15 Things to do After Deciding to Transfer Law Schools

Y'all... so at the beginning of last semester I had a reader reach out to me on advice about transferring law schools. And then this past week she emailed me a thank you because she got accepted into her new school! Literally I was probably as much if not more excited for her to be transferring! So I sent her back an email of things she needed to do ASAP, and realized that this is some good information to share so violà here is a post for any of you transfers out there.

Related: 6 steps to transferring law schools and What to expect as a transfer student

1. Let your current landlord know you're leaving 

Most require 30 days notice before you move out. Cancel your cable and utilities if those aren't handled by your landlord. Also set up mail forwarding so you don't miss any mail (FYI some government information won't forward).

2. Tell your current school that you are transferring 

Even if you told them you were considering transferring, let them know for sure. In my case, this was easiest done in person. Make sure the registrar drops you from your classes and make sure student business services knows not to charge you. Also send an email to your Westlaw and Lexis representatives so you can switch those accounts over to your new school. Texas people— if you're going from one Texas school to another, let the Bar know that the information on your Dec has changed or if you're transferring in to Texas, you'll need to file your Dec ASAP. 

Related: What you need to know about the Declaration of Intent to Study Law

3. Email your new school's registrar 

Most of your classes will transfer but that doesn't mean that you'll necessarily have all of the required courses (ex. my old school required 2 hours of legal writing, my new school required 6 hours of "legal practice" which was writing and experience work). Ask about spring classes (my new school registers fall and spring at once). Also check rate my professor to make sure you're not signing up for misery.

4. Find housing 

The worst part about transferring is that usually by now all of the good student housing is already filling up if not full. Get on it ASAP. Try ApartmentList.com because it's literally like Tinder for apartments haha. Go in and change your address on your student loan information so that you make sure you're not missing any information.


Related: Apartment hunting tips

5. Contact financial aid

Make sure that you contact your new financial aid advisor and don't forget to go in and change any of your information on any loans that you've already filled out so that your new school will get paid. And it's a slim chance, but you might as well see about any 2L or transfer scholarships that you might qualify for jusssst in case. 

Related: How to find law school scholarships

6. Contact career services 

Fall on campus interviews (OCIs) with law firms are starting to sign up now. Warning, you might be a little late to the game but go ahead and contact your career advisor to make sure you catch up. Your 2L summer job could depend on this so get on it now. 

7. Get a parking pass

The worst part about transferring is that you're right back at the bottom of the totem pole with the 1Ls. That means if your school has limited spots and you forget to get on the waitlist until October (*cough* guilty), you'll be walking allll the way from the next parking lot over for your first year. 

8. Find out all that your school has to offer

You want to be a pubic defender? Go to Facebook and search for School Law Criminal Society/Organization/whatever. Find out when their first meeting is and befriend everyone who will be in your classes. Not only that, but find out what journals/clinics/dual degrees/programs that your new school has to offer and find out how to get on board. You gots some catching up to do.

9. Explore your new city

Find out how far it takes you to get to class. Find the best study spot. Find your new go-to late night food fix. Don't let yourself feel like an outsider for too long! And don't forget to find the fun stuff like the best bars and apartments with the best pools. Eventually you'll earn a break and this will come in handy. 

10. Make sure you go to orientation

Trust me, I've been there and it can be really annoying to sit through a mock class full of your neighbors whispering I heard property is the hardest, No I heard torts is trickier while you're doing a big eye roll. But go to orientation. You'll hear some information that you already know (what? lawyers have a tendency to drink too much? no way??) but you'll also learn very important stuff like where's the bathroom on the second floor (update: a year later and I still haven't found it), what time does the library close, how do you navigate the schools website? Tough it out, impress everyone when you actually know what the rule is, and awkwardly let people know that you're definitely not in their section.

11. Tour your campus

I moved back to my undergrad so I knew a secret that most law students who weren't here before knew— my school had some amazing food with twice as many choices at this one dorm's dining hall. I actually had to explain to my fellow transfer students when they were like omg where did you find Fazolis so fast?? Take a day before class starts and walk around like you're a freshman (honestly you'll probably be confused as one, it's okay) and wander through buildings and find hidden gems.

