How do school's determine where they distribute the $... Forum

[nillumin]

Not sure if I made any sense with the thread title, but what I am asking is this: Will certain school's hold back scholarship money from candidates who are over-qualified for that school for the reason that they may expect them to go elsewhere? I ask this because I am not completely clear on whether schools have a limited amount of money they can offer.

My next question would be, other than having a great LSAT/GPA, what would be the best way to get the most merit money from a given school...if you appear too "set on"/desperate in your essays to go there, could this hurt you as far as aid?

Thanks for your responses, hopefully you can make some sense out of my convulted questions...

[sundevil77]

Not sure if I made any sense with the thread title, but what I am asking is this: Will certain school's hold back scholarship money from candidates who are over-qualified for that school for the reason that they may expect them to go elsewhere?

The short answer here is yes. Usually, a school will put an over qualified applicant on the waitlist unless the applicant expresses some reason why he wants to attend the school. It's called yield protection. If you give them a good reason why you want to go and they accept you, I would think they'd offer the appropriate scholarship $$$.

I ask this because I am not completely clear on whether schools have a limited amount of money they can offer

Unlike our government, schools cannot simply print off money for every qualified applicant. They work off of endowments (private and public) and state funds (public).

My next question would be, other than having a great LSAT/GPA, what would be the best way to get the most merit money from a given school...if you appear too "set on"/desperate in your essays to go there, could this hurt you as far as aid?

This topic has been covered extensively on this site. Use the search function and look for things like "negotiating merit aid" or "merit aid." You should find many anecdotes and other advice to help maximize merit aid.

[nillumin]

Not sure if I made any sense with the thread title, but what I am asking is this: Will certain school's hold back scholarship money from candidates who are over-qualified for that school for the reason that they may expect them to go elsewhere?

The short answer here is yes. Usually, a school will put an over qualified applicant on the waitlist unless the applicant expresses some reason why he wants to attend the school. It's called yield protection. If you give them a good reason why you want to go and they accept you, I would think they'd offer the appropriate scholarship $$$.

I ask this because I am not completely clear on whether schools have a limited amount of money they can offer

Unlike our government, schools cannot simply print off money for every qualified applicant. They work off of endowments (private and public) and state funds (public).

My next question would be, other than having a great LSAT/GPA, what would be the best way to get the most merit money from a given school...if you appear too "set on"/desperate in your essays to go there, could this hurt you as far as aid?

This topic has been covered extensively on this site. Use the search function and look for things like "negotiating merit aid" or "merit aid." You should find many anecdotes and other advice to help maximize merit aid.

Alright thanks. Wasn't exactly sure where to put this question.