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Feels like there isn't any recent advice on this

I did 1L at a T20, was top 5% and then transferred to HYS and am starting my 2L year now. I know much of my application is going to depend on how well I am able to do here and the strength of my LORs.

That said, does anyone have thoughts on how judges will look at my 1L grades? Will my app get looked at the same as other students from my current school or will there be a bit of an asterisks as a result of the less "prestigious" 1L school.

People who entered HYS as 1Ls are, all else equal, viewed as a more impressive than people who transferred into HYS from a less prestigious school after 1L. Your top 5% 1L performance at a T20 doesn't on its own make you a standout applicant, but if you continue to get excellent grades at HYS then you'll be in a great position.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:29 pm

People who entered HYS as 1Ls are, all else equal, viewed as a more impressive than people who transferred into HYS from a less prestigious school after 1L. Your top 5% 1L performance at a T20 doesn't on its own make you a standout applicant, but if you continue to get excellent grades at HYS then you'll be in a great position.

Potentially unasnswerable question, but is that a baseline assumption that HYS students are viewed better or are they viewed better to the extent they excelled 1L year?

Got myself a little nervous because it seems like the 3L transfers being put forward as a resource were either fedsoc or secured their clerkships through personal connections.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:47 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:29 pm

People who entered HYS as 1Ls are, all else equal, viewed as a more impressive than people who transferred into HYS from a less prestigious school after 1L. Your top 5% 1L performance at a T20 doesn't on its own make you a standout applicant, but if you continue to get excellent grades at HYS then you'll be in a great position.

Potentially unasnswerable question, but is that a baseline assumption that HYS students are viewed better or are they viewed better to the extent they excelled 1L year?

Got myself a little nervous because it seems like the 3L transfers being put forward as a resource were either fedsoc or secured their clerkships through personal connections.

Not really answerable but here's one plausible answer: They're viewed as better so long as they're above median. Exactly at median they're viewed as equal to top 5% at a T15-T20. Below median they're viewed as worse.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:29 pm

People who entered HYS as 1Ls are, all else equal, viewed as a more impressive than people who transferred into HYS from a less prestigious school after 1L. Your top 5% 1L performance at a T20 doesn't on its own make you a standout applicant, but if you continue to get excellent grades at HYS then you'll be in a great position.

OP, just focus on getting good grades at HYS. How a judge views your 1L grades is out of your control. And FWIW, top 5% at my T20 was enough for several of us to get COA. The process is can be random and idiosyncratic. Just work on what you can.

I was #1 in my ~T30 school and then transferred to an HYS. I didn't apply to clerkships until late in my first semester, and at that point most judges seemed to want to see my grades at my transfer school. Those came in strong, and I quickly got several interviews and a COA clerkship. I think with those judges my 1L grades made me plausible, and my 2L fall grades sealed the deal. I later interviewed for another clerkship with some judges who I doubt would have hired someone from my 1L school. And as a clerk evaluating applications, I was always interested in 1L grades for transfer students, but much more interested in their grades at their new school.

So as far as I can tell from my personal experience, you're right that the most important thing is your grades going forward. Right now, you're as competitive (or slightly more) than you were before you transferred, and whether you become more or less competitive depends on how strong your grades are from here. So keep grinding--it seems like most people who are really good at law school are good at law school anywhere.

Transfers are definitely considered less qualified than their peers at top schools who did not transfer. My judges have evaluated transfers based on their 1l grades at their original school.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:21 pm

Transfers are definitely considered less qualified than their peers at top schools who did not transfer. My judges have evaluated transfers based on their 1l grades at their original school.

Semi unrelated - but to what extent does undergrad prestige seem to matter with judges? Seems like the people I know from HYSPM have a little more GPA leniency

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:58 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:21 pm

Transfers are definitely considered less qualified than their peers at top schools who did not transfer. My judges have evaluated transfers based on their 1l grades at their original school.

Semi unrelated - but to what extent does undergrad prestige seem to matter with judges? Seems like the people I know from HYSPM have a little more GPA leniency

Depends on the judge but in general it doesn’t much as long as you did well—it can be a red flag if you didn’t.

Former clerk to a semi-feeder. We would actively discount transfer students who applied after 2L, since we basically only had one year of grades to go off of. Now, most people went, like, Pepperdine-->HLS, so you may not face as steep of a challenge. But if you strike out this cycle, just know that you'll probably have better luck after 3L.

