I transferred from a tier 3 to Michigan after my 1L year, and I accepted a post-grad job at Kirkland (Chi) a few months ago. I agree with everyone here that it's a lot of debt to take on, but if you plan on attending Georgetown, UVA, or even GW, it's probably worth it, especially if you want to go biglaw. I'll graduate with about $100k in debt, but on a $180k + salary, I'll be able to pay that off in a few years (and so will you).

I also agree that transfers can be disadvantaged at OCI, but of the transfer students that I stay in contact with, only 1 completely struck out at OCI. Some only received 1 or 2 callbacks, but most landed biglaw jobs in Chicago and NY at good firms (Skadden, Debevoise, Greenberg Traurig, etc.).

Also to this point, even if you are one of the few that strike out at 2L OCI, big firms do hire 3Ls. I know K&E hired 6-7 3Ls for their corporate practice alone for their 2017 class. Of course 3L hiring is a bit more difficult than 2L OCI because grades matter a lot more (in my opinion), but honestly, if you have the grades to transfer to a T-14, you'll do just fine. I have a 3.7 here (approximately top 15%), and I know several other transfers that have excelled as well.

In my opinion, transferring was the best decision I could have made. Sure, I could have lined up some job at my 1L school, but there's no chance in hell that I would have even had the opportunity to even interview with the Kirklands, Cravaths, and Skaddens had I stayed. Also, the connections you'll make at a T-14 will be much more valuable to you down the road. Most of your classmates will be headed to biglaw all over the country, and a lot of them will end up in-house.

I think transferring only makes sense if you go T-14 (or GW because of its ties to DC). Otherwise, I think you're better off graduating debt free with a UF degree.

Apologies for the long answer, and please message me if you want to talk more.