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T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 10:58 pm
by jcan91
URM December LSAT retaker here who is yet to hear back from any schools. Needless to say I'm getting kinda crazy here. I just recently got an email from a T30 telling me I was competitive for merit-based scholarships and granting me a fee waiver and so my questions are:

1) Are they actually serious when they say I could be eligible for considerable scholarship money
2) Is it worth throwing an app their way at this point in the hopes of a fairly quick turnaround and potential bargaining money for a couple of other T30's I applied to?
3) Should I just forget about the whole thing and wait it out until I finally hear back from the schools I applied to?

Thanks for your time guys. Much appreciated.

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:01 pm
by Scotusnerd
I don't have much experience with T30, but I have plenty with advertisements from law school, so take from this what you will.

They're all crap, and there's a reason that they desparately want you. It's because they have trouble finding peeps. I have never received an advertisement from a school I would attend.

Approach any such offers with extreme skepticism. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

That said, there's no harm in asking for a fee waiver and applying to see what happens.

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:23 pm
by jcan91
They already offered me a fee waiver (and emailed me a bunch of times). I definitely get a lot of crap from law schools I've never even heard of, but is there a point at which the emails and letters stop being meaningless? Is it the T30 mark? T14? T10?

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:32 pm
by dingbat
If you got a fee waiver and you'd be willing to attend, send in an app.

to counter Scotus, I got unsolicited fee waivers from 4 top 30 schools (not to mention some really crappy ones that I wouldn't attend if you paid me). For those schools, I was competitive, but that doesn't mean you'll get in.

As a general rule don't apply to a school you won't attend. However, if your numbers are such that you'll probably get some money, having scholly offers in hand can help you negotiate, so if they've given you a fee waiver and you can spare the $21, go for it (but make sure it's the kind of school they'd care to compete with)

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:37 pm
by Scotusnerd
I'll defer to dingbat on this one, he's got it figured out.

I have a collection of pretty ocean pictures that some California school sent me in color last year at great expense. They now line my refrigerator, and I don't even know the school's name. I think one some TTT sent me even had a mini-yearbook of their faculty and staff, in full color on expensive, heavy, glossy paper. I felt sorry for the kids that went there and had their tuition money wasted on crap like that.

I hate those advertisements.

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:43 pm
by dingbat
Scotusnerd wrote:I'll defer to dingbat on this one, he's got it figured out.

I have a collection of pretty ocean pictures that some California school sent me in color last year at great expense. They now line my refrigerator, and I don't even know the school's name. I think one some TTT sent me even had a mini-yearbook of their faculty and staff, in full color on expensive, heavy, glossy paper. I felt sorry for the kids that went there and had their tuition money wasted on crap like that.

I hate those advertisements.
I'll second this as well, I got waivers from some school not in the same geographic region as where I lived, including one that included scholarship information showing that my LSAT was more than 15 points higher than needed for a full scholarship. WTF makes them think I'd move to some inkidink town in the middle of nowhere to go to a school I've never heard of when I'm clearly out of their league?

On the other hand, I also got a waiver from Vanderbilt, where my numbers are above median, but not by a huge chunk, as well as a few other schools that are not too far from where I live and might have been realistically considered

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:16 am
by jcan91
You guys make a lot of sense. I've also gotten my fair share of fee waivers both from schools I've never heard of and schools I never dreamed would even notice me. Some random school even offered me a weekend long hotel stay just to check out their school. I thought about going just because I could but I realised that wasn't the nicest thing to do.

That said, this T30 wasn't one I had ever given much thought so I'll do some research and like you said, if I could see myself there, I'll send off my $21, otherwise, I'll just add them to unused pile.

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:20 am
by dingbat
jcan91 wrote:You guys make a lot of sense. I've also gotten my fair share of fee waivers both from schools I've never heard of and schools I never dreamed would even notice me. Some random school even offered me a weekend long hotel stay just to check out their school. I thought about going just because I could but I realised that wasn't the nicest thing to do.

