GULC seems stingy with scholarships, who gets them? Forum

[thatsnotmyname]

Just browsing on LSN, I noticed two things about GULC: 1) they really don't give out very many scholarships, and 2) there's not much of a pattern to how they tend to distribute money.

So... anyone have any insight into how GULC chooses its applicants for scholarships? Do they take financial need into account more heavily than other schools and actually distribute to the most needy people with high numbers?

[Veyron]

Just browsing on LSN, I noticed two things about GULC: 1) they really don't give out very many scholarships, and 2) there's not much of a pattern to how they tend to distribute money.

So... anyone have any insight into how GULC chooses its applicants for scholarships? Do they take financial need into account more heavily than other schools and actually distribute to the most needy people with high numbers?

I've seen scholarships go to super high LSAT splitters.

[DanInALionsDen]

I basically have a full tuition grant/scholarship from GULC, if you roll in the $4700/yr I get for work-study. I'll tell you how it went for me, and the details of my specific grant and scholarship.

For me, I first received a letter saying that because of my academic performance (by which, I also take it they mean LSAT) and my financial need, I had been awarded a Dean's Grant of $30,000/year. For that grant someone must have both a high GPA/LSAT and real financial need. My mom makes about 22k/yr, my Dad is not in the picture, and I'm straight out of undergrad, so I definitely had financial need. Anyway, after I was offered the $30,000, I decided to mull it over for a little while. I felt that I could get into a higher ranked school with my GPA and LSAT and kind of had my heart set on NYU, Chi, or Penn.

Then I got an email from GULC inviting me to apply for a Law Center Scholarship, in addition to my grant. The application was just a response to the email saying, yeah, I'd like to be considered. A few days later I received an email back saying that I had been awarded a scholarship of $10,000/year in addition to my previous grant, but I had to withdraw all of my pending applications within 2 weeks. I decided to go check out the campus and talk to the admissions office about the offer, to see what was what.

The woman I spoke to in admissions told me that the grant and scholarship I received did not require me to maintain any specific GPA while I was in law school, and that so long as I didn't fail out, I'd continue to receive the full $40,000/year. She also informed me that if my grant money went down because of an improved financial situation (not likely), the scholarship would take up the slack, even if that meant that the scholarship had to cover the full $40k/year.

So, to answer your question in sum, they seem to take GPA, LSAT, and financial need into account when awarding scholarships. I think, in part, it's because people with high GPA/LSATS, but also with high financial need are the most likely to be attracted by, and to ultimately accept scholarship offers at schools which rank somewhat below their numbers (which is not to say that I think I'm too good for GULC - I love it here). Hope that helps.

[digitalcntrl]

I basically have a full tuition grant/scholarship from GULC, if you roll in the $4700/yr I get for work-study. I'll tell you how it went for me, and the details of my specific grant and scholarship.

For me, I first received a letter saying that because of my academic performance (by which, I also take it they mean LSAT) and my financial need, I had been awarded a Dean's Grant of $30,000/year. For that grant someone must have both a high GPA/LSAT and real financial need. My mom makes about 22k/yr, my Dad is not in the picture, and I'm straight out of undergrad, so I definitely had financial need. Anyway, after I was offered the $30,000, I decided to mull it over for a little while. I felt that I could get into a higher ranked school with my GPA and LSAT and kind of had my heart set on NYU, Chi, or Penn.

Then I got an email from GULC inviting me to apply for a Law Center Scholarship, in addition to my grant. The application was just a response to the email saying, yeah, I'd like to be considered. A few days later I received an email back saying that I had been awarded a scholarship of $10,000/year in addition to my previous grant, but I had to withdraw all of my pending applications within 2 weeks. I decided to go check out the campus and talk to the admissions office about the offer, to see what was what.

The woman I spoke to in admissions told me that the grant and scholarship I received did not require me to maintain any specific GPA while I was in law school, and that so long as I didn't fail out, I'd continue to receive the full $40,000/year. She also informed me that if my grant money went down because of an improved financial situation (not likely), the scholarship would take up the slack, even if that meant that the scholarship had to cover the full $40k/year.

So, to answer your question in sum, they seem to take GPA, LSAT, and financial need into account when awarding scholarships. I think, in part, it's because people with high GPA/LSATS, but also with high financial need are the most likely to be attracted by, and to ultimately accept scholarship offers at schools which rank somewhat below their numbers (which is not to say that I think I'm too good for GULC - I love it here). Hope that helps.

