<p>Since the cost of law school is so high, and the competition to get in appears fierce. can anyone tell me if law schools ever offer merit money or fin-aid to incoming students?</p>
<p>If you are amazing, then yes.</p>
<p>However scholarships are rare for law and med school compared to PhD programs. Most people take out private and public loans, a ton of them.</p>
<p>Law schools offer financial aid, though there is generally nothing "need blind" about admissions or generous about the financial aid packages. Merit scholarships are usually offered based upon specific characteristics, and often, you don't directly apply for those merit scholarships. Moreover, for most law school students, you take out student loans for your tuition, room and board, and you spend all of your saved money and summer earnings too.</p>
<p>Perhaps my D was the exception, but she received scholarships, some were even full tuition to all but two schools to which she applied. Four of her accepted schools were top 25 and all but one of those offered her money also. I think it is possible, just depends on where you apply, and what you have in your application.</p>
<p>Congrats to your daughter, Vollie. To what to you attribute her success in receiving scholarships?</p>
<p>If you can pay for LS without taking out any loans, will that increase your chances for admission?</p>
<p>"If you can pay for LS without taking out any loans, will that increase your chances for admission?"</p>
<p>No. Why would LS care? It's kind of funny you ask that. If anything, it may make your case for admission harder if you come from a privilege background and show no regard for those less privileged--especially if you don't have a 4.0 GPA and 180 LSAT.</p>
<p>"If you can pay for LS without taking out any loans, will that increase your chances for admission?"</p>
<p>No. Why would LS care? It's kind of funny you ask that. If anything, it may make your case for admission harder if you come from a privilege background and show no regard for those less privileged--especially if you don't have a 4.0 GPA and 180 LSAT.</p>
<p>It helps in undergrad admissions at non-need blind schools</p>
<p>You are not re-applying to college. You are applying to LS--but I can see where you are coming from. I will say, however, that if the source of your funding is through some unusual or rather outstanding employment history, it will help. Perhaps, it won't be a direct consequence of you being able to pay, it may give you something to write about...</p>
<p>It's all about how you package yourself, provided you have the GPA and LSAT.</p>
<p>I'm 100% on my own for grad school. My parents won't give me money for food then.</p>
<p>God help me find a rich husband before then.</p>
<p>Actually, there is, but mostly for people with high LSAT scores, (since they are so rare). Columbia offers the Hamilton Scholarship (over 100k) to woo Harvard admits away from the school. According to LSN, most of the people offered Hamilton's had very high LSAT scores.</p>
<p>In general, you can expect the same trend for lower ranked schools. Schools are constantly gaming to increase their USNews rankings if they can and one way is to attract higher caliber students and increase the LSAT interquartile range of their matriculating students.</p>