Top Law Schools

Decided to create this thread...applied last month but it took forever for final grades to come out. Sent the transcript last week, hoping to see some movement soon.

App went under review 6/11, still haven't fully completed all of the requirements. Only the college questionnaire is left, but forcing a friend of mine in NY to literally have NYU's registrar sign it (my undergrad) and walk it down to MacDougal since the app went into review without it and I wont get my decision until everything is complete. I submitted the app May 7th, transcript got down there about a week and a half ago.


honestly just so nervous to know if I get in or not.

here are my stats:
T1 (top 30 #25-30) Law School
GPA 3.505 (first semester didn't quite finish the way I would have wanted but second semester finished 12%--> Top 30% cumulatively which I know is NOT IDEAL but you know sometimes you just have to dream). I'm hoping the stark improvement between semesters and the people who've written recs for me from NYU will help my GPA but who knows.
Also waiting on Georgetown and Columbia (suuuper reach but why the heck not)
waiting on Law review judgement

Probably not going to get in but I've got a full scholarship at my T2. So if I don't get in, screw it, I'm gucci.

T2, school ranked 70-80
GPA: 3.63
School doesn't rank, curves to a 3ish.

My transcripts are taking forever to get sent in!

TT (50-75)

3.57 top 9% based on class of 2019 data

just submitted

3.678 (Top 10%) at a T1 (#25-30) Law School. Deciding whether or not to apply... I have none of the application materials ready & never seriously considered transferring until I got my grades back. Is it worth it?

turkeyncheese wrote:3.678 (Top 10%) at a T1 (#25-30) Law School. Deciding whether or not to apply... I have none of the application materials ready & never seriously considered transferring until I got my grades back. Is it worth it?

It really depends on what you're willing to do! My brother always says that it's a herculean undertaking to get to the top of the class at a new school all over again, trying to do law review again, and get yourself sorted at a new place. I would say if you like the market where you are, and you feel good about your school, (you're obviously doing really well), and think you have a good starting point to make it in the market of your choice you should give serious thought to whether transferring is the right choice for you. The is it worth it part of the question is going to be something completely different for you than for me or for anyone else. It really depends on how happy you are, how willing you are to move, feeling like you're well positioned or not well positioned for the job of your choice/market etc. etc. It's a big decision to make and it's hard.

I had to turn down a BC transfer admission earlier this month even though BC is by my parents/home, has AMAZING connections into the NE/NY, Boston Market and the average salary is about 160k for graduates just because of how badly I want to go to NYU AND because I just didn't think transferring up/down a place or two was worth it to me when I have some nice perks going at my school right now EVEN THOUGH I don't love the area where I am, or feel like I'm that well positioned for the markets that I ideally want.


I hope that helps, feel free to PM if you want to talk further

turkeyncheese wrote:3.678 (Top 10%) at a T1 (#25-30) Law School. Deciding whether or not to apply... I have none of the application materials ready & never seriously considered transferring until I got my grades back. Is it worth it?

Well, it depends -- does your school place students in the market and firms or other employers you're considering? Do you have a scholarship? What do you hope to get out of transferring to NYU?

miro wrote:

turkeyncheese wrote: Top 10% at a T1 (#25-30) Law School. Deciding whether or not to apply... I have none of the application materials ready & never seriously considered transferring until I got my grades back. Is it worth it?

Well, it depends -- does your school place students in the market and firms or other employers you're considering? Do you have a scholarship? What do you hope to get out of transferring to NYU?

Tbh I think I will come out of it with the same job/job prospects, at least in the short term. My current school places well in New York and in biglaw. As bad as it sounds I have just always wanted to go to a school with a big name. I'd be giving up a lot to transfer (potentially law review, a good scholarship, my bf will be staying at the school I would be leaving, & I would have to deal with subletting my apartment for a year). All signs point to staying at my current school & I know this is naive but there's something in me that lights up at the thought of being able to say I went to NYU.

That seems like a fairly common reason for transferring. Personally, I would try to weigh how much it would mean to tell people you go to NYU against the financial and non-financial costs of transferring there (giving up a good scholarship to pay sticker plus housing expenses and finding a subletter, living apart from your SO, starting over, etc.)

Re: law review, NYU does hold a separate write-on competition for transfer admits after OCI/EIW, so you could write onto law review or one of the other journals, including Moot Court (it's a journal equivalent at NYU). Depending on what your current school's write-on/grade-on process is, the transfer write-on could be less of a sure bet, though.

turkeyncheese wrote:

miro wrote:

turkeyncheese wrote: Top 10% at a T1 (#25-30) Law School. Deciding whether or not to apply... I have none of the application materials ready & never seriously considered transferring until I got my grades back. Is it worth it?

Well, it depends -- does your school place students in the market and firms or other employers you're considering? Do you have a scholarship? What do you hope to get out of transferring to NYU?

Tbh I think I will come out of it with the same job/job prospects, at least in the short term. My current school places well in New York and in biglaw. As bad as it sounds I have just always wanted to go to a school with a big name. I'd be giving up a lot to transfer (potentially law review, a good scholarship, my bf will be staying at the school I would be leaving, & I would have to deal with subletting my apartment for a year). All signs point to staying at my current school & I know this is naive but there's something in me that lights up at the thought of being able to say I went to NYU.

Make no mistake, NYU will open more doors for you. Holding grades constant (say the median student) there is a BIG difference between opportunities from schools ranked T15-20 v T13 v. T6. The question is if those will outweigh the added cost.