You'll probably be asterisked yeah, but not like out of the running by far. My friend transferred to a CCN after 1L year and then knocked it out of the park 2L year—got no bites during the plan. He proceeded to knock it out the park during 3L year and then got a bunch of interviews and is now clerking for two judges in competitive places.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:05 am

You'll probably be asterisked yeah, but not like out of the running by far. My friend transferred to a CCN after 1L year and then knocked it out of the park 2L year—got no bites during the plan. He proceeded to knock it out the park during 3L year and then got a bunch of interviews and is now clerking for two judges in competitive places.

Can anecdotally confirm part of this experience. I did T20 -> HYS, did well 2L (in magna contention this year) but did not get a single bite during on plan apps. Hoping your friends experience holds and things are a bit better after 3L.

Different clerk, but ditto. There's nothing wrong with transferring, but we don't take your grades too seriously until we see proper BLL grades at your new school.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:25 am

Different clerk, but ditto. There's nothing wrong with transferring, but we don't take your grades too seriously until we see proper BLL grades at your new school.

How would this apply to transfers from within the T14? Top 10 people in the class after 1L at NYU --> Yale. What then?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:32 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:25 am

Different clerk, but ditto. There's nothing wrong with transferring, but we don't take your grades too seriously until we see proper BLL grades at your new school.

How would this apply to transfers from within the T14? Top 10 people in the class after 1L at NYU --> Yale. What then?

At that point I'd be more confused on why someone who was top 10 at NYU transferred to Yale

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:32 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:25 am

Different clerk, but ditto. There's nothing wrong with transferring, but we don't take your grades too seriously until we see proper BLL grades at your new school.

How would this apply to transfers from within the T14? Top 10 people in the class after 1L at NYU --> Yale. What then?

Might even be a negative to me because I'd wonder why they wasted their time transferring. I'd probably conclude said individual is overly prestige-obsessed, may not want to work hard 2L/3L, and just coast at Yale.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 2:22 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:32 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:25 am

Different clerk, but ditto. There's nothing wrong with transferring, but we don't take your grades too seriously until we see proper BLL grades at your new school.

How would this apply to transfers from within the T14? Top 10 people in the class after 1L at NYU --> Yale. What then?

Might even be a negative to me because I'd wonder why they wasted their time transferring. I'd probably conclude said individual is overly prestige-obsessed, may not want to work hard 2L/3L, and just coast at Yale.

Same, it would not strike me as the best look unless there was some personal reason for why they had to be near New Haven.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:32 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:25 am

Different clerk, but ditto. There's nothing wrong with transferring, but we don't take your grades too seriously until we see proper BLL grades at your new school.

How would this apply to transfers from within the T14? Top 10 people in the class after 1L at NYU --> Yale. What then?

Lol please don’t do this if you’re considering it

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 3:58 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:32 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:25 am

Different clerk, but ditto. There's nothing wrong with transferring, but we don't take your grades too seriously until we see proper BLL grades at your new school.

How would this apply to transfers from within the T14? Top 10 people in the class after 1L at NYU --> Yale. What then?

Lol please don’t do this if you’re considering it

Kind of too late for themselves at this point. Unless they are a current 1L at NYU who plans to be in the top 10 students and then transfer at Yale which would somehow be even weirder than a Pomeroy at NYU who transfers to Yale.

Ditto to the posters highlighting the difficulty of landing a clerkship as a transfer student. I went from top 5% at a T14 to summa range at CCN and got one bite, zero offers on the Plan this past summer.

FirstArbiter wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 6:23 pm

Ditto to the posters highlighting the difficulty of landing a clerkship as a transfer student. I went from top 5% at a T14 to summa range at CCN and got one bite, zero offers on the Plan this past summer.

There's so much going on in this comment holy shit

FirstArbiter wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 6:23 pm

Ditto to the posters highlighting the difficulty of landing a clerkship as a transfer student. I went from top 5% at a T14 to summa range at CCN and got one bite, zero offers on the Plan this past summer.

If this is real and not trolling, then you had deficiencies in your application that your stellar grades and school(s) were unable to overcome.

Currently clerking for semi-feeder coa then district court. Someone who was at the top of their class at a t-13 then transferred to HYS would strike our chambers as prestige oriented and would strike me as not someone I’d want to clerk with because they would be annoying.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:42 pm

Currently clerking for semi-feeder coa then district court. Someone who was at the top of their class at a t-13 then transferred to HYS would strike our chambers as prestige oriented and would strike me as not someone I’d want to clerk with because they would be annoying.

but would the credentials make it work vetting that through an interview over guessing at it from a resume

I know multiple transfers from my CCN who got SDNY/EDNY/DDC and 2/7/9 level clerkships with pretty wide variance in GPAs at the school we ended up at and the ranking of our initial schools. But each of us also had some pretty big hitters in our corner, whether it be making calls or on professor name recognition. Most didn't get picked up until 3L summer, though.