Should I Transfer Law Schools?

By Alice Foley, Director of Pre-Law Programming

Today, we’re going to be talking all about transferring law schools. Should you transfer? What goes into the process? Why is it a big decision to make? 

Before we get started, I want to make sure that I’m very clear that this is general information. Particularly with transfer applications, there is going to be a lot of nuance for each school, so make sure to start with what I’m telling you here and double-check with the school. 

I also wanted to give a caveat for first year applicants reading this. If you are an 0L right now who is planning to transfer after 1L year, I urge you to reconsider. Don’t sell yourself short. Don’t settle for any law school and go from there. Transferring should be a last resort once you have already tried your best and should not be a part of your legal education strategy. 

The Process of Applying

The typical time you’re going to transfer will be between your first and second years of law school. Transfer applications usually open in spring and close in mid-summer. It is very rare for you to transfer sometime during or after your second year, mostly because of different credit requirements at schools.

The transfer application process isn’t completely strange. You’ve recently completed your application to law school, so a lot of things are going to look very similar. 

You’re going to start off by going right back to LSAC. When you click on each school’s application, make sure that you’re clicking the right application type (transfer). From there, most things are going to be very similar to what you did when you first applied. 

There are some differences, however. 

Some things that you need to submit for your application may not be in that portal. For example, they may not have a place for you to put a transcript from your 1L year. Those transcripts can just be sent straight from your law school to the school(s) you’re applying to now.

Second, sometimes they will need letters of good standing or class rank (we’ll touch on that in a bit). Those will usually be sent from your law school to the new school directly, as well. 

Just keep in mind what you need to be sending directly from your law school to the other law schools you’re applying to. 

Class Rank 

During the transfer application, many schools ask for your class rank. Make sure that you can find where that lives. 

If it’s not public, you may have to ask for it. Start with someone in Student Services to find out who you can talk to about it. Once you ask for it, it should be right on your transcript for you. 

If you go to a school that does not rank you in your first year, they still know where you fall in the class and can generate a class rank for this purpose. Nearly every transfer application is going to ask for your GPA and your class rank, so you do want both of those. 

Professor Letter of Recommendation

Another piece of the application that is different from your first year application is needing a professor's letter of recommendation. And not just any professor — you need your law school professors. 

Just like your first year, you want to make sure you’re asking for a good, strong letter of recommendation. (If you are getting ready to start law school in the fall and are a little unsure of the choice you made down the road, make sure that you are making good relationships with your faculty members even if you aren’t planning to stay there all three years.) 

Professors often sit on admissions committees, and they really love to hear from other professors what you’re like in the classroom. If you have been sitting in the back not talking to anyone, you are not going to get positive recommendations from your law school professors. 

It’s important to acknowledge that there is no way to get past this recommendation. You can’t wiggle into using the dean of students or an academic advisor. Ideally, you should be picking a professor whose course is pretty standard across the curriculum and that you have a good relationship with. 

Personal Statement

We’ve talked about your personal statement a lot here, especially if you kept up with us during your first year admissions cycle, but there are some key differences for transfer students. 

Do not assume you can just recycle your first year essay to your transfer application. If you are transferring to a school to which you applied the last cycle, they still have your application in your system. I can tell you that for any transfer applicant that came to my desk, I also looked at their first year application if they had applied with us before. The transfer application is what’s important for the decision-making process, but I’m going to look at every piece of information that I have on you as an applicant. If you send me the exact same personal statement, I’m going to deny you.  

The second reason to not reuse your first year essay is that a lot of the time transfer applications are more specific in their prompt. Most law schools want to know why you’re planning to transfer. Not every part of being a transfer student is positive, so law schools want to make sure that you are confident in making the decision to transfer. If you recycle your first year essay, chances are you’re not talking about that.

The verbiage needs to change, even if the reasons are similar. You know a little bit more now about what legal education is about. You’ve picked up terms and knowledge that you get during your first year. You need to show that. 

Sometimes transfer application essays have an even smaller word count, so you have less space to explain. You need to be very succinct, and you should learn in your first year of law school how to do that.

Other Application Materials

There are some other pieces of information for your transfer application that are necessary that we’re going to go through quickly. 

Letter of Good Standing - All this says is that you don’t have any outstanding payments and that you are not on academic probation. Your registrar or academic dean should be able to make that happen. 

Resume - At this point, there should be some changes. Add in things that you have done since starting law school. If you worked with Career Services on your resume at the law school that you’re transferring from, you can absolutely use that resume if you like it. 

Addenda - If there were addenda included in your first year application that may still be relevant or the law school asks for them, you will provide those as well. 

Making the Decision to Transfer

Whether or not you should apply is a more difficult question to answer, because it is going to be much more personal to you. However, I can walk you through things you should consider. 

