Law School Deans, Law Schools, Transfer Students

Poaching 1Ls: A new perspective on transfer students

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Last May, we held an open thread about law school transfer students as second-class citizens, based on the University of Connecticut’s Maya Angelou-inspired “Phenomenal Transfer” poem. There was quite a lot of anti-transfer-student sentiment in the thread, though some former transfer students chimed in to say that they had experienced no animosity in their new homes.

For those put off by transfer students, there were three main themes in the thread:

  • Transfer students are gunners.
  • Transfer students get to skip out on the hellish first year at a top school, and then ride the curve to graduation.
  • Law schools game the system with transfer students. They get the extra tuition money and avoid hurting their US News ranking by not factoring in the GPAs and LSAT scores of transfer students.

    • Transfer students may well be gunners, but they are also being gunned… as in hunted. In “Northwestern Unapologetically Poaches 1Ls at Other Schools,” Paul Caron of the TaxProf Blog pointed us to a recent ABA Journal article that picks up on the themes of our open thread. From the Journal:

    Northwestern University Law School is actively–and unapologetically–re­cruit­­ing top-performing law students from lower-ranked schools, a practice that some deans claim is becoming commonplace at elite institutions.

    Each year, 150 or so of Northwestern’s 5,000 applicants turned down for first-year admission receive letters inviting them to apply again for “conditional acceptance” the following fall. [Ed. note: Northwestern later revised these numbers with the ABA Journal, saying they only extend 15-25 conditional acceptances each year.]

    Deans of lower-tier schools resent the predatory practice. The Journal quotes Northwestern Dean David Van Zandt as saying the poaching allegation is “probably true,” but that, “Chrysler and General Motors don’t agree not to poach each other’s customers.”

    Really, Dean Van Zandt? You’re looking to Chrysler and GM as your business role models?

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    More on transfers, and a look at the number of students bagged by top schools, after the jump.


    The Journal cites the number of transfers in the 2006-2007 academic year to bolster its argument: Northwestern (USNWR #9) added 43 transfers to its 238-student first-year class. Georgetown University Law Center (USNWR #14) accepted 93 transfer students. UCLA (USNWR #16) added 31 transfers to its 323-student first-year class. NYU (USNWR #5) added 38 transfers to a class of 447. For 2008-2009, we know that Harvard added at least one student from American University’s WCL.

    Deans at the poached schools are understandably annoyed to have their best students stolen away:

    While elite schools argue that transfer students benefit from “trading up,” [dean of Roger Williams University School of Law David] Logan laments a ripple effect that begins with the brain drain on the origi­nal school, which reduces academic discussion and harms the bar passage rate. In addition, faculties lose research assistants, classmates lose friendships, and tuition increases are imposed to offset departing students. And at their new school, transfer students will find it tougher to forge relationships.

    “They’re just cash cows,” Logan says.

    Transfer students may well be cash cows to the schools, but their chances to make Biglaw cash after graduation are much improved by transferring. Poaching season starts Law schools will start accepting transfer applications for 2009 in the spring. Good luck to the ambitious!

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    Transfers Bolster Elite Schools [ABA Journal via TaxProf Blog]

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