Harvard and Yale Questions Forum

A forum for those current students who are or may be transferring from one school to another. Post any questions, advice, or other transfer related comments here.
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Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Feb 01, 2018 4:59 pm

Hello!

I am a 1L considering transferring to either Harvard or Yale for personal reasons, and I have two quick questions.

1) I remember hearing that Harvard and Yale reduce financial aid proportional to your summer associate position. I have an SA lined up for 1L summer, but I need a good bit of that money to pay off credit card debt and other personal loans. Will the amount I can take out for COL loans be reduced by my SA? Or only a need-based grant?

2) For either Harvard or Yale, do transfers participate in OCI?

Hand

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Re: Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by Hand » Thu Feb 01, 2018 6:51 pm

Great questions! Good luck!

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Re: Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Feb 02, 2018 9:59 am

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SamuelDanforth

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Re: Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by SamuelDanforth » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:32 am

You can participate in OCI at Yale as a transfer. I believe that SA income only reduce need-based aid, and you can always request the full COL/COA in loans, as long as you qualify. However, if you called financial aid, I'm sure they would be happy to clarify.

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Re: Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Feb 03, 2018 5:59 pm

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ruski87

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Re: Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by ruski87 » Sun Feb 04, 2018 12:51 am

You can definitely participate as a transfer at H as well (and nearly all transfers do quite well). I know that they took my summer job into account when calculating need based aid, but it was definitely not even close to 1:1 reduction in need based aid.

I think if you call HLS financial aid office they'll be happy to answer in more detail.

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Re: Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by AaronCarter » Sun Apr 08, 2018 8:59 pm

ruski87 wrote:You can definitely participate as a transfer at H as well (and nearly all transfers do quite well). I know that they took my summer job into account when calculating need based aid, but it was definitely not even close to 1:1 reduction in need based aid.

I think if you call HLS financial aid office they'll be happy to answer in more detail.
A few questions.

Since I will likely not have anywhere close to a full ride, I plan to transfer to H (if I can).


Did you enter the the other law school with the gameplan to transfer? From which school did you transfer? Were you number one in your class? (I've read everywhere that it's critical to be at the very top/have all A's if you want a chance at H).
Also, I'm assuming you did very well at your other school, do you have any advice generally about how to do well in that first year?

When did you start writing your essays/seeking letters of rec to transfer??

I know it's a near impossible question, but does one have solid chances of transfers from MVP being in the top 15%? Or at a T6 in the top 25%? (transfer to H)

Any and all words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!

Goldie

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Re: Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by Goldie » Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:25 am

AaronCarter wrote:
ruski87 wrote:You can definitely participate as a transfer at H as well (and nearly all transfers do quite well). I know that they took my summer job into account when calculating need based aid, but it was definitely not even close to 1:1 reduction in need based aid.

I think if you call HLS financial aid office they'll be happy to answer in more detail.
A few questions.

Since I will likely not have anywhere close to a full ride, I plan to transfer to H (if I can).


Did you enter the the other law school with the gameplan to transfer? From which school did you transfer? Were you number one in your class? (I've read everywhere that it's critical to be at the very top/have all A's if you want a chance at H).
Also, I'm assuming you did very well at your other school, do you have any advice generally about how to do well in that first year?

When did you start writing your essays/seeking letters of rec to transfer??

I know it's a near impossible question, but does one have solid chances of transfers from MVP being in the top 15%? Or at a T6 in the top 25%? (transfer to H)

Any and all words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!
A couple answers, even though I'm not ruski87.
- I did not enter law school planning to transfer, and don't recommend that anyone go to a law school they aren't willing to graduate from.
- I transferred to H from a T30-35 ranked school. I was #1 in my class. I knew a person in a different class who was #2 or #3 and didn't get in to H. Another year, there was a person from who was well within the top 5% and didn't get in while a person below the top 5% did.
- I started my transfer process incredibly late. Put my entire application together in the last two days before the deadline. Of course it's a good idea not to wait that long though.
- Couldn't tell you about MVP, but I knew a couple transfers from T6 and I think they were just top 25%-ish.

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Re: Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by AaronCarter » Mon Apr 09, 2018 1:05 pm

Goldie wrote:
AaronCarter wrote:
ruski87 wrote:You can definitely participate as a transfer at H as well (and nearly all transfers do quite well). I know that they took my summer job into account when calculating need based aid, but it was definitely not even close to 1:1 reduction in need based aid.

I think if you call HLS financial aid office they'll be happy to answer in more detail.
A few questions.

Since I will likely not have anywhere close to a full ride, I plan to transfer to H (if I can).


