<p>I do know of someone who got a full or partial scholarship to a law school. they are a good 15 years younger than me. but i have no idea how common it is. apparently more common than I realized</p>
<p>cranky:</p>
<p>you need to go scan that other blog that focuses on law schools. </p>
<p>It’s the class of '16 that is earning the largesse. Self-reported anecdotes*, for sure, but getting any merit money off a WL is huge, IMO. In the case of WashU, they even threw additional money at students who had already paid their deposits and had signed leases in town; they were already committed so didn’t need any more inducements. Heck, WashU even called up students who had previously turned them down and then offered those students some big money.</p>
<p>My guess it that this will be a one (or two) year $$ blip. Law schools are used to being cash cows for a Uni, and cannot afford to give away discounts. However, for this year, at least, they’ll try to hold their medians by buying students. By next year, they may decide it ain’t worth it, since medians are all relative.</p>
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<li>Could any LS risk going public with their policy?</li>
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<p>Bluebayou is almost certainly right. I applied the year before applications dropped off and I had plenty of schools throwing money at me. I can’t imagine it’s gone down. The general consensus on TLS is also that merit aid is going up around the top of the curve.</p>
<p>Still gotta disagree. First, if there were so much money around, why haven’t our !L law interns heard of it? I’d argue that yes, merit money exists, but it’s relatively very little, and that most financial packages consist of loans. One of our interns described the following: she received a full page, single-spaced letter from her law school informing her that she had be awarded what was called a “Presidential Scholarship”; the letter was signed by the LS’s president, and it praised, in turn, both her and the law school. Again, a full page of this fulsome prose. And what was the lordly amount of the scholarship-$1,000; that’s right, a thousand bucks. So I’d argue that yes, there may be merit money, but it’s spread pretty thin. The only exception would be for truly exceptional candidates. Second, any LS that actually wanted to attract students with merit money(also known as “scholarships”) would advertise the fact. It would be in that school’s benefit to do so, and in fact many that do offer such scholarships publicize it widely. Scholarships confer bragging rights, which may confer even better stats for the school. So while I find myself surprised that I’m doing so, I disagree with both bb and d49; all I’ve seen is a collection of anecdotes which indicate, at best, evanescent merit money.</p>
<p>fortunately, my S is one of those anecdotes. Even with a middlin’ numbers, it’s been a case of ‘let’s make a deal’ for the past few months. Lotsa fun to watch the free money increase. </p>
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<p>One would think and that what was so surprising about WashU, which waited until after the deposit deadline. Thus, the only thing I can conjecture is that WashU is desperate to hold its T20 ranking, and found its numbers wanting in early May. Of course, WashU has created competition with like-ranked law schools. Even GULC has had to pony up some cash to WL acceptances to attract the LSAT scores that they need…</p>
<p>Law schools are desperate to climb rankings, and the recent fall in applications has been concentrated in high-quality applicants. In fact, some classes (WUSTL included) have been shrinking as a result: they simply can’t find people who will raise the LSAT medians, so they’re shrinking their class sizes instead.</p>
<p>But the marginal cost of educating a law student is almost zero. So if you can find a student who will raise (or not lower) your median, every dollar you get from him is basically a free dollar.</p>
<p>^^yes, that is of course true, bdm, but the act of offering greater discounts to those who have already deposited is an act of desperation to maintain ranking – forget about trying to climb. And it causes trickle down/up, as others have to cough up some cash to compete.</p>
<p>As a result, the T10 is even offering some serious money (~six figures) to attract those applicants from the T6 who might have to pay sticker. In previous years, that offer may have been $35k total.</p>
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<p>This is still a series of very vague anecdotes.
So here’s to bb’s son, but when you’re talking money-how much, excactly? Both WU and GU are very expensive for tuition alone, let alone living expenses. So did your son get a full ride? 10K? 25K? and what were his numbers for LSAT and GPA?
And sorry BDM, the schools aren’t that desperate to climb the rankings-in fact, the top 20 or so have changed very little over the past 10 years. And I don’t agree the marginal cost is nil; it’s accurate up to a point-but only to a point. It’s like saying everywhere is within walking distance if you’ve got the time. It’s widely recognized that law schools are, and have been, cash cows for several decades. They aren’t going to start giving the milk away for free except in very rare cases.
