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Transfer Students

General Information 

Thank you for considering UCI Law for your legal education. All of the following information is important; you should read this in its entirety prior to beginning the application for admission. While the below information is a comprehensive overview of the application instructions, by submitting the application you must adhere to the instructions physically with the application.

You will receive an e-mail confirmation of our receipt of your Fall 2024 Transfer application that contains your log-on credentials for the Applicant Status Online system within 72 business hours of submission (3 business days). Please check all your folders and/or tabs for this e-mail. If you did not receive it, please contact us via admissions@law.uci.edu and include your full LSAC account number (including the L).

Dates & Deadlines

March 20, 2024	12:00PM PT - Transfer Virtual Information Session. REGISTER
April 1, 2024	JD Transfer Application opens through the LSAC portal.
June 15, 2024	Fall 2024 JD Transfer Application is due
July 8, 2024	Total $750 SIR Deposit Due (this will become rolling for later admits; refer to the dates provided with your admission) Statement of Legal Residence (SLR) Due
July 22-25, 2024	UCI Law Early Interview Week Starts (Transfers will receive access to the Career Development Office shortly after receipt of the Total SIR Deposit and completing an enrollment certification – including prior to July 15.)
August 14-16, 2024	Mandatory New Student Orientation
August 15, 2024	4:00PM PT - Deadline to Pay Fall Tuition and Fees without Late Fees
August 19, 2024	First Day of Instruction

Transfer Application Information

UCI Law Application for Admission: The transfer application is available through the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) website beginning on April 1.

To promote access to a legal education at UCI, there is no application fee. A fee waiver is not necessary. Due to our limited resources, we are unable to grant CAS report fee waivers.

When submitting your application for admission, please strictly adhere to all application instructions. In addition to completing the application form itself, we require additional essays or statements. Additional instructions regarding the following statements are included with the application:

• Personal Statement (750-word limit)
• “Why UCI Law” Statement (750-word limit)
• Current Resumé
• Character and Fitness/Conduct information, if applicable
• An Inclusive Excellence Essay is optional (500-word limit)
• Additional Optional Statements may only be a LSAT Addendum and/or a GPA Addendum. (While you may write about one or both topics, the total word limit among these optional statements is 500 words.)

Please ensure the correct documents are submitted with your application; updates or revisions of documents are not accepted. Please follow formatting instructions and be sure to indicate your name, LSAC Account number, and the type of document (Personal Statement, Inclusive Excellence Essay, etc.) in the header of each document. 

Note: Conduct disclosures are separate and distinct from the optional statements. There is no word count limitation on conduct disclosures, please utilize the space you need to fully explain any incident(s) and rehabilitation.

Credential Assembly Service: All transfer applicants must register for and utilize the LSAC’s Credential Assembly Service (CAS). The CAS will house your transcripts, letters of recommendation, and, as applicable, your LSAT score and LSAT writing sample.

Education: In order to apply for admission, you must:

• Possess your bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education. (The accredited institution must be listed on the U.S. Department of Education’s database.) and
• Have completed (or be in the process of completing) one-year of law study at an ABA-accredited law school. In terms of your law school education, the following should be true:
  1. A minimum of 28 and no more than 29 credits have been completed;
  2. The work for which transfer credit is sought is of very high quality;
  3. The student has not been placed on probation or disqualified;
  4. Fewer than 5 years have elapsed since the student last attended law school.

Please note: Students from law schools that are only state-approved are not eligible for transfer admission. Those students are eligible to apply for 1L admission without advanced standing.

Transcripts: UCI Law requires transcripts from every college or university attended (except study abroad transcripts from foreign universities) must be submitted for inclusion in your CAS Report. Failing to include a transcript will result in your file being marked as incomplete (and may also delay delivery of a CAS report) and delay review by the Admissions Committee.

Law school transcripts may be included in the CAS Report or sent separately. Regardless of method, you remain responsible for your law school transcripts reaching UCI Law. We strongly encourage you to use the CAS Report for your law school transcripts, but we will also accept electronic copies directly from the Registrar’s office to admissions@law.uci.edu. If you must send via US Post, they can be sent to:

Any transcripts that are mailed are deemed as not received until a member of the admissions team physically processes them and includes them with your file.

Applicants may apply to UCI Law with only their fall semester grades from an ABA-accredited law school (plus a letter of standing), in anticipation of their spring semester grades. The Admissions Committee may, at its discretion, consider transfer applicants with one semester of grades - the applicant cannot request this. Applicants who are admitted with one-semester of grades receive a conditional offer of admission to UCI Law. 

