Down to 5 with Different Scholarships Offers... EEK! Forum

[eru2]

Hi all! I am new to this whole forum thing so hopefully I am doing this right... not quite "blogging" savvy or whatever you want to call it. Anyways, I was hoping that I might be able to get some help from third parties in choosing a law school as I am pretty indecisive and my family is really not going to be of much help because they are either: A. clueless or B. only worried about the money.

Thus far, I have it down to 5 law schools and although I am waiting on a few more, I think that I will stick to these 5 when all is said and done because of scholarship offers. I have my permanent residency in a small town of Virginia but went to school up north in a big city. I was hoping to go to a law school somewhere that would be in or close to a big city but cost of living and scholarships are playing a decent role right now in my decision because I get worried thinking about what might happen upon graduation since everything seems to be getting more competitive.

William & Mary - In-state tuition and $8k a year after that so ~$12,000
Washington & Lee - $34k a year (I am just basically calling this a full ride lol)
Illinois - $20k a year
Minnesota - $18k a year
Boston U - $15k a year

I really think I like Boston but they gave me the least amount of scholarship and have the highest cost of living. Do you think I should write them a letter negotiating this? And if I do, what would you consider a "peer" school? Just Illinois and Minnesota or could I use W&L too?

Sorry this is long but any help is sooo greatly appreciated!

[avacado111]

washington and lee.

[Scurredsitless1]

washington and lee.

Agreed. And congrats, those are some awesome options

[im_blue]

You can narrow down your choices by cutting out your least favorite schools. I think Minnesota is a definite cut since Illinois is offering comparable money.

William & Mary - In-state tuition and $8k a year after that so ~$12,000
Washington & Lee - $34k a year (I am just basically calling this a full ride lol)
Illinois - $20k a year
Boston U - $15k a year

[nyyankees]

Id suggest giving these numbers in reverse, as in add tuition + books + housing + insurance + extra expenses + transportation and then subtract your scholarship. Then look at what you are paying per school versus expected value to you of going to the school. As in what field are you going into? how much do you fairly expect to make? (i think its fair to assume median of any class you are in) and how does that number change across the board?

I recently did this and realized if I get into my dream school, I will likely be paying literally double of what I would at my best offer/acceptance now. Im not sure what I would do in that situation, but it puts me in a much better position to make a call.

[ec2xs]

You can narrow down your choices by cutting out your least favorite schools. I think Minnesota is a definite cut since Illinois is offering comparable money.

William & Mary - In-state tuition and $8k a year after that so ~$12,000
Washington & Lee - $34k a year (I am just basically calling this a full ride lol)
Illinois - $20k a year
Boston U - $15k a year

You can also narrow down between W&M and W&L. They are similar in location and rankings (granted, there are variables), but you should be able to decide which of those two offers is more appealing to you and cut the other off the list.

W&L or W&M
Illinois
Boston

[eru2]

Thanks guys!

I had actually taken out W&L at first because I really thought that at most I would only get like half tuition tops which wouldn't be good enough to overtake the other schools and Lexington is pretty damn boring. lol Then I got that scholly and I had to reconsider. So from there, I guess I am taking out W&M instead.

Does anyone know how BU takes negotiations? I am just really concerned about being in a town with basically nothing knowing that I really like cities. Boston's cost of living is just so much higher than other places.

[Rowinguy2009]

If you really like BU, which it seems like you do, can't hurt to try to negotiate. There are multiple negotiation threads, but basically just tell them that they are your first choice (assuming that is true) but you are having a problem with how much more you would have to pay at BU than at each of the other schools. Obviously do it politely. The worse they can say is no.

[UFMatt]

I'd choose W&L, provided you don't mind the quiet life for a few years. Cost of living is dirty cheap.

[extempore88]

.

[Vincent Vega]

I'd go for W&L unless you can negotiate with BU some.

[ndirish2010]

W&L...i got the same scholarship and might be making a similar decision very soon (though I wouldn't rule out having one of these threads for me haha)

[eru2]

Yea, I am on WL at UVA and Duke.

I am pretty sure there is no hope in getting off of either of those waitlists though. haha At this point, I'd feel more confident thinking I would get off the UVA waitlist than the Duke waitlist though. The real question is, do I really feel like staying in my hometown of Charlottesville... Yeaaaa, I'd take it. haha