Do BigLaw firms give consideration to T6/T14 scholarships? Forum

[crazi4law]

I am mostly asking about the half-tuition scholarships at CCN. All other things equal, would a prospective biglaw candidate from a T6 have a better chance than his fellow classmates because he lists on his resume that he was granted a half-tuition scholarship to the school? Would he be seen as roughly equivalent to, say, an HLS student vying for the same position?

[txdude45]

I am mostly asking about the half-tuition scholarships at CCN. All other things equal, would a prospective biglaw candidate from a T6 have a better chance than his fellow classmates because he lists on his resume that he was granted a half-tuition scholarship to the school? Would he be seen as roughly equivalent to, say, an HLS student vying for the same position?

I was at an event and someone asked a V20 OCI interviewer about situations like this. He said "it doesn't mean shit". Meeting the grade cutoff for your school is all that matters. His example was that even if you're at Columbia with a Hamilton, if you don't make Columbia's cutoff you're S.O.L.

[Nelson]

Why would a firm care about your prelaw grades relative to your classmates when they have your law school grades relative to your classmates?

[AreJay711]

If you have the option, just take the money and not have to worry about it.

[kaiser]

Why would a firm care about your prelaw grades relative to your classmates when they have your law school grades relative to your classmates?

Agreed. Why would the firm care at all? Thats sort of like a firm saying "Hmm, this student has a 3.7, but this student, scored a 172 on the LSAT. Lets go with the high LSAT guy"

That doesn't happen, and firms don't care about your LSAT for the same reason they don't care about what scholarship you have. All of that pre-law school crap is overridden by law school grades, which are your most recent performance indicator, and the most relevant to the firms.

[dixiecupdrinking]

I am mostly asking about the half-tuition scholarships at CCN. All other things equal, would a prospective biglaw candidate from a T6 have a better chance than his fellow classmates because he lists on his resume that he was granted a half-tuition scholarship to the school? Would he be seen as roughly equivalent to, say, an HLS student vying for the same position?

No, but you'll viewed equivalently if you get better grades at CCN than the other guy does at HLS. That's how you prove you "belong" at a "better" school (since that is at the heart of what you're asking, whether employers will understand you're actually too good to be at Columbia). The differences between student quality at these schools is unbelievably minute to begin with, so you really just have to put up or shut up.

[justinp]

Couple folks I talked to who had a Hamilton or Rubenstein level scholly said it was something the interviewer asked about and remarked upon positively, but not in any huge way. They all pretty much said they performed at or slightly above their numbers.

[timbs4339]

JFC no. I had a half-scholly at CLS and struck out. It doesn't mean shit except that my loan payments aren't as onerous.