That said, this T30 wasn't one I had ever given much thought so I'll do some research and like you said, if I could see myself there, I'll send off my $21, otherwise, I'll just add them to unused pile.
Also keep in mind that T30 schools are very regional. Don't go to Alabama if you don't want to work in Alabama, or to BC/BU if you don't want to end up in Boston (there's some portability within the region, but even then it's an uphill struggle)

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:21 am
by Scotusnerd
jcan91 wrote:You guys make a lot of sense. I've also gotten my fair share of fee waivers both from schools I've never heard of and schools I never dreamed would even notice me. Some random school even offered me a weekend long hotel stay just to check out their school. I thought about going just because I could but I realised that wasn't the nicest thing to do.

That said, this T30 wasn't one I had ever given much thought so I'll do some research and like you said, if I could see myself there, I'll send off my $21, otherwise, I'll just add them to unused pile.
You know what's REALLY a not nice thing to do? Using tuition money that students are putting themselves in serious financial debt for to pay for other prospective students to come out to look at the school. THAT is bullshit. I wouldn't blame you for doing it, I'd blame the administration for cooking up that scheme in the first place. If I were at that school I would be raising absolute hell. They'd probably kick me out.

Good luck!

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:24 am
by dingbat
Scotusnerd wrote:
jcan91 wrote:You guys make a lot of sense. I've also gotten my fair share of fee waivers both from schools I've never heard of and schools I never dreamed would even notice me. Some random school even offered me a weekend long hotel stay just to check out their school. I thought about going just because I could but I realised that wasn't the nicest thing to do.

That said, this T30 wasn't one I had ever given much thought so I'll do some research and like you said, if I could see myself there, I'll send off my $21, otherwise, I'll just add them to unused pile.
You know what's REALLY a not nice thing to do? Using tuition money that students are putting themselves in serious financial debt for to pay for other prospective students to come out to look at the school. THAT is bullshit. I wouldn't blame you for doing it, I'd blame the administration for cooking up that scheme in the first place. If I were at that school I would be raising absolute hell. They'd probably kick me out.

Good luck!
That's pretty shitty, but so is any school that needs to resort to that kind of tactic to begin with. On the other hand, once accepted, many schools offer a stipend to attend an admitted student event

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 1:00 am
by jcan91
dingbat wrote:
Scotusnerd wrote:
jcan91 wrote:You guys make a lot of sense. I've also gotten my fair share of fee waivers both from schools I've never heard of and schools I never dreamed would even notice me. Some random school even offered me a weekend long hotel stay just to check out their school. I thought about going just because I could but I realised that wasn't the nicest thing to do.

That said, this T30 wasn't one I had ever given much thought so I'll do some research and like you said, if I could see myself there, I'll send off my $21, otherwise, I'll just add them to unused pile.
You know what's REALLY a not nice thing to do? Using tuition money that students are putting themselves in serious financial debt for to pay for other prospective students to come out to look at the school. THAT is bullshit. I wouldn't blame you for doing it, I'd blame the administration for cooking up that scheme in the first place. If I were at that school I would be raising absolute hell. They'd probably kick me out.

Good luck!
That's pretty shitty, but so is any school that needs to resort to that kind of tactic to begin with. On the other hand, once accepted, many schools offer a stipend to attend an admitted student event
The whole thing is shameful for everybody involved. So unfair that people who actually attend these schools end up getting doubly ripped off since their tuition money basically ends up being tossed at everyone else.

That point about the schools being regional really makes sense though. I could never see myself in the region of that school for any longer than the time it would take me to get my degree, so I guess that's that. I won't be applying after all.

Thanks so much for all your help guys and best of luck to you both!

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 1:33 am
by sanjola
jcan91 wrote:URM December LSAT retaker here who is yet to hear back from any schools. Needless to say I'm getting kinda crazy here. I just recently got an email from a T30 telling me I was competitive for merit-based scholarships and granting me a fee waiver and so my questions are:

1) Are they actually serious when they say I could be eligible for considerable scholarship money
2) Is it worth throwing an app their way at this point in the hopes of a fairly quick turnaround and potential bargaining money for a couple of other T30's I applied to?
3) Should I just forget about the whole thing and wait it out until I finally hear back from the schools I applied to?

Thanks for your time guys. Much appreciated.
I got the same e-mail and fee waiver and sent in an app to the school last month. I think the URM status was a big reason why we received the e-mails.

Re: T30 'potential scholarship' worth it?

Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 1:52 am
by jcan91
I guess that makes sense. I feel like the URM thing is a big reason certain things are sitting in my inbox. Grateful though. Glad to see it wasn't just me.