Why do you want to transfer? There are plenty of good reasons to do so, but there are also silly reasons. If you are miserable in the law school that you are in and you cannot shake it, okay. If you had a bad class and you didn’t like a professor, not always the best idea. If your support system is somewhere else and you’re finding that you want to be closer to that, that’s a great reason to do so. 

If you are looking to transfer to a “better” school, you need to make sure that you’re not just looking based on rankings. You want to look at employment outcomes, their programs for the particular area of law you’re interested in, specialty programs, where the school is located (this may help with the bar exam), and if you’re interested in their community. None of those have to do with the rankings, but make it a better school for you. Whatever your “better” is, that’s a good reason to transfer. 

If you’re mad about a class or unhappy with a grade, sit with that a little longer before you decide to make the decision to transfer. Don’t let that ruin your whole experience. 

Finances of Transferring

You already know that law school is expensive. Most merit-based law school opportunities are going to be as big as they get for first year applicants. If you have a good scholarship at the school you already attend, it does not come with you. 

Some schools may offer transfer students scholarships, but they are very rarely as generous as first year opportunities are. You should still do the FAFSA and the process for student loans is the same, but you will not have the benefit of potentially gaining more money that you don’t have to pay back. 

If there is a specialty program or a fellowship opportunity that is open to continuing law students, you may be eligible to apply for that. 

Depending on the location of your new school, you may have to see if the cost of living is more expensive. Make sure that you are thinking about that. 

If you cannot afford to transfer, it may not be the best fit for you. That is going to be a very hard decision to make, but you need to think about how it will affect you. 

Acceptance Rates

Being accepted as a transfer student is typically more difficult than being accepted as a first year student. The acceptance rates for transfer students may look different, but it’s also generally a very smaller pool of applicants. Those percentages may not be super helpful, especially if a school is only receiving five or so transfer applications a year. 

The selectivity for transfer applicants means that you better be a rockstar of a first year student. This is also why they ask for class rank; it should be very high. Your GPA should be awesome — at minimum above a 3.0. Your professors have to say really wonderful things about you. You are going to put together a stellar application package. 

Many students who start at a mid-tier school move up to a more prestigious school. It happens. But the students who transfer like that are in the top 5% of their class. If you are not that person, think very hard about whether or not it is worth putting in the effort to go through transfer applications or make some list adjustments to less prestigious schools. 

You can also reach out to the law schools and ask how they approach transfer applications. Do they have a large class? Are they super selective? They may not be able to give you a very direct answer, but they can give you helpful information about whether or not it’s a realistic option. 

The Difficulties of Transferring

Law school is three years. That seems long, but it goes by very quickly. You now will only have two years to put yourself in the best standing to graduate (especially with honors). 

If you have a stellar GPA, you will wave goodbye to that when you transfer. Most law schools will wipe out your GPA and you will start from scratch when you start as a 2L. Now you only have two years and fewer classes to build that GPA.

The other thing that you are starting over with is your network. A lot of the time, your network is what will help you build your career. When you transfer, you are waving goodbye to that network and creating a brand new one. (We did talk about going back to where you have an established network, so that may overrule that piece.)

Plenty of transfer students are very successful, you just may have to be doing a little bit more work because you are a year behind the students that you will be joining. Most of them have already met important players in the geographic area that you’re in. You need to understand that you will have to do that work to make up for that lost time. 

When it comes to coursework, many first year curriculums are very similar. However, they don’t always teach them the same way. The one that I saw taught differently most frequently was Contracts. At my law school, Contracts was a one semester course worth three or four credits. At one of the law schools I worked at, Contracts was a two semester course, and each semester was worth three credits. If this is the case for you, you would have to take that second semester of Contracts when you transfer in. 

Once you are accepted, the person in charge of academics at your new school will review everything and see where you have missed something that is important and will ensure that you are taking those classes. It just means that as a 2L, you may be in 1L classes. There’s nothing bad about that, it’s just something that you need to be aware of. You may lose a little bit of your flexibility because you are having to catch up. 

If you do choose to transfer, it may also affect your ability to be in law review, on a competition trial or moot court team, and other similar co-curricular activities. There is a selection process that may happen during 1L year, so it may not be available to transfer students. You may have to wait an entire year, so if you’re deadset on being in one of those programs you need to see how transferring will affect that. 

Final Thoughts

Transferring law schools is a very big decision. Fit at a law school is huge. It is very hard to decide and nearly impossible to quantify, but feeling good and supported where you are is huge.

The decision on whether or not to transfer is difficult and more nuanced. Think through the questions I posed today very critically before making this choice. It can be a really great option for some students, but not for all. 

If you are finding yourself in this situation and you do want some help, we do offer support for transfer students. We are happy to offer sliding scale prices, so if this is something you need an assist with but you are worried about the cost please reach out and talk to us. 

I hope this has been helpful! Don’t hesitate to reach out at hello@smontgomeryconsulting.com with any questions you have throughout the process.