12. Sign up for dining bucks

Speaking of food, it might not be the worst idea to go ahead and get dining bucks. Sometimes you're on campus so you might as well have free (well, kinda) food while you're stuck there. And at least for my school, you get a discount for having dining bucks so I save 5% off my poptarts fruit smoothies. See how much it will be to get the minimum commuter plan and if the money rolls over between semesters and years.

13. Meet some current students

No offense but avoid the 1Ls. They won't know what professors to take for what or what journals are the best. Find someone who's at least a 2L (tho 3L's are even better) and ask them to catch you up on all that you need to know. It can be humbling, but if you can't find anyone, go ask your school if there's any mentors or upperclassmen that they could set you up with so you at least have one person to ask all the 20 questions you're about to have in the next week.

14. Prepare for the "why did you transfer??" question

I got that a lot my first year. I always just spun it positively because my new school was a higher rank/cheaper/closer to my family (all true, tbh). You don't want to ever bash your old school because you never know whose family went to your old school or who wanted to go to your old school but couldn't get in. Just keep a positive tone to err on the right side.

15. Drop by office hours

You're new and you got a lot of catching up to do. When it comes to rec letters for jobs, scholarships, or programs, it can be really hard as a transfer to find someone since you're a new face in the crowd. Even if it's just to introduce yourself as a transfer student and ask for advice, go meet your professors.

Law School Podcast

Hey guys so today my "guest post" comes from a collaboration between me and Chance from Law School Outlines! Recently he reached out to me and invited me to be apart of his weekly podcasts (find those here) and obviously I was super excited to do it. Some things we talked about:

How the LSAT relates to law school finals and the Bar exam 

(Related: What I Wish I Knew Before Taking the LSAT)

The one surprising thing I encountered when I was transferring law schools 

(Related: How to Transfer Law Schools)

And how to stay humble through the good grades and motivated through the bad grades 

(Related: How I Got an A in Law School and How to Bounce Back From a Bad Grade)

A little about today's collaborator Chance, an attorney in Fort Worth

Created Law School Outlines to connect with and tutor law school students

Law School: Oklahoma City University School of Law, Class of 2015

Undergrad: Texas State University

Major: Communication Studies

Minor: English

You can click below to hear our conversation, but you can also find all of his podcasts on iTunes! I hope y'all enjoy it 😊 (P.S. -- if the podcast doesn't work, you can use this direct link)

What to Put on a Law School Application Resumé

Recently one of my readers emailed me asking about what to put in her resumé and I realized that I haven't talked much about the application process so I figured I'd share what I put on my resumé when I was first applying and then applying to transfer. Application resumés can be hard because they're a little different than a job resumé and I know from experience that if you Google law school resumé all they have as examples is someone who was super involved in undergrad and when they got their masters and oh yeah they have like 10 years of experience working in the legal field. This is a little more realistic post.

From Undergrad to Law School

So here's everything what mine had:

Heading
Just like everything you put on a job resumé

Education 
My school name and location, graduation date, degree, minors, and GPA

Honors and Scholarships  
Scholarship I was awarded because of my ACT score and the GPA I maintained to keep that, and that one time I made the deans list (with dates)

Leadership experience 
I tried really hard to make being in a sorority and pre-law fraternity sound like I was really involved when really I just chose what flowers we'd use one day during recruitment (dates again)

Extracurricular activities 
This is where I put those organizations that you get in to based on your GPA but only meet like once ever and that I was a part of my school's pre law program too (dates)

International experience 
Where I studied abroad and where I worked during my internship for one of my classes. a friend of mine hard participated in our school's DC internship at the Capitol so she put that here and I just kinda copied that section of hers :)

Volunteer experience 
Basically just all of the philanthropy participation I had to do because of my sorority and fraternity

If I had any legal experience like working at a law office or shadowing a judge, I definitely would've added that in here and put it towards the top because it is the second most relevant part after my education. If you have it, good for you. If you don't, just know that it's not going to ruin your chances. You also might consider having career services take a glance at your resumé before you submit it to get any tips on how to improve your wording.

On this note I'd like to add that a lot of people tend to get super involved their junior/senior year once they decide they want to go to law school so they try to make their resumé sound great. My word of caution is don't get too involved and sacrifice your grades for it. Grades & LSAT > rec letters > resumé  Just to put things in perspective. Also it looks better to be really involved in a few things than barely involved in a ton of things. 

