Anyone have experience with this? Are there guaranteed spots designated for transfer students? How competitive is it? Are secondary journals worth it?
Depends on your school? Some yes, some no.
Very competitive, from my experience. But, probably depends on the school.
I think so.
Just wrote onto a secondary journal at my transfer school and from what I’ve gathered they help with OCI at the new school and they help you integrate and make friends there as well. From what I understand, sometimes students have transfer stigma but it’s a little less if you can get onto a journal.
Secondary journal participation is an opportunity to research, edit, write, work with an editor, get published & to become an editor. In short, it depends upon what you do with the opportunity that determines whether or not it is worthwhile.
Additionally, secondary journals have their own alumni network that can help when seeking a legal position.
But how do employers view secondary journals?
For re’sume’: Law Review > Secondary Journal >> Moot Court >>> Extracurricular Board >>>> nothing
Transfer write-on is extremely competitive, but any journal gets you access to exclusive circles and events.
From what I’ve heard, getting on to the primary journal is competitive — very competitive. Still, in general, it’s no worse than write-on at home schools. I think I’ve seen that most school take 2-3 transfer students for journal. How competitive it is depends, in part, on how big the transfer class is (Penn takes 20-25 transfer students, while CLS takes like 60). Even if you don’t get on to the primary journal/review, wherever you go, if you can try out for and get on to a secondary journal, do it. I’m not sure where you’re headed, but lots of transfers can at least usually pull a secondary journal. Journal is something that sticks out, and if you can get on at you transfer school (primary or secondary), it’s SOMETHING to show employers, since all of your accomplishments and activities are at your old school. Plus, it shows determination. If you have the chance to participate in a write-on, do it; you’ve probably got some (relatively) free time, and journal participation looks great to employers and, perhaps more importantly, is a great opportunity to hone your skills.
This thread is relevant to my interests even though this post offers nothing of any relevance to the conversation. So I will end it with good luck to all transfer write on competitors