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Hi everyone. Just sharing my positive experience so far in case any of you find it helpful.
I received an unsolicited fee waiver from UCLA on 8/20, but with the new cycle approaching and considering that I am planning to apply to a whopping 21 schools, I decided to send out requests to each of the schools this morning.
Michigan and WUSTL promptly granted me fee waivers.
I'm interpreting Yale's response as "Yes you can have one but we have to wait until our applications open in October."
The remainder of the schools have either not responded yet, responded that they don't grant merit based, that they don't grant solicited waivers, or directed me to a formal application process. Almost all schools that did not grant me a fee waiver suggested I apply for need-based.
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184 comments
@sx23822 said:
@leahbeuk911 lol you will get in anyway!
Lol here's hoping the $85 is worth
@leahbeuk911 lol you will get in anyway!
@sx23822 said:
Glad to see everyone again! How r y'all doing? @mewydman445 that's weird your LSAT is higher than mine but you didn't get a waiver from Columbia? I thought they gave waivers based on that.
Also got nothing from Columbia ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Glad to see everyone again! How r y'all doing? @mewydman445 that's weird your LSAT is higher than mine but you didn't get a waiver from Columbia? I thought they gave waivers based on that.
Just to add some confusion to how fee-waivers are decided; I don't have a reportable GPA (foreign) and I've received unsolicited fee waivers from Penn, Cornell, Vanderbilt, UCLA, as well as some lower-ranked schools.
@leahbeuk911 I personally won't do it. Like you, I am a reapplicant and wrote similar emails (telling some schools I am a reapplicant and received fee waivers last year). A few schools gave me codes. UChicago said no and referred me to the website even though I had a fee waiver last year. So I paid the application fee.
@rebeccaliujing666 I got unsolicited waiver from nyu and a need based waiver from penn. Nothing from Columbia.
@leahbeuk911 I don’t think there’s any harm in sending a follow up as you say since I’m sure you would hit the write tone (pun). There’s a good chance they have just sent you a rubber stamp response. No harm no foul.
@rebeccaliujing666 I got unsolicited fee waivers from all of those except for Columba
Have you received a fee waiver from nyu, Columbia, or upenn? Upenn's applications seems tedious and hard to be accepted for. And nyu and Columbia don't send out need based fee waivers
Bumping this thread back up for posterity. I'm re-applying this year and though I updated my application year in CRS, a good number of schools that gave me unsolicited waivers last year didn't this year. I just reached out to Michigan and Cornell to solicit them. Michigan happily gave me a code and Cornell replied with a link to their policy saying basically, if we wanted to give you one, we would have done it.
Not gonna lie, I'm a little salty about that. I was waitlisted last year and had a really lovely conversation with the admissions dean that made me even more interested. I'm at both 75ths... kind of a head scratcher. I'm debating whether to reply and mention that I received one last year and have heard that CRS may not always be reliable when applying a 2nd time, so thought I would double check. I dunno... good idea, bad idea? I'd of course be polite and non-assuming, but thinking maybe they just see "fee waiver" and then copy and paste their response without even really looking.
Hawaii is the one school out of the 37~ I applied to that did not give me a fee waiver. They said they do not give out fee waivers to anyone unless they are vets or can prove some sort of financial hardship.
@sx23822 good to know—thanks for the info!
@kimberlygflores159 I got a waiver from Cal for two days and then they withdrew it and this has happened to other people so maybe they don't really give out merit waivers
I just received a fee waiver from Columbia this morning. The schools in the T13/T14 that I've not received fee waivers from yet are HYS and Cal. Has anyone received unsolicited fee waivers from those schools yet? I've heard that HYS only provide need-based fee waivers, but I'm not sure what the deal is for Cal. Cal's website makes it seem as though they only give fee waivers for honors such as Fulbright Scholarships, programs like TFA, or for cases of extreme financial need, but Columbia's website states that they only process fee waivers from LSAC (which implies that they only give need-based fee waivers). However, my email specifically mentioned my LSAT score as the reason I was receiving a fee waiver from them.
FYI people Columbia just sent out some fee waivers
Dang! Jealous!
Georgetown just gave me a (solicited) merit based waiver
Just received some waivers with only a sept 2018 score! UCLA, UVA, Vanderbilt, and Duke.
Yea apparently they didn't update their data base: I already received a waiver upon request but they sent me one anyway. Wonder whether I can actually get some cash back:)
UVA just sent a fee waiver! Quite surprised to receive one from them but my wallet is smiling
UCI doesn’t have an app fee this year!! I remember seeing it on their website a few weeks ago but just went into autopilot and sent them a request anyways smh
@kimberlygflores159 Yeah, I'm assuming that's the case. I made sure to update my enrollment year for CRS, but there are at least 4-5 schools that I got waivers from last year that aren't sending them for this one. Super frustrating. Let me know if you hear back! I should get started on requesting these too...
@leahbeuk911
“The Law School also extends merit-based fee waivers based upon data from LSAC's Candidate Referral Service (CRS) and in conjunction with various recruiting events. To be considered for a merit-based fee waiver, register with the LSAC Candidate Referral Service and if you are selected to receive a waiver based on our selection parameters, we will notify you by email. Please be sure that your CRS account is active, your intended enrollment year is accurate, and that you have either a self-reported or LSAC-calculated GPA.”
I wonder if we didn’t get them bc we are both reapplicants. I was WL last year and finally rejected over the summer.
@mewydman445 Yeah, unfortunately I didn't get one. Several schools that are right in my range and I got waivers for last year didn't send them this time. I think the CRS system doesn't work great for a second round.
UCLA sent a waive on August 20.