Top Law Schools

Hey guys, I was wondering how good is Duke's financial aid?

Do they give big scholarships or meet 100% need?

I really want to apply Early Decision but I need to know how good there scholarship packages are. My EFC is 0 by the way

That would depend heavily on your numbers.

I am pretty sure they give out scholarships in amounts of 20-25k, 30-35k, 45k, 60-67k, 75k, 90k, to full tuition. Pretty much all merit. I have an EFC of 0 and I'm expecting almost no need based aid, you need to be pretty destitute to qualify for any kind of decent need based. Duke does require your parents financial information to qualify for need aid by the way, regardless of your age or their marital status, which obviously influences things.

If you apply early decision, you most likely will not get any merit aid because the school does not have an incentive to give you money. If you do receive merit aid, which is unlikely, it will probably be less than what the school would have given you as a regular decision applicant.

Here's a strange question, but for those of you who have applied for Duke aid maybe you can help me.
I'm estranged from my father (have been for 13 years) and have no way of knowing what he's doing. I just put "N/A" in the "Father/Joint" income column. Does this count against me? I know they want "estimated" figures, but that's really quite difficult to do for my situation- I just don't want them to think I'm not taking the form seriously.

I filled out lots of N/A in my parents info simply because my father refused to give me that information even though we're very close. It didn't seem to make any difference whatsoever. You'll be fine.

You could write an addendum if you feel that will be an issue.

At the Georgetown ASW - the financial aid guy said that yes its fine if you have a very difficult situation and that yes perhaps you should tell them that but that no its not an excuse if your Dad just doesn't wanna share with you how much money he makes.

Havaianas wrote:At the Georgetown ASW - the financial aid guy said that yes its fine if you have a very difficult situation and that yes perhaps you should tell them that but that no its not an excuse if your Dad just doesn't wanna share with you how much money he makes.

I talked with Duke's aid office explaining my situation. They said it was fine. I received my offer and it was within the normal range for someone with my stats, so while that may be the case at Georgetown, OP will be fine at Duke.

If you still feel uncomfortable, attach an addendum. The scholarship form has that option.

Edit: This isn't to say I didn't try to get the info, just that at a certain point it became clear no amount of convincing was going to get him to tell me certain things and I didn't want to misrepresent financial information. So as long as you have tried, I sincerely doubt Duke will have any problem with you putting "N/A"