Different situation - transferring Forum

[Anonymous User]

I just finished my 1L year at a T4 school in California. I was a spring start which is why I am finishing my 1L at this time. Looking for some advice for this situation I have gotten myself into.

I graduated from a respectable undergraduate school with an engineering degree, but due to not putting in a ton of work and just doing enough to get by had a poor GPA of 2.5. I took the LSATS one time with not much preparation and received a 150. Although those numbers are not the greatest I could have probably gotten into a better school than what I settled for. I applied to this T4 school and they offered a half scholarship and went for it.

This is where my situation is different than most. My first semester of law school I did terrible. I did what I have always done throughout my years of education and thought I could get by with minimal work. This landed me in the bottom of my class with a 2.4 GPA. I big part of the low GPA was from LW which was a 4 credit course. I made a huge mistake and wrote half the paper on law that should not have been analyzed and that landed me a 1.5 in that course. Looking back on this I see how my mistake was due to pure laziness and not using the proper resources or time.

After this semester I really had to reflect on what I was doing and why I wanted to go to law school in the first place. Receiving these grades could have either meant I was not cut for law school and not capable of retaining all the information.

Prior to my second semester of my 1L year I told myself I will do anything to be at the top of my class and finish with a top GPA. For the first time I really applied myself. I reworked topics that I didn't comprehend fully from the first semester until I mastered them before the start of the second semester and rewrote my research paper and had the professor look it over - he was impressed and that if I did this the first time I would have received an A in the course.

SECOND SEMESTER GRADES: It seems the effort I have put in this semester payed off.
Civ Pro II: 4.0
Legal Writing: 4.2
Criminal law: 3.2 (only course that is combined with the night session who are part time student. The part time students are not in class rank so will be considered top 5% for class rank)
Torts II: 3.9
Contracts: still waiting on the grade, but very confident it will be as high as Torts.

Overall puts me in the top 5% of my class for the second semester.

I have read many forums on here about transferring and have not seen any situations that are similar to mine. How much did I screw myself over for transferring to a better school.

I asked for advice about transferring from a professor at my school prior to the end of this semester and explained my poor performance first semester and how I expect to be top of the class after this semester. He kind of laughed and doubted that I would be able to improve my grades that drastically.

The major reason I realized I wanted to transfer was to be back home with family. I am from New York and after a year in California and having my grandparents become ill, I realized how hard it was to be away and how important it is for me to be back on the east coast.

If anyone can give advice on how a look school admissions committee would react to an applicant who went from the bottom of their class to the top of their class. Student's who received top of the class last semester who I out scored in every class this semester have already been accepted to Pepperdine and UCLA. The fact that I received higher grades this semester shows that I am capable of being in a better ranked law school environment. If I received the grades the same grades first semester I would have a chance at Fordham where I would have loved to go. Is there a chance that I can get into Fordham or a school that is just as good?

[cavalier1138]

I'm pretty sure the school just cares about your overall GPA and overall class rank, so what are yours?

This isn't really related, but how the hell does your school do grades? All your numbers are weird.