Did you enter the the other law school with the gameplan to transfer? From which school did you transfer? Were you number one in your class? (I've read everywhere that it's critical to be at the very top/have all A's if you want a chance at H).
Also, I'm assuming you did very well at your other school, do you have any advice generally about how to do well in that first year?

When did you start writing your essays/seeking letters of rec to transfer??

I know it's a near impossible question, but does one have solid chances of transfers from MVP being in the top 15%? Or at a T6 in the top 25%? (transfer to H)

Any and all words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!
A couple answers, even though I'm not ruski87.
- I did not enter law school planning to transfer, and don't recommend that anyone go to a law school they aren't willing to graduate from.
- I transferred to H from a T30-35 ranked school. I was #1 in my class. I knew a person in a different class who was #2 or #3 and didn't get in to H. Another year, there was a person from who was well within the top 5% and didn't get in while a person below the top 5% did.
- I started my transfer process incredibly late. Put my entire application together in the last two days before the deadline. Of course it's a good idea not to wait that long though.
- Couldn't tell you about MVP, but I knew a couple transfers from T6 and I think they were just top 25%-ish.

Thanks so much for this!
I will likely end up at MVP. While I would be fine graduating from the school, if possible, I would like to see if I can make the move to H.
Based on nothing but anecdotes, I imagine I would need AT LEAST top 10-15% to be competitive.

Are you happy with your choice in transferring? Do you feel you are a "lock" at your choice of 180k jobs?

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ruski87

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Re: Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by ruski87 » Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:47 pm

Did you enter the the other law school with the gameplan to transfer? No, at least not as a realistic goal. Since I think everyone always has some dream/thought of transferring as a fantasy at non T14 law schools (but that could be over generalization).

From which school did you transfer? Were you number one in your class? (I've read everywhere that it's critical to be at the very top/have all A's if you want a chance at H). School was in the T50-60 range, and yes though you do not have to be #1 to get in (and even people that were #1 didn't necessarily have straight As).

Also, I'm assuming you did very well at your other school, do you have any advice generally about how to do well in that first year? (1) study smarter not longer; (2) understand that class lectures do not correlate well to what will be on final exam; (3) attack outlines > descriptive outlines. (this is obviously just my personal experience, I'm sure there are many other paths to success in 1L)

When did you start writing your essays/seeking letters of rec to transfer?? Asked for letters of rec as early as spring and generally had them lined up by late May. Wrote my essays after finals in mid may (just adapted my PS since didn't apply to any the schools I was wanting to transfer to.)

I know it's a near impossible question, but does one have solid chances of transfers from MVP being in the top 15%? Or at a T6 in the top 25%? (transfer to H). Hard to tell, I think you certainly have more of a GPA cushion but based on last year's report it's not a ton (75 percentile for H was 3.96, while 25 percentile was 3.87) so you likely could make a reasonable guess that the 3.87s were from the t14/t6 than from the other t1s.

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yyyuppp

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Re: Harvard and Yale Questions

Post by yyyuppp » Thu Apr 12, 2018 8:43 pm

I got into harvard last year as a transfer. here's my response

Did you enter the the other law school with the gameplan to transfer? From which school did you transfer? Were you number one in your class? (I've read everywhere that it's critical to be at the very top/have all A's if you want a chance at H).
Did not enter with a plan to transfer. I went to a lower T13 at was top 10-15%.

Also, I'm assuming you did very well at your other school, do you have any advice generally about how to do well in that first year?
Nothing thats not readily available on on this or other sites. you do you.

When did you start writing your essays/seeking letters of rec to transfer??
I asked for my recs probably before I got my grades. I worked on my essays much later. I got my apps in pretty late i think. like in july (maybe earlier if the school required it)

I know it's a near impossible question, but does one have solid chances of transfers from MVP being in the top 15%? Or at a T6 in the top 25%? (transfer to H)
See above. i did it. can't speak to T6. my resume is not special in any way, and my college grades are not good.

Any and all words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!
if you do well enough to transfer to harvard, or even close, you likely will have a good employment outcome regardless of your transfer results. transferring to a school like HY (or any) doesn't make a ton of sense if its not going to open up the option to interview at more firms in your target markets. Likely, this won't be the case coming from any T14 school. You're probably gonna be giving up law review too.

also, maybe yale makes sense if you're super interested in being an academic (no idea if thats true though as a transfer). do it if its cheaper or if you end up at some place outside the t14 and you think you can't get to where you wanna work without it.

my simple advice: don't transfer, especially if its harvard, if you don't see a clear tangible benefit. you're just gonna be another of the 600 law students in your class. thats probably not any better than being at the top of your 1L school. If there is some private value, i get it, but even if you get to say you went to harvard, thats cool i guess, but i don't think that's worth it.

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