Cardozo accepts transfer and visiting students for entry in the Fall or January.
To be eligible to transfer to Cardozo, transfer applicants must have completed a minimum of 24 transferable credits at an ABA-approved law school and the majority of Cardozo's first-year curriculum. Part-time students are eligible to apply to transfer to Cardozo provided they meet these requirements. Transfer students are accepted only on a full-time basis.
Transfer students will complete their final two years of study at Cardozo and graduate with a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Cardozo.
Visiting students spend one or two semesters at Cardozo, and graduate from the law school through which they have matriculated.
Application Requirements for Transfers and Visitors
A student seeking admission to Cardozo as a transfer or visiting student must submit the following:
1. A completed application for admission. You must apply electronically through LSAC.
2. A short personal statement about your reasons for transferring or visiting. You must submit this statement as an electronic attachment to your application. Please note that this statement should be submitted in lieu of the personal statement requested in our application.
3. Two letters of recommendation, at least one of which must come from one of your law school professors. We prefer that you submit these letters through the LSAC Letter of Recommendation service, but will accept letters sent directly to Cardozo.
4. A copy of the first page of your CAS report showing your LSAT score. Your law school registrar may send a copy to Cardozo, or you may request that a new report be sent to us from LSAC.
5. A letter from the appropriate official of your current law school indicating that you are in good standing. This letter may be submitted in lieu of the Dean’s Certification Form requested in the Prior Law School section of our application.
If you are applying as a visiting student, the letter must expressly grant permission for you to study at Cardozo as a visiting student for the applicable semester(s).
6. An official current law school transcript including all first-year grades. Your application will not be reviewed until we have received all of your first-year grades.
Second- and third-year students must submit their most recently available transcripts. In some cases, the Committee will delay making a decision on your application until we have received grades from the semester immediately preceding the term you wish to attend Cardozo.
7. Your official class rank following the completion of your first year of law school. If your school does not rank, please request that your school send us a statement indicating such. Your application will not be reviewed until we have received your official first-year class rank.
Second- and third-year students must submit their most recently available class ranks.
Deadlines and Decisions
There is no firm application deadline for transfer and visiting students since current law school grades are required; however, we recommend that you submit your application as early as possible and that it be completed no later than August 10 for the Fall term, and January 1 for the Spring term. Your file will not be reviewed until all required materials are received.
Decisions on transfer and visiting applications are made on a rolling basis beginning when the application is complete. During the review process, the Committee not only evaluates the merits of each application individually, but also relative to all other applications in the pool. Some applications may receive a decision fairly quickly; in many cases, however, the Committee’s comparative appraisal of a file is a lengthier process, to allow the Committee to re-review an application and carefully assess a candidate’s strength in comparison to the full applicant pool.
As long as a candidate’s file is completed in a timely manner, her/his application will be thoroughly reviewed and given full and complete consideration. Due to the careful assessment of each individual application, the Admissions Committee is unable to guarantee that a decision will be made on an application within a particular time frame.