I agree, but the key thing is that people who are likely to be able to get into NYU as transfers aren't at median -- they're somewhere around the top 10-15% of the class (or somewhat higher or lower depending on their school and other factors). If their current school already has a solid rate of placing students at that grade level in their preferred job market, it's debatable whether transferring will give you much of a boost. If you are planning on doing OCI, firms will probably be evaluating you like a student from your 1L school with similar grades, given that you only have 1L grades at that point.

miro wrote:I agree, but the key thing is that people who are likely to be able to get into NYU as transfers aren't at median -- they're somewhere around the top 10-15% of the class (or somewhat higher or lower depending on their school and other factors). If their current school already has a solid rate of placing students at that grade level in their preferred job market, it's debatable whether transferring will give you much of a boost. If you are planning on doing OCI, firms will probably be evaluating you like a student from your 1L school with similar grades, given that you only have 1L grades at that point.

Absolutely- I agree top 10% at a T30 will land big law at the very least in the schools market. The difference then is the fact that every firm under the sun will be at NYU OCI,or OP could secure an interview solely from the fact that s/he is an NYU student. The same cannot be said about every T30 school. But yea, if OP is just shooting for any V100 s/he should probably just stay.

For anybody religiously checking their application status: called admissions today. They said that it is (1) still pretty early in the admissions cycle (2) that they've sent out one round of acceptances already (3) that the latest the acceptances will come is August (4) it should be about four weeks after you go under review but August is the guarantee.

Some not so new information, but just thought I would post in case anybody wanted to know.

nls336 wrote:For anybody religiously checking their application status: called admissions today. They said that it is (1) still pretty early in the admissions cycle (2) that they've sent out one round of acceptances already (3) that the latest the acceptances will come is August (4) it should be about four weeks after you go under review but August is the guarantee.

Some not so new information, but just thought I would post in case anybody wanted to know.

That makes me really nervous because I submitted my application around mid-May but my undergrad took obnoxiously long to send out my College Questionnaire (pretty sure they actually forgot about it until I reminded them) and NYU told me yesterday that it's in the queue to be processed. But now that they've already sent out one round of acceptances, I'm worried about what that means for my chances.

nls336 wrote:For anybody religiously checking their application status: called admissions today. They said that it is (1) still pretty early in the admissions cycle (2) that they've sent out one round of acceptances already (3) that the latest the acceptances will come is August (4) it should be about four weeks after you go under review but August is the guarantee.

Some not so new information, but just thought I would post in case anybody wanted to know.

Really turns me off that they would send out acceptances before their application deadline has passed.

sahara1128 wrote:

nls336 wrote:For anybody religiously checking their application status: called admissions today. They said that it is (1) still pretty early in the admissions cycle (2) that they've sent out one round of acceptances already (3) that the latest the acceptances will come is August (4) it should be about four weeks after you go under review but August is the guarantee.

Some not so new information, but just thought I would post in case anybody wanted to know.

Really turns me off that they would send out acceptances before their application deadline has passed.

Hi -- i don't know if this helps at all but most schools do the acceptances in GPA rounds, the people who got accepted were probably locks regardless, the T25% of the ABA GPA or above kind of deal. More acceptances coming in the next few weeks, from what I remember, so if you have things to get in or if you're on the fence I'd call and see what's up!

The whole process is honestly just so irksome

Got the call from NYU today, made the cut! I submitted my application on June 9th, I went complete (sometime around) June 20th. For reference, top 1% at T1.

Best of luck, all! I hope your wait comes to an end soon.

Got the phone call from admission just one hour ago. UR1 6/25/18, UR2 6/28/18, acceptance 6/29/18.

Good luck to everyone!

OrangeGrandma wrote:Got the phone call from admission just one hour ago. UR1 6/25/18, UR2 6/28/18, acceptance 6/29/18.

Good luck to everyone!

That makes me so nervous because I went under review today.

sahara1128 wrote:Got the call from NYU today, made the cut! I submitted my application on June 9th, I went complete (sometime around) June 20th. For reference, top 1% at T1.

Best of luck, all! I hope your wait comes to an end soon.

Congrats Sahara & OrangeGrandma! Sahara, did you get reviewed twice before getting accepted?

notellewoods wrote:

OrangeGrandma wrote:Got the phone call from admission just one hour ago. UR1 6/25/18, UR2 6/28/18, acceptance 6/29/18.

Good luck to everyone!

That makes me so nervous because I went under review today.

same here!

suckmysolidsnake wrote:

notellewoods wrote:

OrangeGrandma wrote:Got the phone call from admission just one hour ago. UR1 6/25/18, UR2 6/28/18, acceptance 6/29/18.

Good luck to everyone!

That makes me so nervous because I went under review today.

same here!

Good luck! Lol I just want to know haha.

Current status date: 6/22/18, application under review. I don't think I've been under review twice yet. Not sure. Dying to know; can't focus at work haha.

NY TTT, #1 in class, 4.0x
DOJ/SEC/FTC type internship.

In case folks are looking for an update - first round of acceptances went out. Applied on 6/14, application was complete about 1.5 weeks after and received a phone call of acceptance on Friday 6/29. Top 6% at a school in the 70-90s ranking with strong softs and significant work experience. Good luck everyone!

hello top law school fam. I just have some "I called admissions today" news regarding the under review updates. I called to ask what the deal was, whether the date between updates/amount of updates means something about the applications and the admissions officer 10/10 giggled at me. I told her some people who have applied in the past told me the dates that the application status checker is updated might be indicative of a positive/negative re: application acceptance. She said for transfer and visiting applications the amount of times the date changes on the status checker doesn't mean anything and they can be updated or not updates according to internal practices/events that have nothing to do with the status of the application. (not sure if that means something for first year acceptances)

of course, who knows if that's 100% true but I just wanted to share that because I know the rumor on TLS is that if you're under review once, twice, three times you're in/not in.

anyways hope that gives people posters + lurkers included some good feelings. you can stop refreshing the status checker 100 times a day now, maybe 50 will work.