Related: 0L Advice

If you're interested in seeing what other law students did for their resumé, then check out

Telling Twenty's Application Process: Step-by-step and

Justifiably Blonde's What In the Heck Am I Going to Write About

From Law School to Law School

Heading 

Shocker 

Education 

Law school name and location with GPA and class rank first, undergrad second just like what was in ^that^ one

Extracurricular activities 

The scholarship I got and the information similar to ^^, my participation in my 1L moot court, and that I volunteered for this event that my professor held

Organizations and memberships 

The two organizations I joined my 1L year

Legal experience 

My summer internships. I put the information just like I have on my job resumé too about my job requirements. 

Related: How to Get a Summer Internship in the Legal Field 

Language skills

I got a degree in Spanish so yeah everyone is going to know that

If I had been on the ball my 1L year and did pro bono service, I definitely would've listed that on here. I feel like that looks a lot better to a school but again, if you have it great, if you don't obviously it won't ruin your chances.  

Related: 6 Steps to Transferring Law Schools

What it's Like to Transfer Law Schools

In case you're new here, I went to one school for my 1L year and then transferred to my current school for my 2L year. Some of you have mentioned to me that you want to transfer for the next semester, and I'm sure some of you are considering or will consider transferring after this year. These are my un-sugarcoated thoughts on that.

Who are you??

My very first realization about transferring is that it can be awkward. When I went orientation at my new school, at least once an hour an eager 1L would ask me what section I was in with hopes of making a new friend in their class. Each and every time I had to explain to them that I was actually a 2L who transferred. Sometimes they would ask me about my experience or for advice regarding the 1L year and I got to go full on Brazen and Brunette on them and share my knowledge (I never ended up telling them about this, though, because I couldn't think of a non-tryhard way to be like check out my blog). 

Even in my upper-level classes, people will be talking to me and realize that they don't know me so 2L's will ask if I'm a 3L or what section I was in and again I have to explain to them that I wasn't here last year. I'm pretty sure why this keeps happening is because law schools are usually like 200-300 people so it's pretty easy to spot faces after only a year. 

Another thing that happens a lot when I'm talking with other 2L's or 3L's is that people will joke about a professor and I miss out on the joke and when I don't laugh I again have to explain that I wasn't here last year. I just never considered how many times I would have to say "I transferred," but damn if I had $1 for every time I did... 

And of course, because people like to show that they're interested in your life story, every time I mention that I transferred I always have the same followup questions of Where did you transfer from? and Why did you transfer? and often What did you think about your old school? Which do you like better? I have a friend who goes there, do you know so and so? Im not complaining or saying that these questions bother me, I'm just pointing out that it was definitely something I hadn't even thought of. 

Missing your old school

Whether you loved your old school or not, you're going to miss it. It just happens. I think it's because you spent a year (or at least a semester) integrating yourself into a certain school atmosphere, and now you have to leave it all behind and start all over again. Right now I'm taking a class that I had registered for at my old school with one of my favorite professors, and now every time I get confused in my current class I can't help but wonder if I'd be doing better with my old professor.

People transfer for all kinds of reasons

While I obviously transferred as a way to move on to a better school, that's not always the reason why people transfer. Through seeing other students from my old school transfer and meeting transfer students at my new school, I've seen people transfer because they got married and want to live with their spouse, or their spouse got a job opportunity too good to pass up so they had to move, they wanted to move back closer to family, they wanted to move out of the state to get away from family, they decided they'd rather take the bar/practice in another state, or they just realized that their first school wasn't for them. Moral of the story, there's no reason to be embarrassed about transferring. 

Other transfers are a great help

I've ran in to a few great transfer students this semester and it's been such a help. I thought because I was transferring back to my alma mater that I'd adjust instantly. I was wrong. Law school is a whole new animal from undergrad so it helps to have someone else who has been where you have been to catch you up on things that you only would've learned through experience if you spent all 3 years at one school. It's nice to have these people to ask for and give help, like when one of my transfer friends came from another state to Texas and had no idea what to do about the Dec (which is what made me want to do this post).

