Transfer Students
How do I apply to Washington and Lee School of Law as a transfer student for the J.D. program?
- Submit the application currently available on LSAC.org, indicating your intention to seek admission as a transfer student. Please contact the Office of Admissions at 540.458.8503 or lawadm@wlu.edu should you need assistance.
- An official statement of your cumulative class rank at the end of your first year.
- A letter from the dean of your current law school, written after the end of the spring semester, stating that you are a student in good standing and are eligible to return to the law school for your second year.
- One letter of recommendation from a faculty member at your current law school or a lawyer who is familiar with your legal work product. A letter from a faculty member at your current law school is preferred. If you choose to have a lawyer write your letter of recommendation, he/she must be familiar with legal work you have performed as part of a position you have held during your time in law school and be able to speak specifically to your performance in that position. Letters must be submitted through CAS.
- An official transcript of your entire first-year's work in law school issued after spring semester grades have been posted. This transcript should be submitted to LSAC so it can be included in your CAS report (do not send your transcript directly to the admissions office).
- A CAS report. You should contact LSAC to insure that your CAS subscription is current. If you applied to your initial law school with GRE test scores rather than an LSAT score, you must submit your GRE scores to W&L Law. To submit your GRE score, log into your ETS account and select Washington and Lee University School of Law using ETS institution code 2937. You must submit all GRE scores from the past five (5) years.
Review of transfer applications is conducted as soon as applicants' files become complete. It is to your advantage to file your application and all supporting credentials in a timely manner. We do not make any decisions on a transfer applicant's file until we receive ALL application materials (including transcript of first year grades). Most transfer applicants receive an admissions decision from our office in late June, however, 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 admitted only for the fall semester.
Apply Now. Visit our application webpage for application documents and procedures.
Please note that a seat deposit of $500 is required for admitted transfer students. The $500 non-refundable deposit must be submitted by the deadline indicated on the student's Applicant Status Online (ASO) status checker.
Credit Evaluation. 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 28 hours of transfer credit.
Once you have paid your deposit and confirmed that you will be attending W&L Law, a statement of your prior coursework will be prepared by our Associate Dean for Academics with consultation from the Director of Law Records. At the conclusion of this assessment, you will receive a letter identifying which W&L degree requirements you have 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. Our 1L curriculum is detailed in the Law School Catalog, located here. 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.
Questions? Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page for Transfer Students for answers to a number of common transfer applicant questions.