reasons why transferring would be a benefit, the process can be extremely disruptive and, ultimately, disappointing.
Transferring accompanies the likelihood that you’ll have to move, going through the arduous process of switching states and communities. If you’re involved in any activities or extracurriculars on your home campus, like a law journal or a student group, it can be difficult to pick up where you left off once you transfer. If you’re a student who is planning on working in a field where activities like moot court or a law journal matter, you may want to reevaluate your decision to transfer.
A definite risk of transferring: losing the goodwill and connections that you've worked hard to establish. You’ll be starting fresh, adjusting to a new cohort of peers in an entirely unfamiliar setting.
Many people transfer each year looking for an easy fix: “If only I went to a different law school, things would be a lot better.” That may be true. But before going through the effort and uncertainty of transferring, think about whether there are ways to improve your experience at your current law school. You might be able to do this by reaching out to mentors, working with other kinds of student groups or organizations, and getting involved with other opportunities on campus. Find a volunteer group or get to know your city a little better.
You should carefully consider whether or not transferring will solve your problems—you may just be dissatisfied with law school in general. You might be someone who simply dislikes law school. And there’s nothing wrong with that!
What Do You Need to Submit a Law School Transfer Application?
A law school transfer application is very similar to a regular law school application. Instead of a personal statement, you usually write a statement of interest in transferring. Although these essays are pretty similar. In the transfer essay, however, the admissions committee is specifically interested in understanding your motivations for the transfer.
Just like with applying to law school, your grades will be a very important component of your application. The difference is that in transfer applications, most of the focus will be on your law school grades. As I mentioned earlier, evaluating an applicant by their law school grades can be tricky. It can be hard to guarantee excellent grades through effort and participation. Law school grades can often feel arbitrary, especially in the first two terms—where you’ll likely be figuring out how things work still.
You don’t need exceptional grades if you’re applying to a school with a similar ranking to the one you currently attend. Similarly, if the median GPA at your transfer prospects are similar to those at your own institution, you shouldn’t fret over a few minuses. However, if you are trying to apply to a T14 school, the standards will be higher.
One of the harder components of the transfer application is the recommendation letter. It can be tricky to get to know a law school professor so quickly after joining the school community. You can accomplish this, however, by going to office hours. Talk to your professors about their areas of interest or experience. Try to find commonalities and, above all, stand out.
It may feel a bit awkward to ask your professor for a letter of recommendation to transfer out of their school. However, rest assured: it’s not considered offensive or to ask for help with the transfer application. You should be prepared to explain your reasons for transferring, but aside from that, no professor should hold your decision against you. Professors want students to be in the law school environments that best suit them.
One final note on LSAT scores; an advantage of transferring is that your test scores may not be evaluated as closely as your law school grades. Test scores are, at least in theory, a metric to assess the likelihood of your success in law school. As a transfer, you’ll have actual law school grades to do that for you.
Transferring to a T14 Law School
For those who are interested in transferring to a T14 law school, data can be helpful in evaluating your potential of a successful transfer. Transfer rates for T14 schools are generally low, even for transfers.
It can be far easier to transfer into a T14 program that has a larger class size than one with a smaller one. Take Georgetown University’s Law Center as an example. Georgetown Law is one of the bigger law schools in America. Although it is in the T14, Georgetown takes a good number of transfer students. It also takes transfer students into their part-time program. In contrast, schools with small class sizes, like Stanford Law, have very, very few accepted transfer applications each year.
You will have a much easier time crafting a successful transfer application if you set your sights on schools that fall outside of the T14. Inevitably, every law school has holes in its class that they need to fill. If you are focused on transferring to a mid-rank or second-tier school, there will generally be more room for transfer applications.
A rule of thumb is that the better the schools you're applying to, the higher your grades and class-rank must be. Jumping up in rankings tends to be far more challenging. Generally, it is even more difficult to jump up the ladder multiple rungs. It can certainly happen, but it’s rare. For example, if you are applying to a law school ranked in the top 20s, 30s, or 40s, your grades should be pretty decent. In contrast, if you are applying to a T-14 school, you might need to rank in your top 10 percent of your class—or higher—depending the law school you wish to attend.
[Next Read: What to Send Law Schools After You Apply, From Updates to Letters of Continued Interest]
Transferring can be daunting. It’s hard to assess your actual chances, and crafting a compelling story for why you should transfer takes careful thought and planning. I’ve worked with dozens of students to help them transfer from their current school to a T15 law program. If you want to talk about how we can work together on your transfer application, get in touch. I can’t wait to hear your story.
