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This week I received full-tuition scholarship offers from Michigan State and Penn State, but as I've begun to compare them with Suffolk, my top choice, I'm a bit flummoxed as to why I received such generous financial incentive from these schools and not from Suffolk, given that MSU and PSU have better numbers than Suffolk does.

Because I'm financing my JD exclusively by myself with my non-existent savings, cost is the number one factor going into my decision. Prestige and notoriety are not so important to me; I plan to do pro bono work and have a few ins to the job market where I'd like to practice already. So, I don't care whether the law school I pick is impressive, I care if I can pay for it without bundles of debt.

My LSAT score is not impressive (159) and my GPA is 3.93. I haven't time to retake the LSAT and I haven't yet submitted my FAFSA. I don't understand though why MSU and PSU would give me scholarship money but no offer from Suffolk. Suffolk is my top choice because of location, so I'd very much like to finagle some monies if I can.

Any insight as to why this might be? Would it be tacky to negotiate for a merit-based award? Advice on going about that? And as a bonus, if I can't get money from Suffolk, MSU or PSU? (Both seem equally bleh to me, but, getting at least a year of law school for free is rather attractive for my situation.)

sheepishsmirk wrote:I plan to do pro bono work and have a few ins to the job market where I'd like to practice already.

So, you're just going to work for free?

ETA: And yes, you should retake. Sad to see such a beautiful GPA go to waste. If minimizing debt is your goal, why not sit out a cycle, up your score, and watch the T1 full rides fall into your lap?

k

Retake. Law school can wait another year.

& OP, what kind of ins to the job market are you talking about?

Retake the LSAT.

You really should go to Harvard. But anything less than BU/BC would be a true tragedy.

Pro bono means working for free.

Retake. Why would you waste a 3.93?

jfc you have a 3.93

all of these schools are shit and you deserve to be unemployed if you attend any of them

Retaking is logistically challenging for me because I'm currently working in Kazakhstan. The nearest testing facility is hundreds of miles away. And, sucky situation, traveling to take the test would violate my work contract here. I mean, where there's a will there's a way, but even retaking I doubt I could get a full ride from BU or BC.

The great thing about pro bono practice is that when you're working for free your clients don't care much that you alma mater's reputation is crap. Notoriety isn't very important to me; a free ride is VERY important to me, but I'm not a competitive Tier One or Tier Two applicant.

I have lawyers "in the family", so to speak, who have offered me a place with them if I can get my JD. Maybe I am being naive, but I'm also assuming people who plan to work for cheap/free are in pretty high demand.

What I'm taking away from this thread is that I should 1) find SOME way of retaking the LSAT (logistically difficult but perhaps not as much of a waste of resources as I initially though) or 2) use my GPA as leverage to get scholly from Suffolk?

All of these schools are crap. If you really want to go to law school and be a lawyer, you'll find a way to make retaking work. Getting a big scholly to even BC/BU (very feasible with even a modest increase) would give you a shot at real paying lawyer work while leaving you free to pursue lower-paying work if you wanted.

sheepishsmirk wrote:Retaking is logistically challenging for me because I'm currently working in Kazakhstan.

In the words of Kazakhstan's own...

k

Yeah, I am confuse. Doing some pro bono work on the side just as sort of a good karma thing or giving back to the community type stuff is all well and good, but doing JUST pro bono stuff? How are you going to eat/keep a roof over your head?

Going to Suffolk would be a HUGE mistake. You should be going to Harvard. (And, hello to what I'm assuming is a fellow Mass-hole)

sheepishsmirk wrote:I have lawyers "in the family", so to speak, who have offered me a place with them if I can get my JD.

Ok well you didn't mention that part. If you have a job lined up go wherever for free it doesn't matter. Maybe get the offer in writing first.

That happened to me last year-- you just have to reach out to admissions and they'll get back to you with a scholarship amount. That being said, I still think BC and BU are options. My numbers were 160, 3.8 and I was admitted to both BC (right away) and BU (off waitlist) with $15,000. Good luck with your decision.

rickgrimes69 wrote:

sheepishsmirk wrote:I have lawyers "in the family", so to speak, who have offered me a place with them if I can get my JD.

Ok well you didn't mention that part. If you have a job lined up go wherever for free it doesn't matter. Maybe get the offer in writing first.

Yeah, I'm down with this.

I still think though that if all it takes is a retake I would rather go to, say BU for free than Suffolk for free on the off chance that the family job doesn't work out or you hate it or something and could use the extra prestige or alumni network or whatever else that BU would provide that's better than Suffolk.

If you're 100% comitted to whatever the cause is and you have a rock solid guarantee that you will get that job in 3 years then it really doesn't matter where you go to school I guess, you just need that piece of paper and to pass the bar.

Contact Suffolk admissions and see what's up...I applied there last cycle (They waived my fee and I heard Matt Damon refer to it in "The Departed")...my numbers were way over their 75ths and I got accepted right away but heard nothing about scholarship money. Eventually, about 3 months after getting accepted, I got an official package with a full-ride, no stips...it was pretty nice to receive it but I had already turned down my offer of admission like a month prior...

Maybe I'm being overly cautious, but I still think OP is making a mistake.

Shit happens. People die. Family relationships become strained. Firms close. Even if I had a job offer in writing, who knows what contingencies exist between now and graduation? OP is not immune to life dropping a turd in his lap, and he should at least consider what he'll do if his plans fall through.

It's also not true that the employment picture is rosy for those willing to work free/cheap. There are too many grads for the number of available positions, period. You're not going to just graduate and start fielding shitlaw offers because you'll work for peanuts. Plenty of JDs spend years trying to obtain full-time, long-term, JD-required work and never do. Some can't even give their services away; it's not like you're ready to practice just because you passed the bar. How are you going to pay off those COL loans?

Overall, it sounds like you need to do some more research. Maybe take a year off to paralegal and figure out if law is even right for you. Talk to young lawyers in your market to get a sense for how things really are for new JDs. Figure out how you're going to finance school; you'll have debt even with a full-ride, given your lack of savings. Retake the LSAT to improve your admissions chances and scholarship odds. Then, in a year, you'll have better options.

If you know a lawyer you're kind of a big deal. My cousin's uncle's sister's brother's neighbor's son's dogsitter's son's first-wife's high school boyfriend once hired a lawyer back in the 1970's, and let's just say I had to change my phone number I had so many lawyer's calling me offering big law jobs despite going to Suffolk.

This is at least one of the more creative reasons for why OP can't retake.

Let me get this straight. You know some lawyers who are going to give you an office to work in where you don't actually work for them, but you do free work for clients while taking advantage of their overhead. And you apparently do not actually need to eat or buy things.

Something don't add up here.