Transferring Divisions
Transferring from 1st Year Evening to 2nd Year Day Division
The guidelines set forth below assume that it is a student's intention to graduate in three years.
Under current faculty policy, students have an absolute right to transfer at the end of the first year, i.e., after completion of Moot Court in the June Term. Thereafter students may transfer back and forth between divisions at any semester break.
Students must complete their required courses in the division in which they entered the law school. Evening 1L students who transfer to the day division in year two, will be required to complete the remaining required courses (with the exception of the upperclass writing requirement, the stat/reg course elective and Legal Profession) in the evening division. Thus you will be automatically enrolled in the two-credit evening sections of Constitutional Law and Property in both the fall and spring of your second year. Because allowing deviations from this rule would create scheduling havoc, no exceptions are possible without the approval of the associate dean for academic affairs, who may refer your request to the faculty Petitions Committee. Such exception has rarely been granted and only in extraordinary circumstances.
Students must complete a total of six (6) credits of summer work in order to meet the residency credit requirements. Carrying extra credits during a fall or spring semester will NOT earn additional residency credit. Three (3) of the required six (6) credits will be earned by completing Moot Court in the June Term following the first year. The other three (3) credits may be earned in any one of the following ways:
- Take another summer course at the end of the first year.
- Take another summer course at the end of the second year.
- With advance approval of the Dean's Office, take a 3-credit summer course at another ABA approved law school.
- With advance approval of the Dean's Office, take a 3-credit graduate level summer course at a non-law school (under the so-called "six-credit rule").
- Complete a Special Research Project for at least three (3) credits over the summer. This can also be used to fulfill the Upperclass Writing Requirement.
- Complete an Individual Externhsip for at least three (3) credits over the summer.
NOTE: The above options are at the discretion of the student. Some students prefer to take care of all of their credits during the first summer so that if they are fortunate enough to land a clerkship in a law office for the summer after the second year they won't have any incomplete academic obligations. However, students may wish to discuss the demands of Moot Court with faculty of the Moot Court Department before you decide to take two (2) courses during the first summer.
Transferring students will have completed significantly fewer credit-hours by the end of their first year than their counterparts who began as full-time students. (First-year students in the full-time day division program complete 33 credits, as compared to 22 for first-year evening students and 26 for four-year day students.) Even with the required summer courses, transferees from the evening division, in particular, must take an average of 15.25 credits in each of their remaining four semesters to graduate in three years, as compared with 13.25 for students who began as full-time students. Fifteen or more credits per semester is a substantial load and probably not an optimal one in terms of educational value, especially during the second year when (because of the required year-long Constitutional Law and Property courses) this will require enrolling in a total of six courses or the equivalent per semester. To mitigate this heavy workload, the faculty urges students who transfer from the evening division to consider seriously the possibility of enrolling in additional summer credits beyond the six described above.
It is imperative that students complete the change of division form and submit it to the Registrar's Office for approval prior to the posted deadlines. This will allow students to select courses during the enrollment appointment times established for day division students.
