<p>Hi,
I am applying to law school next year and implying I get in( 3.8 gpa) I could use help paying for it? Do they offer financial aid or scholarships or how does that work? Both of my parents have passed away, I'm 21</p>
<p>Not an expert on your issues, but I will reply in meanwhile.</p>
<p>Law and professional school is usually on the student dime. Phd, otoh, is usually with tuition waiver and stipend.</p>
<p>So, law school is usually funded by student loans. One reason to think twice.</p>
<p>Some rare students get a bit of scholarship. </p>
<p>Please refer to the law school forum.</p>
<p>I know students who went one year only, dropped out, 60k loan, meager paralegal salary. Think twice.</p>
<p>Unlike undergrad, law school does not do need-based aid. You will fill out financial aid forms, get an EFC, and law schools will offer you loans to make up the difference. </p>
<p>If your parents cannot help you after you graduate from law school (either by offering a free/cheap place to live, other financial support, or networking), please think long and hard about going to law school. Or rather, don’t, especially not straight after graduation.</p>
<p>Many law grads are having difficulties getting jobs that will pay enough to pay back their big loans. </p>
<p>Be very careful. Apply to law schools that don’t cost a lot and ones who have a high job placement rate.</p>
<p>great GPA. Kill the LSAT and plenty of law schools will offer you merit money to attend.</p>
<p>Other than that, only three really offer meaningful need-based aid: Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. But even at those three, you are expected to assume a LOT of debt.</p>
<p>Some law schools do offer good merit scholarships to students with very good LSAT scores and GPAs. But most law students end up with huge loans. </p>
<p>I assume that you haven’t taken the LSAT yet, so don’t know what your score would be. However, there is some correlation between SAT/ACT and LSAT. Unless you are an exceptionally good standardized test taker, e.g. >2100 SAT score, assume that law school would require >$200k in loans.</p>
<p>You have a good GPA. Study hard for the LSAT and get over 171. Only attend the top ranked schools. Law jobs are very competitive but big law firms are making money again. This year’s bonus are much larger than in the past.</p>
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<p>Possibly, but those also might be the kinds of law schools you don’t want to go to. There has been a spate of articles about this recently - about low-tier law schools that are offering merit money to their high-scorers (whatever that means for their own applicant pool). The problem is that many of these universities have stringent requirements to keep the scholarship. So for example, you might have to stay within the top 1/5 of the class, but they offer the scholarship to 1/3 the class, so they know that it will be impossible for a large chunk of recipients to keep it. Or they may have very high GPA requirements that are difficult for law students to reach.</p>
<p>Besides, depending on the kind of law you want to do, it might be better to go into debt to attend Harvard Law than it would be to take a merit scholarship from Golden Gate University. I’m not suggesting that the gulf would be that large, just making the point. I’m also not suggesting that one should go into debt at all, or that law school is a good choice. I’m just saying that if you absolutely have to go to law school and were choosing between schools, all current data point to the fact that it’s far easier to get a job that pays enough to repay law school debt if you are coming from one of the top 15 law schools than if you are not.</p>
<p>A lot of top law schools offer merit scholarships. They are all relatively vague on how many they give out a year and what their selection criteria are. Most of the top schools’ merit scholarships do not seem to be conditional (which is to say that as long as you remain in good standing, you retain the scholarship). But given that all of the applicants to top law students are outstanding, I’m guessing you have to be truly exceptional to be awarded one.</p>
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<p>Nope, I’m talking T14. For example, 70% of the 1L’s at Northwestern have a merit discount this year. Sure, maybe only 15 have a full tuition scholarship, but the point is that discounts are readily available for someone with numbers above both medians.</p>
<p>For heaven’s sake. No one is talking too much about Harvard versus Golden Gate. Imagine someone who wants to work in NYC, choosing between full price at Columbia ($250,000 plus) and a huge merit scholarship at Fordham. Or someone who wants to work in Boston choosing between full price at Penn and a full ride (or almost full ride) at BC. </p>
<p>People who get into Harvard are often offered substantial merit aid at other T14 schools and can be given huge money to attend schools in, say, the top 40. At that point, you choose the best school that is almost free and is in the area that you want to live in.</p>
<p>When I was in the NJ National Guard, I knew many people who went to Rutgers Law School for free on the NJ State Tuition Waiver. It wasn’t a merit scholarship. The state law was clear in that if you were serving honorably in the National Guard, you would get tuition waived at all public universities.</p>
<p>Apply to law schools where you place in the top 25 percentile. Many schools give merit to law students. Just be careful of GPA requirements to keep that. UGA (at least had) offered IS tuition and merit!! you can see how much students are offered in merit and stats on Lawschoolnumbers dot com. I can’t even remember a school my son didn’t get merit awards. With the trend toward less students applying to law school, I would think merit is even easier to get now. </p>
If you get a 174+ LSAT you have a good shot at getting a decent chunk of money at a T-14 with a 3.8. But as with any professional school, question whether you really want to be a practicing lawyer. Practicing in biglaw, for example, requires you to work harder than you will have ever worked in your entire life and probably longer hours than 90% of office jobs. Only I-bankers have on average longer hours. Just know what you’re getting into first. That said, if you get a full ride, law school is a pretty chill and fun 3 years, since you won’t have to worry as much about landing certain jobs if you don’t owe any money.