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Originally posted by Exquisite5
I will be a 3L in the fall (YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!)
With that said, I have enjoyed my Howard experience. I'm not gonna lie the administration makes me want to throw stones and some its personnel and things happen WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to slow, but I love the students, I love the legacy, I love the spirit about the place and I love the opportunities HUSL provides.
I do not at all regret my decision. I am summer associate in arguably the best (def top 3) DC firms. Other summers in my class are from Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Penn and I in no way feel unable to compete with them or unprepared. In fact, attys have commented on my writing, and well Howard is known for its legal writing program. I think I made the right decision and for me that included turning down Georgetown, AU and UHouston (#1 in health law which at the time I was interested in).
Regarding your consideration of transferring, I can only say that only you can make that decision. I don't know what kind of recruiting goes on at SULC, but I do know that tier matters and my firm and none of those I interviewed with but rejected go to Southern. HUSL is generally the choice recruiting place among HBCU law schools. Also, going to a regional school in general will diminish your chances of being recruited on campus by a large law firm, they generally stick to the national law schools or top 15 state schools (Penn, UT, UC systems, etc...).
So, if a Louisiana firm is what you want I say stick with SULC, but if you want a Cleary, Skadden, Wilmer, Paul Weis, Cravath, A&P type law firm you might want to consider another school or at least transferring.
However, let me point out while you may not have those firms coming on campus to interview you which is the blessing of attending a national law school you still can send out your resume and transcript full of outstanding grades (they will be necessary to do this) and maybe they will call you for an interview. This is very difficult because most firms have the schools they recruit from and that's it.
I don't want to discourage you, but I want to be honest. You seem to want a big firm job and I want to help you out. Feel free to PM me.
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I attend one of the law schools that Exquisite 5 was accepted to and chose not to attend. I was accepted into HU and chose not attend. I am also going into my last year of law school. Right now, I am clerking at a firm that takes nothing less than the top 20% of the class. At this firm, the starting salary is in the high 5 figures and you have the opportunity of making partner in 5 years as an associate.
I agree that when firms are looking to hire blacks they go to HU rather than going to some of the other HBCU law schools. However, if they want blacks that go to the white schools, they will go there too. I will also say that going to a white school, there are still some firms that interview at my school and did not interview at HU. It really just depends as Exquisite indicated. All of the big Texas firms interview at my law school so if you are interested in practicing in TX, that is something that you might want to consider.
I think there are benefits and drawbacks to going a black law school and a white law school. Regardless of where you go, you will have to prove to those that are around you (mainly your white counterparts), that you are just as brilliant and talented as they are and can work twice as hard.
If you choose to transfer to a white law school, pick a law school that has an active BLSA chapter. My school does and that helped a lot in going through the rigors of law school. Also, look at the schools that you are interested in attending and look at their bar passage rates.
PM me if you have any questions and I will try to answer them as best I can.