Missed opportunities

Probably the hardest part about transferring schools is that you miss a lot of opportunities. I was planning on trying to write-on for one of the journals at my old school, but quit the application as soon as I was accepted into my current school. This also means that I missed the window to try to get on to any journal at my new school so now I feel like I'm not doing as much as I can since journals are such a big thing in law school. (PS journals are also referred to as Law Reviews, so don't be confused).

I also had to give up employment opportunities when I transferred. The week after I received my acceptance to my new school, my LRW emailed me that I had gotten the (paid!!) job of TA for his class for the next semester. It was really sad for me to be giving up this opportunity to earn good money while gaining insight and advice from a practicing attorney and gaining a potential great rec letter. I also was in the middle of the interview process for an externship for credit for the spring semester of my 2L year when I was accepted. 

It just sucks having to give up these opportunities to build my résumé. Also, any clout that you've been building up so that you could take on a leadership position in a student organization flies out the window once you become a newbie again at a new school (and also you might miss the elections for these, too). And you also lose any chance to be a class ambassador, or be on a mock trial/moot court/arbitration/negotiations/any other Board of Barristers team. 

Starting off behind

Luckily for me, all of my classes transferred so I didn't lose any credit by changing schools. But that didn't mean that I started off at my new school caught up with everyone else who had been there for their 1L year. I ended up having 5 credits for my core classes of Property, Torts, and Contracts because I took those for 2 semesters, but my new school only required 4 hours for each of these so now I have 3 elective credits more than everyone else. So of course that means I came in lacking at least 3 hours less than everyone else. My new school required all 1L's to have 6 hours worth of "legal practice" and I came in with only 2 from my 2 semesters of a 1-hour legal research and writing. But I needed I think 4 hours of that plus another class worth of legal practice. 

What all of this ended up meaning was that I had to take LRW again (yep, another memo and another brief). At least they put me in the LLM class so it was only a one semester condencsed version with the international students who already were lawyers in their own country instead of me having to be with all of the 1Ls and starting all over again. This was a little frustrating for me because I already had passedthis class so I didn't see the point of retaking it, but it turned out to be advantageous for me because I had already taken this exact class and they hadn't so I already knew all of the rules and requirements. I had one other transfer student in that class with me and he'd already taken it too so it was pretty obvious from the beginning that it would be us two gunning for the A grade in the class.

For my other "legal practice" class, I was signed up for a Negotiations workshop. I guess my school makes all of the transfers take that because I was in there with two other transfer students and the guy from my LRW class is signed up for it for this next semester. Other non-transfers were in there too, but mostly 3L's who want to go in to corporate law or are already on the school's negotiation team through BOB. I probably wouldn't have thought to sign up for this class on my own but I ended up really enjoying it so if you ever need an elective, you might try to take something like that.

You'd think spending my first semester taking these classes (which was half of all that I was registered for) would catch me up but nope I'm still behind :/ I already had my Spring semester full with 16 hours when the registrar emailed me and informed me that I'm still lacking an "experience" class so sometime or another I'm going to have to get in to a clinical program or something and then I will finally be caught up as if I'd been going here all along.

Learning a new school

Like I was saying earlier, you come to a new school and start to get that fresh-faced-1L nervous feeling because again everything is a mystery. Not only did I spend this last semester catching up in my classes, but I also feel like I've been catching up on the school atmosphere as well. At my old school, I knew which professors were great in which subjects and which professors were easy and which were hard asses. So again I had to ask around and find out which professors to take for which class and who to avoid.  

And I had to figure out the curve all over again. Not only do different schools have different curves (ex. a C+ is the average at one school vs a B- is the average at another school), but also it's super normal for schools to have different curves for different levels (a C is the average for 1Ls to weed them out but it goes up to a C+ for 2Ls). So when you're asking your classmates what the curve is, make sure to also ask them what it will be for you for the next year too.

Grades start over

More about grades again, but this time it's good news :D I didn't realize this until mid-semester but when you transfer your grades start over! Yes, I'm sure this sucks if you had a fantastic GPA at your last school, but for the majority of us this is a great opportunity. Let me explain-- at my old school the curve for 1L's was a B- but at my new school the 1L curve is a C+. That means that even if the grades didn't reset I would have started out an average of a quarter grade above everyone else.

