Top Law Schools

Hi everyone,

I'm currently a 1L at Fordham Law and about to go into finals. I did pretty well my first semester (w/ a 3.92 GPA based on 3 classes). I'm hoping to do similarly well on my remaining exams, though who can really be 100% sure... haha...ha...

In any case, I had always thought about the possibility of transferring - Either to NYU, Columbia, or UCLA/USC (I've wanted to be on the west coast for a while and ideally see myself there long-term). Is it worth it to transfer? I'd have to ask a couple teachers for recs soon, and may face some issues with OCI/Journals/etc., but I just can't seem to weigh these factors well at the moment.

Thanks much.

Honestly, main thing to focus on is just doing the best you can on your upcoming finals.

That being said, coming out at the top percent at Fordham will land you likely the same biglaw options as NYU/Columbia, especially since you're already in the city. You would be paying full sticker at any transfer school, as opposed to whatever scholly you have at Fordham (and even then, you can likely apply to T/14's and haggle more money from Fordham). It would ultimately come down to a prestige choice... Columbia and NYU are pretty transfer friendly and assuming you're not getting too much money from Fordham, I suppose you can go for it if you really feel like you have just "gotta" get out of Fordham, but otherwise maybe just stay...

Transferring to UCLA/USC would be a pretty terrible choice... First of all, you can do better (Berkeley) and anyhow moving to the West Coast is a huge change, it generally helps to have family/roots there.

Ultimately, maybe ask for some letters of rec (profs can take a while to write them) and then just get through finals. You'll weigh them better once that's over with. GL

Agree with 3000. You will most likely get biglaw (if you want it) if you remain highly ranked at Fordham, so there's no real job benefit to switching to NYU or Columbia. There is, however, a (maybe significant, depends on your current package) financial cost to transferring, assuming you have at least some aid at Fordham. Spending an extra $75k or what have you may not seem like a lot now when it all seems like monopoly money, but debt is real and more of it is always worse than less of it.

Agree with the above. I would also consider the reputational implications. I believe Columbia/NYU will want letters of recommendation from your 1L profs. Once you go down that road, if you decide to stay at Fordham it may be more difficult to get strong backing from professors/the school in clerkship applications (assuming that is something you're at all interested in). You will obviously be able to develop new relationships with professors at your new school, but I don't know if there is anything quite like a 1L professor (or several) whose classes you did well in and who are willing to go to bat for you.

Good luck.

Now that finals are over what are your thoughts, OP?

I would love to hear from any other Fordham people who are considering transfer. I have a 3.97 and have no idea where I rank and what my chances are at T5.

You are likely in the top 5 students in the class. You have a decent shot to transfer anywhere, certainly NYU/Columbia. Harvard is definitely worth a shot. Yale is always a crapshoot but F —> Y has been done.

fosterman90 wrote:You are likely in the top 5 students in the class. You have a decent shot to transfer anywhere, certainly NYU/Columbia. Harvard is definitely worth a shot. Yale is always a crapshoot but F —> Y has been done.

Agree - a good number of people transfer to Columbia and NYU each year. Fewer to H, Y or S, but that's probably in part b/c people want to stay in NYC.