Top 10 Tips for Law School Transfer Admissions

Many potential transfer applicants start to consider their options after they receive their first-term grades, but there is typically not a rush to apply until the spring. Some schools may offer early action or even early decision programs, but the majority of transfer applications are not even available until March or April. With that in mind, we wanted to offer some general thoughts and tips on the transfer process based on some of the more frequently asked questions that we receive.

10 Key Principles of Law School Transfer Admissions

1. There are many elements that factor into a decision for transfer admission, but your 1L performance in law school matters the most. Law school grades are incredibly important, but your performance in law school is evaluated on more than just your grades alone—where you fall in relation to your classmates and where you went to law school is also related to your 1L performance. Your current law school is important because a law school wants to be confident that you will be able to continue your record of strong academic performance after you transfer. When I worked as Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School, we admitted transfer applicants from a variety of schools, but all of them showed promise that they would thrive at HLS. It doesn’t benefit anyone if you transfer and are not able to perform at a similar level at your new school. Along these lines, find professors to write strong letters of recommendation for you—this is also an essential element of your application to indicate strong law school performance. 
2. LSAT and undergraduate GPA are less important. The admissions office no longer needs to “predict” your law school performance. Your LSAT score(s) and undergraduate GPA  are still a part of your application and your academic history, but they are not as critical to evaluating your ability to succeed in law school. 
3. Employability matters. The OCI process may or may not be available to you as a transfer student, but at the end of the day, all law schools want their students to be employed. Your employability may be evaluated by a number of factors including letters of recommendation, but this also means that conducting yourself professionally in every single communication with the law school is even more necessary. Make sure that your resume includes your anticipated summer employment after your 1L year. 
4. Your application should address the reasons you want to transfer, including why you want to transfer to that particular school. This is typically done by working it into your personal statement, but make sure you follow the school’s instructions. This is likely a departure from your 1L application. When you applied as a 1L, your personal statement was probably generic and didn’t mention any specific school. When applying as a transfer applicant, you should cite thoughtful and genuine reasons for wanting to attend that school. Don’t just reference placement statistics or how awesome the alumni network is—go deeper than surface-level statistics that the school has on their website. If geography or other personal situations play a role in your reasons for wanting to transfer, you should absolutely include that as well. Most importantly, make sure your personal statement answers the exact question asked in the transfer application—they can vary! 
5. Even though you are applying to leave your current school, never speak negatively about your current law school in your application or in communications with other law schools—it comes across as unprofessional (and happens far too often). Showing gratitude for your 1L year is typically a good tone to have.
6. Use the data available to you in the ABA 509 reports. There is a lot of valuable information in these publicly available reports. They can be very helpful in giving you a sense of your chances of admission at each school. These reports tell you how many transfers each school takes each year, and if there are enough transfer students, the 25^th, 50^th, and 75^th percentile 1L GPA is disclosed, as well as the schools where students transferred from. 
7. Does it make sense to transfer? Only you can answer that question. What are your goals? Can you reach your goals without transferring? It depends on the differences between your current law school and the one to which you would be transferring (your grades/ranking at your current school, geography, employment opportunities, journal participation, scholarship/funding at your current school). Sometimes transferring can change the trajectory of your legal career. Other times, it may be best for you to stay where you are. Consider the pros and cons before you decide to transfer. (Keep in mind that you can make that decision after you’ve submitted your transfer applications and have an offer from a school. Then you can make a decision based on actual options instead of hypothetical ones.) 
8. Applying to transfer is a condensed timeline, but you don’t have to submit early. With your 1L application, you were probably told to apply early in the process. When applying as a transfer, your application should ideally be ready to submit before you go into your 1L finals, but you do not need to submit super early in the process. Outside of a special early decision or early action program, it is unlikely that schools will make a decision on your application without having your full year of 1L grades. At Harvard Law, I always tried to read as many of the transfers as possible in a group to get a sense of the overall pool before making decisions. At some schools, this means that regular decision transfer applications may not be reviewed until late May/early June. But the decisions typically come quickly after they are reviewed. (The timeline for early action or early decision transfer programs is obviously different, and you should consult each law school’s requirements to make sure you have all the correct dates and deadlines.)
9. Follow the school instructions and deadlines. The timing is different at each school, so make sure to follow each school’s individual instructions and deadlines!
10. Don’t sell yourself short. Many schools take large transfer classes, and your grades may not have to be as perfect as you think. So don’t count yourself out. If you want to submit an application, go for it, particularly to schools that take larger transfer classes.

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