Law Schools, Rankings

Which Law Schools Accepted And Lost The Most Students As Transfers?

Surprisingly, one of the top transfer schools is also one of the top law schools in the nation.

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Law school keyboard LFHow can you measure a law school’s worth, aside from the employment statistics and bar passage rates of its graduates? Another telling sign of its success (or lack thereof) may be the number of students a law school gains or loses through the transfer process each year. While these numbers don’t factor into a law school’s U.S. News ranking, they can tell you a great deal about how happy students are, and whether they feel like they’ll be able to launch a fruitful career after graduating.

Professor Jerry Organ of the University of St. Thomas Law School has been compiling law school transfer data for years, and his latest transfer market analysis is the most interesting by far — if only because one of the top transfer schools is also one of the top law schools in the nation. Before we reveal which school that is, let’s take a look at the overall transfer numbers for the past few years. The Legal Whiteboard has the details:

Transfer Market 2015

Considering the fact that total law school enrollment has dropped significantly since 2011, and not to mention the fact that law school admissions standards seem to have dropped precipitously, you’d think that the transfer market would be hot, but as Professor Organ notes, it’s been “fairly consistent” over time.

Which schools accepted the most transfer students in 2015? Here are the top 15:

  1. Georgetown (110)
  2. George Washington (109)
  3. Arizona State (65)
  4. Harvard (55)
  5. Emory (51)
  6. New York University (51)
  7. University of California at Berkeley (49)
  8. Rutgers (45)
  9. Columbia (44)
  10. Miami (44)
  11. UCLA (43)
  12. Texas (37)
  13. American (33)
  14. Florida State (32)
  15. Minnesota (31)

I spy with my little eye… the second-best school in the country taking in more transfer students than ever before. Vivia Chen of The Careerist calls Harvard’s increased number of transfer acceptances the “news flash” in 2015’s transfer market data. Here’s more:

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HLS’s admissions dean, Jessica Soban, says the size of this year’s transfer group jumped 20 percent because “the applicant pool had exceptional academic and professional strength.” In fact, notes Organ, the GPA of Harvard’s transfers were higher than the entering students. And why wouldn’t Harvard open more spaces for transfers, he adds, since increased headcounts also expand revenue.

Of course, top 10 law schools like Harvard, Columbia and NYU have no problem reeling in qualified transfer students, while retaining their original pool. Schools further down the feeding chain, however, might be both gainers and losers. For instance, GW and Georgetown take in and spit out large numbers of students. (GW was a big feeder for Harvard and Georgetown, while Georgetown was a big supplier for NYU.)

Speaking of losers, these are the law schools that lost the most students in the 2015 transfer market. When putting and keeping asses in seats is more important than ever, this is a list law schools will want to run — nay, sprint — from. Here they are:

  1. American: (69 students out, 33 in)
  2. Florida Coastal: (69 out, 0 in)
  3. Arizona Summit: (49 out, 0 in)
  4. Hastings: (43 out, 20 in)
  5. Suffolk: (42 out, 0 in)
  6. Atlanta’s John Marshall: (41 out, 17 in)
  7. Charleston: (40 out, 0 in)

It’s no real surprise that students are leaving unranked and for-profit law schools in droves, but we’re left to wonder what’s going on at American and Hastings. Per Professor Organ’s data, a good number of Hastings transfers left for UC Berkeley and UCLA, while more than half of American’s transfers flocked to GW. On the bright side, at least Hastings and American are top feeder schools for something. (As an aside, we’d really love to know who in their right mind is transferring to Atlanta’s John Marshall.)

Readers, do any of these numbers surprise you? Please let us know what you think.

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Updating the Transfer Market Analysis for 2015 [Legal Whiteboard]
Organ: The 2015 Law School Transfer Market [TaxProf Blog]
Harvard Law School Through the Back Door? [The Careerist]
These law schools accepted and lost the most transfer students; is Harvard too eager? [ABA Journal]

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