Transferring UG as a freshman

[ConcernedParent]

Originally Posted by Another New Yorker

Thank you all for your advice! I do want to go to either Business or Law school. But is it advisable to try to transfer into more than one college? Those are just the options I am currently presented with. If there was hypothetically no limit and I had a realistic shot, I would give maybe 5 Ivy's a shot, Stanford, UVA, etc.

I originally had the option actually of Michigan, University of SoCal, and UNC, but I decided a small liberal arts school outweighed the large resources of those schools in my book and their prestige didn't quite impress me enough.

Law school is very GPA oriented, you'd do best to go where you can rack up a ridiculous one.

And, if you think you have a realistic shot at getting in and ARE SERIOUSLY considering those schools AND have the time/resources (money) to put together a decent application then why not. But the thing is, you aren't even in college, you don't realize how MUCH you need to be studying to be getting 3.75+ at any non buttfuck university.

You don't consider Michigan, USC to have enough prestige yet you have UVA on there?

 

[Another New Yorker]

Originally Posted by ConcernedParent

Law school is very GPA oriented, you'd do best to go where you can rack up a ridiculous one.

And, if you think you have a realistic shot at getting in and ARE SERIOUSLY considering those schools AND have the time/resources (money) to put together a decent application then why not. But the thing is, you aren't even in college, you don't realize how MUCH you need to be studying to be getting 3.75+ at any non buttfuck university.

You don't consider Michigan, USC to have enough prestige yet you have UVA on there?

UVA is my father and grandfather's alma mater. So I have an unreasonable adoration for the school.

 

[Andrewc2232]

Like everyone has said, Law school is extremely GPA/LSAT dependant.

A friend of mine graduated from UT Austin a couple years ago with a 3.99 and a ( I believe) 176 on the LSAT. He was approached by Stanford, Harvard, and Yale law schools.

As far as transferring goes, I transferred twice in my undergraduate career. First, don't expect to receive any form of merit based scholarship as a transfer. Second, I have read that most of the Ivy League schools are attempting to move away from accepting transfer applications at all. Being accepted as a transfer to Harvard will be extremely difficult for anyone. However, if you're really serious about transferring, there's no reason not to apply to each school you're interested in. Work your ass off for a straight 4.0 at W&L, and meanwhile get in touch with the transfer admissions coordinator at each school you want to apply to as soon as possible.

My personal recommendation would be to try for Columbia. The cost of attendance at Harvard is almost worth it based solely on the type of people you have a chance to meet there. However, all the the absolute top tier schools are so hyper competitive that finishing with a high GPA can almost be impossible for many people (myself included). Columbia isn't that far off in terms of academics, and you might actually have a chance to finish with a very strong GPA, increasing your chances immensely for grad school.