<p>ebeeeee - since he has worked as a paralegal, does the know the area of law he would like to practice - or the size firm? Is his paralegal experience with large law firms?</p>
<p>His paralegal work isn’t what he wants to do so he knows that much anyway. If I posted on the board it would likely reveal the firm so I won’t…so far the only acceptances in are Northeastern and Suffolk. They are both safeties however he did his UG at NEU which gets him an automatic 25 percent tuition discount…so far we are waiting for a letter with any other merit offer. U
I do have a good contact in Biglaw who is a 2005 grad so when he gets everything in he is going to email and get some good advice. I will also post here and definitely appreciate all comments.<br>
I’m not sure if he has fully decided on a law direction and agree it definitely could make a difference in which school to select.</p>
<p>Just updating. Half ride from Northeastern has come in. Waiting for other admission decisions before making any commitments but at least he has one good offer in hand.</p>
<p>How about going to law school at night.</p>
<p>And working full time during the day.</p>
<p>I did it.</p>
<p>It is a long hard road, but it can be done.</p>
<p>agreed. I have several friends that went that route including one of my current lawyers who has a very successful practice.</p>
<p>Columbia Law School is ranked 4th and has a full ride scholarship, Hamilton. They started sending out acceptances and greatly favor high LSATs, so it’s possible the person with 177 got offered Hamilton at CLS. HLS, YLS and SLS don’t give merit aid, as noted above. Chicago, ranked 5th, haven’t given out any scholarships yet. </p>
<p>S has half tuition offers from Michigan and UVA and a full ride from UCLA but is thinking about taking a chance with HLS(some smallish need money possible), unless Chicago or Columbia give him decent merit aid.</p>
<p>A good friends son is in the program at UMich. He turned down more money from UCLA…</p>
<p>UCLA with big money makes perfect sense if a person plans to practice in Southern California. Unfortunately S has no such plans. There are some hard decisions ahead for him.</p>
<p>ebeeeee, congrats to your S. That is just great news. Half tuition sounds wonderful.</p>
<p>Thanks. To me it does too. Think he has dreams of a better ranked school but we will see. I am going to make sure he looks at payment calculators before borrowing any money!</p>
<p>Parabella yup. I can relate. From what I have heard from people who know you are correct about UCLA. If DS didn’t plan to stay in Boston or at least New England after graduation his choices would be different even as far as his applications…</p>
<p>Well an interesting turn of events. DS is starting to get some acceptances. Some of the schools are saying that because he will be 24 prior to the end of his first semester and because he paid taxes in a different state than ours and was not a dependent on our 2011 return they will not consider any of our finances in financial aid decisions.<br>
I am surprised to hear this but consider it good news. Of course, I understand that FA does not meet COA and that there will be gaps but it may mean that he gets some better aid offers…</p>
<p>Interesting, ebeeeee, S has exactly the same situation( 24, lives in a different state, filed his own tax return last year, doesn’t count as dependent for us), but all of his schools will consider our income in their calculation. do your S’s schools require Need Access submission? This is the form where he has to list our income and assets. FAFSA considers him independent.</p>
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<p>Hi ebeeeee,</p>
<p>Congrats on the acceptances. Since your son is going to grad (professional) school he is automatically considered an independent on the FAFSA. Law schools do not give the kind of need based aid that you may have been familiar with in the undergrad process. </p>
<p>For starters, your son is now in the position that he can borrow the full cost of attendance in his own name (minus the 20,500 that he can borrow in unsubsidized stafford loans).</p>
<p>Some schools made still ask for your income and assets through needs access and use the information in awarding need based aid.</p>
<p>Yup one asked for need access and one did not. the one that asked for need access told him by phone that they won’t consider our information. definitely understand much may be loans. He has very good credit as do we so that should help. He has a half ride offer in hand but we will see how the two schools pencil out. Just wanted to add this info for others since I was surprised. I had thought that the magic age was 27…</p>
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<p>This is an interesting topic although neither kiddle is in this position at the moment. At the risk of sounding like a snoot - at what point will they NOT consider the parents income. I am …well let’s just say… a multiple of 24…if I apply to law school…would I need to provide my parents financials. If not, why not…do I have to be 25, 26, 27 have dependents of my own? Is their no cutoff?</p>
<p>I think every school has it’s own cut-off parameters. Some have sliding scales, depending on age. The oldest cut-off age is 29, I think. Schools take dependents into account, but also spouse’s income, if the applicant is married. Information is usually available on schools’ web sight.</p>
<p>Wow…it’s astounding that the cutoff age is 29… Again, out of curiosity, do the schools which require parental financial information leave it at the FAFSA or do they also require the CSS-PROFILE?</p>
<p>Different schools will have different requirements.</p>
<p>Some will ask for Parents information on the FAFSA
Some schools will only ask for the student information on the FAFSA and ask for the parent’s information on Needs Access
Some schools will only ask for the student information on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>^
Our experience has been just as sybbie says. I had never heard of needs access before. It is similar to CSS profile. Online data collection which is disseminated to the schools.</p>