Going to a lower tier school and then transferring?

I will weigh in and say there is seriously 0% chance of the OP getting into Columbia LS. Beyond that, she could probably go to a Tier 3 of Tier 4 school, but jobs from those will be rough. I don’t just mean your first job will be rough; I mean all law jobs for your entire career will look back at your law school. There is no way to sugar coat this.

I graduated from the best law school in my state, which is nationally #15. I have always practiced in my state, and for this state, that school was plenty good enough for the career I’ve had. (I started at BIGLAW and then moved in-house to a large international corporation.) But even 20 years ago when I was in school, my school didn’t accept transfers from bottom run law schools.

I have a very dear friend who had a good college GPA, but as an ESL immigrant, had a poor LSAT score. So he went to a lower tier law school. To this day he will tell you it was a huge mistake. Everyone thinks they will do well in law school and rise to the top, but obviously that isn’t happening. Those good fresh out of school jobs don’t appear for graduates of Tier 4 schools. Companies do not want JDs when the job doesn’t require a JD. Hanging a shingle is brutal if you like food and electricity on a regular basis.