<p>I was pleasantly surprised to hear that a young man was offered a full scholarship for NW law school. I had no idea law schools did this, let alone NW. I suspect this is a very special honor. Does anyone have any info?</p>
<p>The only law schools that don’t offer large scholarships, to my knowledge, are Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, which are need-only. It is a very special honor, reserved for exceptional students, to receive one of the top scholarships at a T14 school like Northwestern. NW’s top award also offers a stipend. </p>
<p>It’s not uncommon for students who are accepted at one of the top 3 schools to be offered top scholarships at just slightly lower-ranked schools. The student then has the first world problem of deciding whether it’s better to have a law degree from HYS, or little to no debt after graduating from another well-regarded school. 
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<p>I just went looking for a link to Northwestern Law’s scholarship info, and read that all scholarships are awarded on a combination of merit and need. I don’t know if this is new, but last year my d was offered a scholarship there without having provided any financial information. Maybe they simply assume that everyone has need when the cost of attendance is more than $70K per year?</p>
<p>There was a thread here last year about ED admits receiving large scholarships from NW: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/1244085-northwestern-law-offering-50k-merit-scholarship-per-year-ed-admits.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/1244085-northwestern-law-offering-50k-merit-scholarship-per-year-ed-admits.html</a></p>
<p>It boggles my mind that anyone would take on $70,000/yr in debt for any law school.</p>
<p>Northwestern offers nearly full tuition to ED acceptances, something they started last year. Of course, their ED acceptances are now extremely limited.</p>
<p>Congrats to him.</p>
<p>btw: It is ‘nearly’ full since the ED scholly is for $50k/year and tuition is now $53k/yr (and climbing).</p>
<p>Thanks for advice. I suspect he will accept, making his middle class parents proud and relieved. He went to NW as UG and likes the area. </p>
<p>Frazzled, where did your DD matriculated?</p>
<p>She’s at UVA. And halfway through already, which I guess means she was offered the scholarship two years ago, not last year. Losing track of time over here …</p>
<p>I happened to wander into this forum to seek advice and noted that i recognize all of you who posted on this thread. Hopefully you won’t mind me hijacking this thread and help me out. </p>
<p>My D took her LSAT this November and is in the midst of applying. She has indicated to me that she should be able to finance it on loan and scholarship on her own. (I paid her college which only provides need-based aids). To my surprise, she was offered a place at a law school which only provides need-based aids, and furthermore, my financial situation would preclude her from obtaining any grant-in-aids. I have resigned to that she will likely attend this school despite the chance of receiving full-tuition scholarships at some of the T14 schools. My problem is how to convince her to accept my help. I have already gone over with her the meaning of >200K loans at horrendous interest rates. Thanks in advance for any advice and wishing you a happy New Year.</p>
<p>That’s a tough situation, padad - but congrats to your d for what I presume is a T3 acceptance! What kind of law does she hope to practice? Most T14 (and especially top 3) loan repayment programs (LRAPS) for students with lower-paying careers are pretty good. She won’t necessarily have to choose a career in biglaw to afford those loans - she can follow the career path of her choosing if details fall in place. [How</a> to Compare LRAPs](<a href=“http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/sfs/basics/publicservice/lrapcomp.html]How”>http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/sfs/basics/publicservice/lrapcomp.html)</p>
<p>My d had to chose between a top 3, need-only school and some nice offers at lower-ranked T14s. She struggled with it for some time, but has repeatedly said that she is so glad she close to attend UVA, in large part because she will have a very minor amount of debt to deal with after graduation.</p>
<p>Would your d accept some help with living expenses?</p>
<p>padad:</p>
<p>have her search for Paul Campos…</p>
<p>Frazzled1, kudos to your D as well. I have fond memory of Ch’ville where I did my UG. I noticed from the school webpage that the law school is now housed in a new building. </p>
<p>My D is not sure whehter she wants to go into big law or PI. One of her considerations is that a T3 school will indeed give her more options since PI jobs are really quite difficult to come by. She has a number of friends in big law and knows its drawbacks.</p>
<p>My D has been lucky in landing a job that has made her financially independent since she graduated from college, and she has expressed her desire to remain so. I suppose I can always help out if she runs into trouble.</p>
<p>The challenge is that at many law schools, the top 3 especially, while she will be independent on the FAFSA, the school will still ask for the income and assets of your household through Need Access in addition to her finances to determine her eligibility for need based aid.</p>