Letters of Standing: All transfer applicants are required to submit letters of standing as part of the application and must come from every law school you previously attended (even if no grades were issued). The letter must be current based on your most recent semester of attendance and grades from that semester. This letter may be included with your CAS Report or sent separately directly from the law school you attended to UCI Law Admissions. It is your responsibility to ensure the letter of standing is received by UCI Law Admissions.

We encourage you to utilize either the CAS Report or to have the letter e-mailed directly from the Registrar’s office to admissions@law.uci.edu. If you must send via US Post, the letter may be sent to:

Any letters of standing that are mailed are deemed as not received until a member of the admissions team physically processes them and includes them with your file. 

Standardized Tests: UCI Law requires a standardized test as a part of the JD transfer application. Applicants must have been admitted to their current JD program with either the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) or the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). The standardized test included must be the same as the one utilized when you applied to your current JD program.

UCI Law utilizes the term LSAT to refer to both the traditional LSAT and the LSAT-flex. LSAT results are sent directly to the Law School from LSAC as part of your CAS report. 

Applicants may submit their GRE result(s) directly to UCI from ETS. If you submit your GRE scores for consideration and have taken the GRE more than once in the last five years then you must submit all valid GRE results. UCI Law uses the graduate school's GRE school code which is 4859. Please see the application form for additional directions. For applicants who were admitted to their current JD program with the GRE, please be mindful that you must submit all GRE scores for the five (5) years prior to your admission to your current JD program. Applicants must not use the ScoreSelect option offered by ETS. Failure to submit all GRE scores and/or use of ScoreSelect may result in a withdrawal of an admission offer. Applicants who utilized the GRE must still utilize the LSAC CAS report for transcripts and letters of recommendation. After receipt of your GRE Score Report we will manually request the CAS Report.

Letters of Recommendation: UCI Law requires a minimum of two (2) but no more than three (3) letters of recommendation. Two (2) letters must be from faculty at your current law school.

Letters of recommendation must be on file with LSAC and assigned to UCI Irvine School of Law. We will not receive your CAS Report until at least two (2) letters are assigned to UCI Law and on file with LSAC.

The optional third (3rd) letter of recommendation may come from either academic or professional sources. We do not suggest solely personal references.

Transfer of Credit Policy

Enrolled transfer students will receive up to a maximum of 29 transfer credits towards the UC Irvine School of Law J.D. degree for coursework completed the first year. The specific number of transfer credits, whether the UC Irvine School of Law requirements have been fulfilled, and UC Irvine School of Law course equivalencies will be determined by the Assistant Dean of Student Services. You may be asked by the Assistant Dean of Student Services to submit course descriptions and syllabi of coursework to confirm course content. Transfer students must complete all UCI Law first-year course requirements that they have not completed at their prior law school (and for which they did not take an equivalent course) within their first year as a transfer student.

The UCI Law grade point average will be computed only on the work completed at UCI Law. Transfer students must meet all graduation requirements and are eligible for UCI Law awards and honors.

Financial Aid

Law school is an important investment; funding for a law degree requires preparation and planning. Students admitted to the J.D. program as transfer students are not considered for UCI Law Scholarships and Need-Based Grants assistance. U.S. citizens and eligible noncitizens who plan on borrowing from the federal loan programs (Direct Unsubsidized Loan up to $20,500 and Direct Graduate PLUS up to the Cost of Attendance ) should file their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as soon as possible. UCI Law's Federal School Code is 001314. Please refer to our Financial Aid Process website for additional information on the application and awarding process.

International students do not need to file a FAFSA, as they are not eligible for federal financial aid. However, they may qualify for private educational loans. To apply for a Private Educational Loan, submit an application with the lender of your choice and inform UCI School of Law’s  Student Financial Services Office of your pending application. You may use any lender, but we suggest that you compare loan terms with those on our Preferred Lender List. Applying for financial aid is separate from the admissions process, and financial assistance information has no bearing on admissions decisions.

We also offer one of the country's most robust Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP). UCI Law's LRAP provides graduates who enter the public service field with loan repayment assistance if they earn $90,000 or less per year. LRAP assists eligible graduates in repaying undergraduate and law school federal student loans for up to ten years. 

We encourage you to utilize all possible resources to offset the cost of your legal education, including our listing of outside scholarships as you begin to finalize your law school plans. 

JD Admission Decisions

Transfer applications are reviewed on a rolling basis as they are marked as Complete. All transfer applications received by June 15 and later marked as Complete will receive a decision by the end of July.

 

Page Updated 03/11/2024