| Topic Name: |
Should I Transfer? |
| Message Name: |
Applying never hurts |
| Date Posted: |
02/24/2000 |
| In Reply To: |
I took the LSAT twice. The 1st score was 152, and the second was 158, for an average score of 155. I got a 3.3 GPA from a not-so prestigious undergrad school.
There will be no way to find out about law review until after the deadline for transfer.
Do you really think that the quality of students is based on the LSAT scores? I set out to prove that that wasn't the case.
I'm no expert, though. I appreciate your response, and would welcome others. |
| Message: |
Applying never hurts, but I think this board exposes a lot of arrogance. The message that said the best students at Missouri are equal to the worst students at an elite school is absolutely ludicrous. While there is truth to general statements that an average student at Missouri won't be as good as the average student from an elite school, that's about as far as you can take it.
Anyone who thinks LSAT scores and the decisions of an admissions committee (i.e. whether one gets admitted to a particular school) are the main indicators of "success" or "ability" places a gross amount of faith in a single test and assumes all admissions decisions are correct.
I would recommend you stay where you're at. If you can finish in the top five you'll be in a much better position than a lot of people at top schools. There is a definite truth to the statement that a degree from an elite school offers a certain safety net, you'll have the same safety net if you stay at or near the top of your class. I will give you an example.
Right now I am a clerk for the 9th Circuit. We just hired for the 2001 clerk year. We got about 350 applications and the overwhelming majority of them were from people doing very, very well at all the elite schools. Though we did take a top student from Yale and Berkeley, we also took someone like you. Let me tell you that people who can say their class rank is 1/200 are very impressive. Now that kind of class rank from an elite school is more impressive, but most of them don't rank their people. I'm rambling but I think that people who concentrate on the name on the diploma to the exclusion of all else are fools.
Second example, and this is more anecdotal, the hiring partner at the firm I'm going to (Vault top 10) told me that, while they certainly hire the bulk of their people from the elite schools, they're alway interested in people like you. Typically, he said, (and I admit this is a generalization) people who are at the top of their class at a school like yours show more grit than some pasty skinned blue blood from Yale or Harvard (his words, not mine, and he went to a top school, though not either of those).
All I'm saying is, don't put too much stosk in what insecure overachieving law students think, the real world exercises much sounder judgment than they do.
best of luck to you -- lawboy
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