Requesting Fee Waivers from schools

Pride Only Hurts

How early should we start emailing schools about being considered for a fee waiver? Would love to apply broadly but there's no way I can afford it.

MissChanandler

I've been wondering this as well. A lot of schools send them out throughout the application cycle, but if you're planning on applying in September or October you might not have them yet, and it's definitely not worth it to wait months to apply just for the possibility of a fee waiver

Selene Steelman

If you want to be on a school's radar, you should sign up for the LSAC CRS: https://www.lsac.org/choosing-law-school/candidate-referral-service. This is how schools will find you based on your LSAT/GPA and areas of interest. If you attend an LSAC forum and stop by a school's table, you can get a fee waiver handed to you or emailed to you. If they don't reach out to you by end of September, you should just call the admissions office and ask for a fee waiver. Good luck!

Selene Steelman

You can call or email the admissions offices for a fee waiver after their new applications go live on LSAC. In the same communication, you could ask a smart question or two about academic programming (https://7sage.com/admissions/lesson/what-questions-should-you-ask-a-law-school-admissions-officer/). Follow up with a polite and professional thank you email to the counselor for the fee waiver and the answers to the questions. Should you have questions later in the application cycle, you could reach out to them in the future.

Pride Only Hurts

@MissChanandler said:
I've been wondering this as well. A lot of schools send them out throughout the application cycle, but if you're planning on applying in September or October you might not have them yet, and it's definitely not worth it to wait months to apply just for the possibility of a fee waiver

Yeah last year a handful sent me waivers but it was way to late in the cycle. I’m trying to apply in September.

studyingandrestudying

For the emails, what are some good subject lines?

Giselle112

@lsatplaylist said:
For the emails, what are some good subject lines?

I always used "Fee Waiver-Public Service" because I was soliciting fee waivers based on my experience in Teach for America. A lot of students will ask for merit based fee waivers and include their LSAT/GPA.

akistotle

@"Pride Only Hurts" said:

@MissChanandler said:
I've been wondering this as well. A lot of schools send them out throughout the application cycle, but if you're planning on applying in September or October you might not have them yet, and it's definitely not worth it to wait months to apply just for the possibility of a fee waiver

Yeah last year a handful sent me waivers but it was way to late in the cycle. I’m trying to apply in September.

Last year, I sent emails in the last week of August. A couple of schools responded asking me to get back to them after September, but some schools gave me fee waivers before September 1.

Here's a thread on fee waivers last cycle:
https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/17398/fee-waivers/p1

Alex

@"Pride Only Hurts" said:
How early should we start emailing schools about being considered for a fee waiver? Would love to apply broadly but there's no way I can afford it.

Are you eligible for fee waivers from LSAC? I was able to secure 4 through them and 2 free takes for the LSAT.

For the other schools, I emailed them after I had my score on record, but that was later in the cycle. However, they all got back to me within a few days at the latest.

Pride Only Hurts

@MissChanandler said:
I've been wondering this as well. A lot of schools send them out throughout the application cycle, but if you're planning on applying in September or October you might not have them yet, and it's definitely not worth it to wait months to apply just for the possibility of a fee waiver

Yeah last year a handful sent me waivers but it was pretty late in the cycle.

Pride Only Hurts

@akistotle said

Here's a thread on fee waivers last cycle:
https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/17398/fee-waivers/p1

This is great, thank you!

@Alex said:

@"Pride Only Hurts" said:
How early should we start emailing schools about being considered for a fee waiver? Would love to apply broadly but there's no way I can afford it.

Are you eligible for fee waivers from LSAC? I was able to secure 4 through them and 2 free takes for the LSAT.

For the other schools, I emailed them after I had my score on record, but that was later in the cycle. However, they all got back to me within a few days at the latest.

I don’t think so. I didn’t know about LSACs fee waiver and ended up paying for CAS and two takes. I’m positive I would’ve qualified but since I’ve already paid for it I figured it’s a done deal to get the waiver for apps.

Alex

@"Pride Only Hurts" said:

@akistotle said

Here's a thread on fee waivers last cycle:
https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/17398/fee-waivers/p1

This is great, thank you!

@Alex said:

@"Pride Only Hurts" said:
How early should we start emailing schools about being considered for a fee waiver? Would love to apply broadly but there's no way I can afford it.

Are you eligible for fee waivers from LSAC? I was able to secure 4 through them and 2 free takes for the LSAT.

For the other schools, I emailed them after I had my score on record, but that was later in the cycle. However, they all got back to me within a few days at the latest.

I don’t think so. I didn’t know about LSACs fee waiver and ended up paying for CAS and two takes. I’m positive I would’ve qualified but since I’ve already paid for it I figured it’s a done deal to get the waiver for apps.

oh, okay. Yeah I was told by a friend after I had already been studying a while thankfully. I wish they would make this info more accessible by sending a mass email or something.