More information about the whole scholarship process?

Lsatistheworst

Hi all,

Just to give you an idea of where I stand, I applied to almost all of the T14s, as well as a few schools ranked 17-25. My stats aren't that great, but I am a nontraditional student with a very interesting life story, as well as an underrepresented minority. One of my friends told me that, because of this, I would actually have a better shot of getting into a higher ranked school because they don't need to be as worried about preserving their numbers. I didn't believe her until I very recently got my first acceptance.

So far I have been accepted into Columbia (4), waitlisted from Cornell and Georgetown (13 and 14) and rejected from Berk, Emory, and GW (8, 22, and 25). I haven't received anything about scholarships from Columbia, so I don't know how much money (if any) they are going to offer me.

From what I have heard, you can negotiate with a given law school based off of what another law school offers you. In light of this, I am hoping that I get into a lower T14 school (like Duke or Northwestern) and use Columbia as leverage. I would love someone's opinion on how feasible that would be, as well as how the process actually works.

Thanks in advance!!

stgl1230

@Lsatistheworst said:
Hi all,

Just to give you an idea of where I stand, I applied to almost all of the T14s, as well as a few schools ranked 17-25. My stats aren't that great, but I am a nontraditional student with a very interesting life story, as well as an underrepresented minority. One of my friends told me that, because of this, I would actually have a better shot of getting into a higher ranked school because they don't need to be as worried about preserving their numbers. I didn't believe her until I very recently got my first acceptance.

So far I have been accepted into Columbia (4), waitlisted from Cornell and Georgetown (13 and 14) and rejected from Berk, Emory, and GW (8, 22, and 25). I haven't received anything about scholarships from Columbia, so I don't know how much money (if any) they are going to offer me.

From what I have heard, you can negotiate with a given law school based off of what another law school offers you. In light of this, I am hoping that I get into a lower T14 school (like Duke or Northwestern) and use Columbia as leverage. I would love someone's opinion on how feasible that would be, as well as how the process actually works.

Thanks in advance!!

Hi @Lsatistheworst Congrats on your Columbia acceptance! Regarding your waitlists/rejections....law school is weird (and Cornell is super weird right now).

You can definitely negotiate for scholarships within the T14, and it's quite common. Once you have all of your scholarship offers (so probably in a couple of months), email Duke/NU and tell them that you received X scholarship from Columbia but Duke/NU is high on your list and you would attend if you were offered a larger aid package. Duke and Northwestern should also be receptive toward scholarship negotiations from T14s in the middle of the pack, not just Columbia and up. Also, if you didn't write a Why X, send that with your scholarship negotiation e-mail.

stgl1230

Here's Columbia's scholarship info from last cycle, you can compare numbers and see what kind of scholarship you might get: http://columbia.lawschoolnumbers.com/applicants/1516?order=desc&sort=scholarship

Lsatistheworst

@stgl1230 Thanks so much for the information! If I don't get any money from Columbia (which might happens since I'm working with only a 160 LSAT and 3.5 gpa), do you know if I can still use them as leverage against a lower T14?

stgl1230

@Lsatistheworst i think you would need to have money from Columbia (or another school) to convince another T14 to give you a scholarship. I don't think an acceptance alone is going to sway them.