Law School Scholarships/Grants

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>This is a question that's been lingering on my mind for a bit now. I know someone who goes to Harvard Law straight out of undergrad. As far as I know, he got into Stanford, Penn, and NYU or Columbia, with 3.93 and 173, so he did pretty well in an OK state school. When considering which school to attend, he was saying about how Penn offered him a full scholarship of some sort, but he said he never applied to a separate scholarship or grant of some sort. He's always been a hotshot kind of guy, so I was wondering if his story's true. Do law schools give full ride offers to exceptional students to get them to commit even if they don't apply for any scholarship, just the regular law school app? I thought only undergrad colleges did this.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for your thoughts!</p>

2

<p>yes, it's very typical</p>

3

<p>It is not at all "very typical" for students to be offered large merit scholarships to top law schools. Typically, only a handful of students a year are offered significant merit scholarships at top law schools. The great majority of law students will instead have to rely on need-based grants and student loans for their tuition, room, board and books.</p>

4

<p>List of Penn's Scholarships</p>

<p>
[quote]

Levy Scholars Program</p>

<p>In 2002, the Chair of our Board of Overseers, Paul Levy L'72, decided with his wife Karen to make an incredibly generous gift to create the Levy Scholars Program. This prestigious program is all encompassing, starting with a merit grant of a complete tuition waiver for the first year and a two-thirds percent tuition grant for the second and third years. It will also include establishing mentoring relationships with faculty in areas of interest to the recipients, specialized programmatic support, research assistant opportunities, and more.</p>

<p>James Wilson Scholarship</p>

<p>The James Wilson Scholarship provides an award of *$60,000 in tuition coverage, or $20,000 per year. *</p>

<p>Silverman-Rodin Scholars</p>

<p>The Silverman-Rodin Scholars receive a **full tuition scholarship for their first year of law school and half tuition scholarship for their second year of law school. **Two students from the Class of 2011 will receive a Silverman-Rodin Scholarship.</p>

<p>Dean's Scholarship
This award is a one-year merit scholarship based primarily on academic achievement and nonacademic factors such as leadership, service, and life or work experience. They range from $4,500 - $60,000 over three years. The number of Dean's Scholarships that are awarded varies from year to year.</p>

<p>Toll Public Interest Scholars Program
The Toll Public Interest Scholars Program combines financial support with a challenging academic program for select students seeking academic training and practical experience in public interest law. We have two scholarship programs: </p>

<p>The Robert and Jane Toll Public Interest Scholars Program, created by Robert Toll L'66 and his wife Jane. </p>

<p>The Public Interest Scholars Program, supported by the generous contributions of Morris M. Shuster and the Class of '54, with significant support from Valla Amsterdam. </p>

<p>Both of these scholarships include full tuition for the first year of study and two-thirds tuition for the second and third years. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.law.upenn.edu/prospective/jd/scholarsprogram.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.law.upenn.edu/prospective/jd/scholarsprogram.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>

[/quote]
</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
It is not at all "very typical" for students to be offered large merit scholarships to top law schools. Typically, only a handful of students a year are offered significant merit scholarships at top law schools. The great majority of law students will instead have to rely on need-based grants and student loans for their tuition, room, board and books.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The OP asked about "exceptional students" being offered money at lower-ranked schools in order to attract talent, and yes, it is very typical.</p>

6

<p>It's not very typical at top ranked law schools, though. The OP mentioned only Stanford, Penn, and NYU and Columbia, and none of those would ever be considered "lower-ranked" schools. </p>

<p>The T14 law schools have only a a handful of large merit scholarships (relative to the number of students in the entering class) that they hand out to selected students to encourage those students to enroll there instead of at what can only be presumed to be another T14 law school. These are not a tremendous number of these scholarships, and, therefore, it is not "typical" to be offered one of these scholarships. </p>

<p>In other words, don't apply to a T14 law school expecting to receive a large merit scholarship. You are likely to be disappointed.</p>

7

<p>What about UW-Seattle?
How much would it cost there, do you know? Only for tuition, I have a relative in Seattle who I'd be able to live with if I went there.</p>

8

<p>here you go...</p>

<p><a href="http://www.law.seattleu.edu/Prospective_Students.xml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.law.seattleu.edu/Prospective_Students.xml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

9

<p>Wrong school: UW law is here: University</a> of Washington School of Law Tuition is in the $29,000 range for non-resident and $20,000 for resident. Simply being able to go live with a relative while there does not make you a resident for tuition purposes.</p>

<p>As to scholarships, few get full scholarships to top 15 schools like Penn (think about it, half the people that apply to those have super high GPAs and LSAT scores, why do they need to offer many scholarships when they know many of them will attend anyway). Many schools lower down on the rankings do provide merit scholarships although full scholarships are offered to few. However, many can get merit awards equalling anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 tution at many law schools. Publics, like UW, offer a lot fewer merit awards. Also, there usually is no special application for merit awards. They simply determine the issue based on your usual application materials.</p>

10

<p>YHS are the only law schools that do not give any merit money. They do give financial aid, but it is based on family (including parental and spousal ) income. </p>

<p>It's not that easy to get merit money, but the lower down in the tier 14 you go, the easier it is to get it. There are some scholarships you do have to apply for, usually those that require you to commit to a certain post-law school career path. (An example would be the Furman at NYU.) Some of the others are open to all. </p>

<p>In other words, the OP's friend story is probably perfectly true. </p>

<p>And why would Penn offer merit money? To attract a few of the students who would otherwise go to YHSCCN or stay in state to attend UVa, UMichigan, Berkeley or even UCLA or UT-A. </p>

<p>Moreover, reality is that well-qualified URMs are highly desirable and students in this category, particularly male students, are sometimes offered merit money.</p>

11

<p>drusba and sybbie, THANKS! ;) Actually my parents vote in WA but my dad is miliatary so we move all the time. I live in FL right now, so I'm in-state for both FL and WA. It's a sweet deal. I mentioned the thing about living with a relative in Seattle so that when I asked about the cost, it wouldn't include the cost of rent.</p>