<p>Sybbie, i recognize that and has indicated that she will not be eligible for aids because of my financial situation. </p>
<p>Bluebayou, i will pass on your message to D. I am aware of Campos’s stand but don’t quite understand why he hasn’t resigned from his tenured job and to go do something less “fraudulent”. Have you read Brian Leiter’s response to Campos?</p>
<p>Campos has addressed his personal situation in on his blog a couple of times. Yes, I have read Leiter too.</p>
<p>Back to regularly scheduled programming.</p>
<p>@ #3,</p>
<p>Totally. 70k is dizzy loot.</p>
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<p>padad:</p>
<p>The debt can be crushing! But IMO, it really depends on your D and how you see her performing in LS. (yes I understand it is a crap shoot, but at least you can make an educated guess.)</p>
<p>For example, I have two kids that are intellectually similar – (at least if one puts any stock into those silly IQ tests they give out in grade school). But by parental observation – I also see that Child #1 just doesn’t work as hard as Child #2, and has not since Junior year of HS. For #2, it’s all about earning A’s in the most challenging courses, and latin honors. For Child #1, A-'s are 'good enough, even in mic classes. </p>
<h1>2 has more drive, and as a parent, I would be less concerned about #2 ending up in the top half of a LS class as I would #1 (who may be brighter). Thus, I would counsel #1 to take $$$ at a much lower-ranked school, even if it is in the 30+ range, whereas I believe #2 could do well enough at a full sticker LS to pay off that debt.</h1>
<p>Yes, H&Y open a lot of doors that are completely closed to T5+. (dunno much about S.)</p>
<p>So then, the next question is what does your D want to do? Academia? Supreme Court? Big Law? International transactions? Government? Or child-family law back home? Obviously, HYS have a HUGE leg up on all but the latter.</p>
<p>Congrats to her, and good luck.</p>
<p>Paying off $150K tuition only loan in 3 years is doable if one gets a biglaw job after graduation. It takes a bit of delayed gratification, frugality and self-discipline not to blow the paychecks received as a SA and jr. associate.</p>
<p>Bluebayou, Thanks for your thoughts. I know very little about law school grading and what it takes to do well. Is class rank the most important factor or excelling in an area? I have always tried to encourage my D not to put a lot of emphasis on grades, and fortunately -at least for law school admission - she has largely ignored my advice.</p>
<p>I probably worry for no reasons. My D is a grown up young lady. It is time that I let her do things her own way.</p>
<p>LS tends to have strict curves. A’s and B’s are capped. Grades depend on the final. </p>
<p>And the chances of getting Big Law/federal clerkship depends primarily on class rank. For HYS, a high % will have no trouble obtaining a job paying $160k, or a federal clerkship. But that % drops precipitously with USNews’ rank. At UCLA (USNews #15), for example, the number is closer to 40% obtaining a “good job”, with 20+% unemployed or underemployed. Thus, someone pending $180k, to attend UCLA, has a 1 in 5 chance of being unemployed!</p>
<p>while grades are extremely important, the school you attend is just as important; the two are inherently interrelated. </p>
<p>bluebayou:
while your advice is credited, i would also like to provide an alternate assessment regarding your example with your two children. if child #1 does not work as hard, i would advise him/her to attend as highly ranked a school he/she can get into. many of the top 10 schools, for example, do not even use letter grades, and students with a class rank below median will still have real shots at (big law) jobs that will pay off their debt. because employers will seriously consider students at median (or below) if they are coming from higher ranked schools, working hard and earning high mark really isn’t all that important relatively speaking.</p>
<p>on the flip side, students at a top 30 school have to bust their ass to do well. grades are EVERYTHING; being ranked in the top 10-25% of your class is extremely important the lower ranked your school is. desirable employers will have class rank cutoffs for lower ranked schools that can be anywhere from top 33% to top 10% or even top 5%. therefore, there is intense pressure to outwork your peers and do well. theoretically, child #1 would not work as hard and not place at the top of the class, and would be less likely to be employed/able to pay off their debts. </p>
<p>also, speaking from personal experience: i would advise against going to a lower ranked school because you can NEVER predict law school grades. because of this, i would almost always choose a top 5 law school with debt over georgetown or a lower t14 with a full ride. while i am usually debt adverse, i think going to the significantly higher ranked school provides potentially enormous advantages for an attorney’s future career.</p>
<p>good points, Brian. Frankly, iMO, #1 should not even consider a career as a lawyer. (Getting a JD is the easy part.)</p>
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<p>Yes, I understand grading, but IMO it is much better to be unemployed in 3 years with little debt (by taking the $$ at a lower-ranked school), than unemployed in 3 years with $200k in debt. (The market for lawyers sux and there is no reason it should turn around.)</p>