The curve for 2L's at my new school is a B so even if I'm just perfectly average this year, my GPA will be a B while everyone else who is average (majority of them) will have a GPA of a B- because their C+ will bring them down more than me. So just starting off, I'm in a really good position to be on the top half of my class rankings! Once I realized this is was kind of a motivator for me because it's hard to imagine yourself getting even a B+ as a 1L, but it's a more realistic goal as a 2L once you know how things work a little. 

Final Thoughts

Too long;didn't read of transferring- you start out behind in credits and being accustomed to the school, but you can use it to your advantage for the "law school game." This past semester has felt like a waste just catching up and I am stressing that I might not graduate in 3 years, but I still don't regret my decision. I ended up learning to love my old school, but all along I always knew that my new school was were I was supposed to be so for me all of this adjustment has been worth it. 

The Difference Between Being a 1L and 2L in Law School

Sorry I've been terrible at keeping up with my Sunday, Wednesday, Friday blogging schedule! It's only been 2 weeks and already the days are flying by. I swear for as fast as college flew by, law school is soaring by even faster. When I was walking to my last class, it dawned on me that after this semester I will be HALFWAY through law school already! That's just too soon! I'm definitely not ready to face the Bar and job market yet :/ Anyhoo, thought I'd write a little post about the transition from a 1L to a 2L.

I think the best description of law school is that your first semester 1L year is like freshman year all over again, your second 1L semester is like a sophomore year, and by the time you get to a 2L you're already a junior. I say this because that first semester is really the most stressful adjustment that I've experienced so far. New school, new professors, new learning techniques, new classroom structure, new grading style. It's all just so new and can be really overwhelming at first. But when you come back from Christmas break, it's no longer new. You're still getting adjusted, but by then you're in the swing of things. As a 2L I really do feel like so much older and wiser compared to how I was as a 1L. 

The Good

One great thing about being an upperclassman is that by now I've got this whole law school thing pretty much down. Last week it only took me 2 hours to thoroughly read 50 pages worth of text and cases. If I was still a 1L getting used to the amount of readings that law school requires, this probably would've taken me an entire afternoon. The only upside to reading this much so often is that you get quicker at it.

Related: How to make a study schedule

Another plus about being an upperclassman is that the curve actually gets easier after the first year. I'm sure this is to weed out all of the people who either don't seriously want to be lawyers or just don't have the dedication to do all of the assignments. At my old school, the curve as a 1L required that the average grade be a B- and for 2L's it was a B. Here, the curve for 1L's was a C and now it's all the was up to a B. I've survived the curve for two semesters so I'm not really scared of it anymore, but that is very comforting to know.

Related: All about the law school curve

It also seems like there's more opportunities as a 2L. A lot of clinics or positions aren't even open until after your 1L year because that year is supposed to be dedicated to getting used to law school. But now as an older student I get preference for these over any 1L's, because of my experience and that they know I won't flunk out if I take on another project.

Related: Law school clinics

The Bad

Obviously the most stressful thing of being a 2L is that now it's really time to get serious about getting a legal job. Non-law-related jobs aren't really an option any more because I always need more job experience. And now I'm competing against people who clerked last summer or are even still doing it. I'm fortunate that firms usually prefer a 2L, but I still feel the pressure to get something lined up already.

Related: How to find a legal job

An unfortunate downside to transferring is that I'm kinda behind. I know a lot of people who are officers in their organizations or write for a journal, but I wasn't here last spring when these positions were available. I also missed out on all of the scholarships because their due dates were before I was even accepted. So now I have to go to all these info sessions with the 1L's to try to catch up.

Related: What it's like to transfer law schools

Overall

I think the reason why being a 2L isn't nearly as bad as a 1L is that you have so much more confidence. As a 1L I constantly felt like I wasn't good enough and that I was just faking being smart. But now I've passed a full year with pretty decent grades so I have the been-there-done-that confidence. That's not to say that I'm invincible, though, because I still spend all class hoping that I don't get called on even though I read the cases because it's so nerve-wrecking trying to answer the professor's trick questions. I know this post wasn't long, but this is all I've noticed these past two weeks. But I'm sure there will be a lot more new experiences that I'll face as a 2L. 


