Fee waivers from NYU or Berkeley?

Kayyyyyyy

Hi all, if anyone has gotten a merit-based fee waiver from either and feels comfortable sharing your stats (GPA and LSAT), I'd be very grateful. Thanks!

Mitchell-1

I have one from NYU but not Berkeley.

vichinsky

Did you just email them for one ?

Mitchell-1

No, they sent it via CRS.

AllezAllez21

Same as Mitchell, got one from NYU but not Berkeley.

177/~3.8

OlamHafuch

I got Berkeley but not NYU.

goingfor99th

I received one from both. 169 LSAT, 3.84 GPA.

Seeking Perfection

I recieved one emailed from both, but not from Berkeley until after my second LSAT.
NYU- 3.78 172
Berkeley- 3.78 180

goingfor99th

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
I recieved one emailed from both, but not from Berkeley until after my second LSAT.
NYU- 3.78 172
Berkeley- 3.78 180

What was your undergraduate major? Graduating institution? If you don't mind, of course.

_oshun1_

Just email them and ask for it. can't hurt

10bird__

Does your LSAC GPA need to be calculated in order for them to send fee waivers? One of my transcripts haven't been sent yet and I'm wondering that's why I haven't been getting them

Seeking Perfection

@goingfor99th said:

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
I recieved one emailed from both, but not from Berkeley until after my second LSAT.
NYU- 3.78 172
Berkeley- 3.78 180

What was your undergraduate major? Graduating institution? If you don't mind, of course.

I sent you a private message with my majors and graduating institution since I want to protect my idendity publicly. But, I'll try to describe it in general terms here.

I went to a state school on a full tuition scholarship where I recieved a dual degree. One of the degrees was a bachelor of science in economics. My GPA is a little low as a result of taking a course load for the BS which stretched my mathmatical abilities, some experimentation with interesting classes, and participation in a residential college which awards fewer 4.0's than the larger university for my other major, a BA. And then of course, I could have done better too.

I did feel like the combination of my two majors provided an advantage on the LSAT except for on the logic games where only 7sage helped me enough.

My school is not near NYU or Berkeley, but I listed both California and New York as states I was interested in on the CRS survey.

@10bird__
With my 172 I recieved fee waivers last spring before my transcripts were in. I had filled out the Candidate Referral Service information which asks something about GPA though.

I do think higher quality schools sent fee waivers once my actual transcripts were in and processed.

TheMikey

got one from Berkeley most likely due to GPA (3.8+) with a crappy LSAT score

Mitchell-1

@TheMikey said:
got one from Berkeley most likely due to GPA with a crappy LSAT score

I'd be curious about Berkeley. My understanding with west coast schools is they really like people on the west coast (I think part of this is also required by state law in California). I wonder if they do location based filtering? Or maybe they have a max gpa where they think students are less likely to apply because they are above it?

TheMikey

@"Mitchell-1" said:

@TheMikey said:
got one from Berkeley most likely due to GPA with a crappy LSAT score

I'd be curious about Berkeley. My understanding with west coast schools is they really like people on the west coast (I think part of this is also required by state law in California). I wonder if they do location based filtering? Or maybe they have a max gpa where they think students are less likely to apply because they are above it?

I have no idea. I'm on the East Coast so idk about the potential of there being like a location based filter, idunno. I'm almost certain they sent me bc of my GPA though, which isn't surprising since Berk have always been known for being GPA whores, haha.

OlamHafuch

@"Mitchell-1" said:

@TheMikey said:
got one from Berkeley most likely due to GPA with a crappy LSAT score

I Or maybe they have a max gpa where they think students are less likely to apply because they are above it?

More likely a max lsat/gpa combo. But I think you are probably on the right track.

OlamHafuch

Though I'm not sure what they'd lose by offering the waiver. If they were really scared that such candidates would reject them (and affect their stats negatively), they could just reject them or wait list them after they applied.

TheMikey

@uhinberg said:
Though I'm not sure what they'd lose by offering the waiver. If they were really scared that such candidates would reject them (and affect their stats negatively), they could just reject them or wait list them after they applied.

Yeah, I think they offer it to some people who probably wouldn't have applied before just to reject them so they can feel good about the difference in their 'applications and offers' numbers

Mitchell-1

All I know is I seem to get the cold shoulder from the west coast in regards to everything (job offers, phd programs, and now fee waivers). I don't know what I did to make them so upset :-p

Kayyyyyyy

I'm still really confused about criteria for waivers. I truly believe that higher ed and standardized testing (and the legal profession) exist to perpetuate the oppressive power dynamics of the status quo, so I'm really no fan of any of them but: I have a 3.9 GPA from an Ivy League school (gross to even say) and an LSAT of 175 and haven't received a Berkeley waiver - I am very low income but won't qualify for an LSAC waiver. It is obviously so gross that schools even charge any money at all for people to apply and I'm a fan of anyone and everyone getting everything waived.
But do you have any more intel on why they give particular people waivers and not others? It doesn't seem to be based on GPA and LSAT alone...

@TheMikey said:
got one from Berkeley most likely due to GPA (3.8+) with a crappy LSAT score

OlamHafuch

Did you try to e-mail them? Perhaps sharing with Berkeley some other schools that have given you a waiver might be beneficial.

Mitchell-1

Well, the cost is supposed to dissuade people from applying everywhere (because why not at that point). Real life people still have to go through and read the statements, resumes, etc. They need to be paid in order to do that. So the application fee makes sense to a certain point (though we can argue about why it costs as much as it does). They typically are receptive to requests based on need. And the two schools I asked for waivers from didn't even blink twice at granting them.

LSAC fees however make very little to no sense, especially because you have to pay for CAS on top of it anyway. That's just pure capitalism/monopoly power at work.

Also given that we both have very high gpas I'm starting to be more accepting of the idea that they might have a max gpa/lsat cutoff because of statistics based on past matriculants.

Seeking Perfection

@Kayyyyyyy said:
I'm still really confused about criteria for waivers. I truly believe that higher ed and standardized testing (and the legal profession) exist to perpetuate the oppressive power dynamics of the status quo, so I'm really no fan of any of them but: I have a 3.9 GPA from an Ivy League school (gross to even say) and an LSAT of 175 and haven't received a Berkeley waiver - I am very low income but won't qualify for an LSAC waiver. It is obviously so gross that schools even charge any money at all for people to apply and I'm a fan of anyone and everyone getting everything waived.
But do you have any more intel on why they give particular people waivers and not others? It doesn't seem to be based on GPA and LSAT alone...

@TheMikey said:
got one from Berkeley most likely due to GPA (3.8+) with a crappy LSAT score

Did you list California as a state of interest or whatever on the CRS profile?

The Berkeley email for me came latest of all my fee waivers (all top 14 except for Northwestern, Yale, and Harvard). It was also the only one which seemed to come in response to my second LSAT. It came Friday the 13th a few days after we got our September scores.

EvetteCee

When you say a fee waiver do you mean for the application fee or for the law report fee or both?

Paul Caint

I've gotten fee waivers from both NYU and Berkeley. 167/3.9

luniho

Berkeley sent me one (shocking tbh) with 164/3.65