Hundreds of kids scan this forum, all assuming that they’ll get into WU or GU or wherever, and assume they’ll get “money”; as no specifics are supplied, then everything can apply to everybody. But how much is “money”? And to what applicants?
And sorry, I don’t believe HYS or their cousins are offering “six figures” to anyone except the rarest of the rare.</p>
<p>Isn’t a major problem that law school merit scholarships are dependent on continued high grades, and the schools often curve brutally, so that most students end up losing the scholarship after the first year?</p>
<p>cranky:</p>
<p>I previously posted that WashU is giving out full tuition scholarships. A little googling can find out the magic numbers for the entering class of '13. (I’d post a link but it against the TOS.)</p>
<p>And the fact that GULC and other T14’s is giving out any money to those taken of the WL is atypical. The only conclusion is that they are desperate to hold their numbers. Otherwise, why would they bother?</p>
<p>The fact is TODAY, law schools are negotiating. </p>
<p>Perhaps are all special snowflakes? :)</p>
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<p>What I meant to post that the those lower down the food chain are offering money to attract those with T6 acceptances (and by logical conclusion, T6 numbers). And that money can exceed six figures. Sure, not everyone will get, but some do.</p>
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<p>If they are applying to professional school, I would assume that are adults. And if they learned yet to take online forums with a grain of salt, they don’t belong in LS. :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>Anyone about to spend a quarter mill on LS should be able to figure it out rather easily. The only specifics that law schools care about are their class medians: LSAT and GPA. Thus, they will pay to hold those medians. Applicants with below median numbers should expect to pay sticker. (Is that specific enough?)</p>
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<p>At some/many schools, yes, but not typically in the T14, where just staying in good academic standing will keep the merit money.</p>
<p>As I understand it, this is not so at most (if not all) of the T14 schools that offer merit aid. At UVA, the standard for keeping merit scholarships is a 2.0 - and few UVA Law students are in danger of falling below that, given that the curve is set at 3.3.</p>
<p>Circumstances are different at lower-ranked schools. From earlier this year - [At</a> four law schools, fewer than 40 percent of students retain their merit scholarships - ABA Journal](<a href=“At four law schools, fewer than 40 percent of students retain their merit scholarships”>At four law schools, fewer than 40 percent of students retain their merit scholarships) :
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<p>bb-no not specific enough; “wash u is throwing money at nearly everyone”-do you really believe this? I don’t; there may be a few specific students to whom merit money is given. I categorically don’t believe that they are throwing money at everyone.
And no, you’ve stated your son got “money”; how much money? What were his LSAT/GPA? Without answering those two questions, you’ve supplied about as much information as wash u scattering hundreds out of helicopters. The whole point is that law schools go out of their way to be as secretive as possible-and you’ve stated as much in that the schools aren’t advertising the merit aid-how then, if the data is secret “should [someone] be able to figure it out”? Maybe Snowden can check things out…
The law schools are negotiating with a select few, and doing their best to keep the details secret-and despite the statements that schools are “throwing money at everyone” no one gives amounts-full ride? or that special $1,000? To say schools are negotiating, without any specifics, once again enters the world of anecdotes.</p>
<p>We seem to be fighting about the precise boundaries of quantitative words rather than the substance of what is actually happening.</p>
<p>What is not in dispute (I think) is this:
-Outside of the top three law schools in the country, every law school offers merit scholarships.
-These scholarships are sometimes very small and sometimes very large – sometimes amounting to full tuition, even at Columbia Law.
-These scholarships tend to be offered to students whose LSAT scores (especially) and GPA (to a lesser extent) will bring up that law school’s medians and 75th percentiles.
-These scholarships are common enough that students with very high LSAT scores relative to the medians at a batch of schools have a non-negligible probability at receiving an offer from one of those schools.
-Sometimes, these scholarships are offered even to students whose LSAT score or GPA is only a little bit above a school’s median, but this is much rarer.</p>
<p>We can debate all we like precisely what language to use to describe these phenomena, and what precise numbers describe “non-negligible”, “a lot”, “substantial”, etc. but the phenomenon itself is (I think) undisputed.</p>
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<p>Ok. (12 characters)</p>
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