Related: 2L year in review

Snapchats

Tips from Law School Orientation

Well guys I have now completed two law school orientations. I didn't realize how nervous I had been the first time around until this time when everyone around me was a nervous wreck and I was just like, chill guys. This time when I was given free swag from Lexis I wasn't confused because I knew all about them. And when a professor used a term and then followed it by saying "you'll learn more about this later," I already knew what they were referencing. 

To be honest, it was a little awkward when I'd meet a 1L and they'd ask what section I'm in so I'd have to explain that I'm actually a 2L transfer. But then they'd always ask me about my 1L year or for advice, and obviously I love giving advice about law school so I'd just blab their ears off. What's strange to think about is that as a blogger I don't know if I should be like yeah you should check out my blog! or if that's weird.

My favorite part was went I saw on the schedule that one of the events was titled A Day In The Life Of A Law Student and I could laugh because been there, done that, wrote a blog post about it. There was also a segment titled Thinking Like A Lawyer which just so happened to be my theme for my personal statement when I transferred. Seriously I couldn't have been more prepared for this week haha. 

But that doesn't mean I didn't pay attention! Oh no, my friends. I decided to put my new colorful pen set that just came in to test and make colorful notes you y'all. I know some of this might be repeat or different from what you've just heard, but I figured the more informed you are, the better! Sorry that I don't have tumblr-esque writing lol.

I liked how this orientation really took the time to explain how to write a case brief. They went more in depth than your typical IRAC, but the professor went over it slowly with an example case. (PS if you're struggling to fill these out, here's a post with some help)

Another great thing that I took from round 2 was a suggestion on how to take notes. You've probably heard of the Cornell Method of note taking, but this professor customized that style for law school. One thing I want to work on this semester is hand writing the summaries of my chapters to hopefully help myself study more, so I'm planning on using this when I do. 

What you do is on the front split your page into about 1/3 on one side and 2/3 on the other. For 1/3 you'll have the main parts of your brief, and then right beside it on the larger half you can take notes about that brief. That way you're not switching back and forth between the two. On the back you make a summary of that case so that you'll have all this information already together and ready for your outline.

Six Steps to Transferring Law Schools

Wow so much to celebrate in the past week! Yesterday I finally got the news that I've been hoping to hear for over a year—that I've been accepted to my dream school.

I'm so excited to announce that I'm moving back to Lubbock to attend the wonderful Texas Tech School of Law!! ❤️🔫🆙

A photo posted by Nikki (@oh.nikki.you.so.fine) on Jul 26, 2016 at 2:13pm PDT

Being as obsessed with blogging as I am, one of my first thoughts was ooh this will make a good blog post haha. I'm pathetic. The whole process turned out to be easier than I expected, but definitely made me cry stress tears along the way.

Choosing to transfer

I always wanted to transfer after I found out that there just wasn't a spot for me to be moved off the waitlist. The quote that I always kept in the back of my mind was sometimes a No is really just a Not Now. The main reasons why I wanted to transfer is that my new school is cheaper, closer to my friends and family, and truthfully is a higher ranked school. 

I thought about applying after my first semester but talked myself out of it because 1) I didn't know if you even can, and 2) if I had another good semester then I'd have some solid grades to support my application. Luckily, back in May I got a letter from the Dean of Admissions inviting me to apply to transfer. I'm assuming that this is a something they do for the waitlisted people because we are more on the Maybe list than the No list. 

The hard part is that my school didn't release our grades until late June and our ranks until Mid-July so I wasted a few weeks seeing if I was even eligible to transfer. I read somewhere that supposedly some schools do this to make it harder for people to transfer out because of deadlines. 

But as soon as I got my grades back and was happy with them, I called the Dean of Admissions to personally let him know that I was interested, and explained that I had been waiting for my grades before applying. He reassured me that I wasn't late in the process and informed me that they make transfer decisions fairly quickly because they review and decide your file as soon as it comes in because they know that we have to move and whatnot if we transfer. 

GPA/Rank

Obviously this is the most important thing that you need to have down if you want to transfer. Your goal should be at least to be in the top half of your class rank if you want to transfer. As a general rule, the bigger the difference in ranks between your two schools, the higher you should aim for. 