Just as an aside do you have to pay taxes on the grant? (I am assuming the scholly is taxable)

[DanInALionsDen]

Also, I just read through your old posts and...

If your numbers are really 3.85/171, why would you apply to GW ED? Are you hoping to get their president's scholarship or whatever they call it (the free ride one)? Even if you are I don't think it's worth locking yourself into GW. We have very similar numbers, but my GPA was lower (3.8 ), and I applied to GW on a whim, something like two days before the deadline. They still gave me $30,000/year plus free housing for the first year. They gave the same offer to two of my friends who had a 4.0/168 and 3.9/168 respectively. Both of my friends took the offer, while I obviously ended up at GULC.

If your interest is in biglaw, I think GW would be a mistake. I would wager that you'd need to be top 15% in your class to have a real shot from GW, at least from what I've been reading of their OCI (on campus interview) stats. To be fair, Georgetown isn't fairing so well at OCI this year either from what I've read. I'd say at GULC you'll need to be top 35% for a real shot at biglaw. That said, the fact that you're interested in IP, if you end up sticking with that, might make it a bit easier for you to get a biglaw job then others... but not much.

[CanadianWolf]

Scholarships typically are not taxable.

[DanInALionsDen]

Just as an aside do you have to pay taxes on the grant? (I am assuming the scholly is taxable)

Neither should be taxable, since I spend the entire sum of each on tuition.

See: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/students ... 74,00.html

Specifically:

"Taxable Scholarships and Fellowships

If you received a scholarship or fellowship, all or part of it may be taxable, even if you did not receive a Form W-2. Generally, the entire amount is taxable if you are not a candidate for a degree.

If you are a candidate for a degree, you generally can exclude from income that part of the grant used for:

Tuition and fees required for enrollment or attendance, or
Fees, books, supplies, and equipment required for your courses."

[thatsnotmyname]

Well, I really want to go to law school in DC. So, I mean the thing is it would be pretty sweet to graduate from GW debt free... But also there's part of me that really wants to go to GULC for the better career prospects, but just worried that it will end up being too expensive. Does GULC give financial aid to needy ED applicants?

Like I checked LSN and the only ED applicant that got money last cycle was: http://lawschoolnumbers.com/Luc252

But I have no idea what is going on there because if you read the additional information section it seems like they admitted her under the agreement that she would withdraw all other applications if admitted. In other words it seems like she applied RD and then GULC called her up and told her that they would admit her if she changed her application to ED. I'm not really sure what's going on. But does anyone know if GULC gives needy ED applicants the same financial aid consideration? I know the answer is probably going to be "No, they don't because they have no incentive to."

[CanadianWolf]

Almost all, if not all, law school scholarships are limited to non-taxable uses such as tuition, fees & books.

[DanInALionsDen]

Well, I really want to go to law school in DC. So, I mean the thing is it would be pretty sweet to graduate from GW debt free... But also there's part of me that really wants to go to GULC for the better career prospects, but just worried that it will end up being too expensive. Does GULC give financial aid to needy ED applicants?

Like I checked LSN and the only ED applicant that got money last cycle was: http://lawschoolnumbers.com/Luc252

But I have no idea what is going on there because if you read the additional information section it seems like they admitted her under the agreement that she would withdraw all other applications if admitted. In other words it seems like she applied RD and then GULC called her up and told her that they would admit her if she changed her application to ED. I'm not really sure what's going on. But does anyone know if GULC gives needy ED applicants the same financial aid consideration? I know the answer is probably going to be "No, they don't because they have no incentive to."

Yeah, I don't know what's going on with that user. They probably had some kind of a special story in addition to being a URM. Again, assuming your numbers really are 3.85/171 you have no reason to ED to Georgetown either. Your scores aren't high enough to warrant a yield protect WL, so barring an insane personal statement, serious criminal background, or very negative LORs, I think you're in.

As to whether EDing hurts your chances of getting scholarship money, I would think it does, for the reason you mentioned. Why give someone money to come to your university when they've locked themselves into coming. Usually this issue doesn't come up, since people tend to ED to schools that are reaches (except for UVa, who has a weird ED system), and they wouldn't get money at that school whether they EDed or not - they'd just be happy to be admitted.