We seat transfer students every year, but this number varies from year to year, and historical data is not predictive of how many offers of admission we will extend in a given admissions cycle. We review each file in an effort to identify the most qualified candidates who will truly excel at W&L Law. We do not provide statistics on transfer applications or admissions.
We will not review any transfer application until it is COMPLETE, i.e. we have received all requisite materials. For a great many of our applicants, this process is often delayed by the receipt of their complete first-year transcript, as well as official letter of good standing from their current law school. We will not accept faxed copies of these documents in lieu of official, hard copies. Interested transfer students are encouraged to begin this process as soon as feasible as the assembling of these materials can often take longer than anticipated.
As with our J.D. application review, we take a holistic approach to transfer file review. We do not use a formula. We do not assign specific weights to individual aspects of a candidate's file.
Consistent with this approach, we consider a number of factors when reviewing transfer applications, and no single factor is determinative. Such factors include, but are in no way limited to: undergraduate GPA, first year performance, current institution, letters of recommendation, LSAT score, the letter of good standing from the Dean of your current law school. There is no cut-off for class rank, class percentile or GPA.
Most transfer applicants receive an admissions decision from our office in mid-July, although this timeframe is intended to be a guideline and not a guarantee. As with other aspects of the admissions process, the timing of these decisions can vary.
Transfer students are not eligible for scholarship consideration.
For 2012-2013, Tuition is $42,425. The total cost of attendance for Financial Aid purposes (including Cost of Living adjustment as well as various student fees) is $64,555. One of the great aspects of life in Lexington is the low cost of living, and many students find they can live on much less than the amount allotted for the Cost of Living adjustment ($16,613).
For more information about tuition, fees, and financial aid, please see our Financing Your Legal Education webpage.
Once you've accepted our offer of admission, paid the requisite seat deposit and confirmed your intention to enroll at W&L Law, you will be contacted by a professional from our Career Planning office to schedule a thirty to forty minute telephonic intake interview with you. This interview will set the stage for your subsequent interactions with our OCP office and its resources and help you sharpen your resume and companion materials before you begin your employment search. As many application deadlines are during the summer, you are encouraged to schedule your interview as soon as possible.
For more information about our Office of Career Planning, please consult the following links:
Career Planning Page for Transfer Students
This assessment is NOT conducted by the admissions office. We cannot provide you with an assessment of the amount of credit you will receive for your prior coursework until you've been admitted AND confirmed your intention to enroll at W&L Law. As a general rule, no student will receive more than 31 hours of transfer credit.
Once you've paid your deposit and confirmed that you will be attending W&L Law, a statement of your prior coursework will be prepared by our Director of Law Records and passed along to a Dean for review and assessment. At the conclusion of this assessment, you will receive a letter identifying which W&L degree requirements you've fulfilled, those that need to be fulfilled, and the number of transfer credits awarded. This letter is typically mailed within a few weeks of your confirmation letter. Although we make every effort to conduct this review in as expeditious a manner as possible, we sincerely appreciate your patience as we conduct this evaluation.
Our first year is slightly different from the 1L curriculum of many law schools. During their first year, our 1Ls take American Public Law Process (APLP), Civil Procedure, Contracts, Criminal Law, Property, Torts, Professional Responsibility and Transnational Law. It is quite common for transfers not to have taken one or more of these classes during their first year of law school. For more information about Academics at W&L Law, please consult the following links:
Criteria for awarding credit include examination of courses taken, the materials covered by those courses, credit hours awarded, and grades received. Courses are eligible for transfer credit only if a grade of C or above was received.
Our practice at W&L is to compute class rank in five (5) percent increments; each semester the grade point averages that are the upper and lower boundaries for each such increment are published by the Director of Law Records. Transfer students will not have a cumulative ranking at Washington and Lee until the end of the 2011-12 academic year, when they will be assimilated into the ranking of their class based upon the academic record compiled here. For more information about this conversion process, please see our example of this conversion computation.
Transfer students are unable to join our Law Review. The Law Review selection process has often concluded by the time transfer students receive their offers of admission. However, our Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, as well as our Journal of Energy Climate and the Environment typically hold write-on competitions for transfer students during the fall. For more information about journals at W&L Law, please see our Journals webpage.
Transfer students are eligible for all academic honors and awards, including Order of the Coif.
Transfer students are encouraged and invited to participate in the various Moot Court activites. Our Moot Court program is a little different, practically speaking, than programs found at other law schools. Rather than having a fixed Moot Court team of ten or twelve individuals who represent the law school at all external competitions, we have internal competitions to determine the individuals who will represent the school externally. These competitions are not mandatory, but they are open to all second and third year students. The competitions include Negotiations, Appellate Advocacy, Mock Trial, Client Counseling and Mediation. First year students are not able to compete in these competitions, although they are able to participate as clients, witnesses and bailiffs.
All participating students are able to have at least one round of experience at the school level. Those students who perform well advance to subsequent rounds, and the students who win ultimately go on to represent W&L Law at regional competitions, and potentially, nationally.
The Moot Court program is run by the Moot Court Executive Board. This organization consists of third year students, and while there is some faculty involvement, the students are responsible for the administration of the competitions. Faculty, practitioners and judges are often brought in to judge the later and final rounds of the individual competitions.
For more information about our Moot Court program, please see our Moot Court webpage.
Orientation begins on August 22nd. Class commences on August 27th. For a full listing of dates and scheduling information, please consult our 2012-2013 academic calendar:
Academic Calendar - 2012-13
Transfer orientation occurs over the same three day period as the orientation process for the 1L class, although the programming is different. All transfer students are required to attend Orientation.
Transfer students register for classes as part of the Orientation process. Advisors are available to discuss class selection with those students who are interested. For a full listing of available courses, please refer to our course catalog:
Online Course Catalog - 2010-11
Lexington's small town charm, low cost of living, good schools and strong sense of community provide a high quality of life for those law students relocating to Lexington with spouses, significant others, fiances or families. W&L Law even offers a student organization, Law Families, which allows law students, as well as their spouses, significant others or families, to connect with others who are similarly situated. Please visit our Students with Families page for information about this group, as well as resources for job seekers and information regarding school and childcare for those students relocating to Lexington with children.