Being in the top half of my class wasn't as hard as it sounds because I just tried my best in every class and ended up with my lowest grade each semester being only one C+ (thanks curve). Having the goal of transferring already when I began my 1L year was a great motivator for me because I knew that I had my 2L and 3L years to get the grades for a job, but only this first year to get to transfer.

LSAT

The great news about transferring is that your LSAT is not as big of a factor as the first go around. When I mentioned that I was considering transferring to one of my professors, he told me this and it really gave me hope.  My professor explained that this is because schools don't have to count transfer student's LSAT in what they release, so your meh score won't hurt their reputation. 

Now I'm not saying that a 120 will get you in, but if your score was borderline the first time you might still get in. This is because they still consider it to see if you're capable of doing well on finals and the bar, because these scores do affect their reputation.

Rec Letters

Going to a professor asking for a rec letter to transfer is awkward, not going to lie. I felt like I was indirectly telling them that I didn't like them or thought that I was too good for them, which was definitely not how I wanted to come off. Luckily though, they understood that it's common for people who do well their first year to try to use that to their advantage to move up the law school ladder. 

What really helped was that law school forces you to participate in class so your professors will actually have something to say about your class performance. Another thing that helps is that the classes are smaller and you have some professors for 9 months so they really get to know you. I just scheduled an appointment with them to go over my final and then at the end brought up about how I was considering transferring and asked if they would write a letter for me. 

One thing to definitely bring with you is a school résumé with your class rank and GPA so that they know your strong points to address. And make sure that you give your professors a deadline of when you want it in before your personal deadline because they will most likely have to submit it through LSAC and wait for that to be added to your file, which takes time. 

Related: How to ask for a rec letter

Personal Statement 

The first go around, I wasn't all that confident in my personal statement. My theme was basically "why I want to go to law school," and I felt like SpongeBob trying to write about what he learned in boating school. When I started to write a new one, I instantly started to have a theme of "why I want to transfer" and it ended up sounding very forced. 

Related: Personal statement advice

Finally I decided that I hated it and wanted to start all over, and for some reason I just sat down and started writing it like I was writing a blog post, and it sounded much more like me. Once I treated the admissions committee like y'all, the words started flowing and I came up with a new theme. I took this girl's advice and used this as an opportunity to explain how I've grown this past year. 

To be honest it was tempting to mention Brazen and Brunette as an example of what I've accomplished since last applying, but I finally decided against it because I didn't know if this would make them take me less seriously since I didn't know if they'd actually come check this out or not. 

Application

Luckily LSAC saves all of your application responses for 5 years, so the application part was easy peasy. Just make sure that when you go to fill it out, you choose a transfer application instead of a regular one. Oh and of course make sure you update your information so they have a current email and mailing address for you since you've probably moved since last time. 

Another thing to remember for your application is that you'll have to send in a new transcript from your current law school. I had to email them to get them to add my law school because at first my only options were high school or undergrad. Speaking of undergrad, if you were accepted into law school before your final grades from undergrad were posted, make sure you get an updated transcript from your undergrad sent in. It took about 4 business days for my school to mail off the transcript, and another business week for LSAC to add these to my file, so get this done ASAP.

Related: What to put on a law school transfer résumé

Letter of Good Standing

This was something that I didn't even know I needed until the school emailed me telling me that it was missing from my file. I'm assuming that this means that you have no holds, have paid all of your tuition, and are still a student at your current school. I had to visit Dean of Student Records to get this. At least at my school, before I could even get this letter I had to speak with our Assistant Dean for Law Student Affairs and be approved. 

All this involved was scheduling a meeting with him to explain why I wanted to transfer and my thoughts on the school. I made sure to request that my class rank be included in this letter because my transferring school required it and I wasn't sure if it was already included on my transcript. The hardest part of this was that I was transferring at prime vacation time so it did take over a week to get all of this done. 

Acceptance

Since all my application was waiting on was this letter of good standing, I went ahead and asked that a copy of the letter be emailed to the admissions people at my transferring school. Apparently Tech had already reviewed my application and all but accepted me because within 20 minutes of this being emailed out I got an acceptance email!!