Notre Dame / Fordham / Boston College / Minnesota Forum

[Nova3175]

I've been out of school for 2 years and I'm ready to take the plunge into Law School. 164 LSAT/ 3.3 GPA (Biology), I've gotten a few offers and I'm starting to really get nervous about turning down a full ride offer (at St. John's, Villanova, and Hofstra). BUT I am hopeful that some of my best schools might be manageable with a little more scholarship assistance. Here's where I'm at:

Notre Dame: Accepted. $16,000/yr in merit scholarship (good academic standing requirement). Visiting next week as I've never been to that part of the country, but I'm hoping that the reputation and national recognition of the school will translate well to a number of different legal job markets.

Fordham: Accepted. $15,000/yr in merit scholarship (good academic standing requirement). Visiting this weekend to see the campus for a second time. I'm a big fan of being in NYC for law school, though and the obvious opportunities that presents. Submitting my application for the Stein Scholars program in hopes of adding an additional $10K/yr to make this choice much more financially feasible.

Boston College: Accepted. Merit Scholarship information not yet received.

Minnesota: Accepted. $20,000/yr in merit scholarship (maintain 3.0 requirement). Possibly visiting in Early April, based on how negotiations/offers from the others pan out. Mostly want to use this offer as a bargaining chip to get the other schools to match/exceed.

I'm also waiting on decisions from UPenn, Georgetown, Vanderbilt and Alabama. But I'm thinking these are going to be my schools to choose from. I'm looking for any advice you can give on financing these options (are merit scholarships going to be negotiable? I intend to try to get them to out-bid one another as they seem to all be comparative schools) and would you take one of these higher ranking schools at cost over some lower ranked schools with full-tuition offers?
Thanks for any advice!

[Ricky-Bobby]

Where do you want to practice? Every school you mentioned is regional, so this is a non-issue. Go to school where you want to work.

Also retake the LSAT, etc, etc.

[Attax]

retake the LSAT

Fixed

[Nova]

In order to receive the best feedback in this forum, please provide as much of the following information in your original post as possible:
-The schools you are considering
-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each. COA = cost of tuition + fees + books + cost of living (COL) - scholarships.
-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings
-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
-Your general career goals
-Your LSAT/GPA numbers & How many times you have taken the LSAT

[Ricky-Bobby]

In order to receive the best feedback in this forum, please provide as much of the following information in your original post as possible:
-The schools you are considering
-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each. COA = cost of tuition + fees + books + cost of living (COL) - scholarships.
-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings
-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
-Your general career goals
-Your LSAT/GPA numbers & How many times you have taken the LSAT

I knew I should have just waited until you swooped in with this. You're like a scary sticky-post bird of prey.

[Ramius]

Since when did MN have a stip like that? I thought they held up the "good academic standing" of what a strong regional should be.

[Nova]

I knew I should have just waited until you swooped in with this. You're like a scary sticky-post bird of prey.

the combo of OPs username and the length of the OP's OP without mentioning goals/ties/COA left me no choice.

Since when did MN have a stip like that? I thought they held up the "good academic standing" of what a strong regional should be.

I haven't seen that before either. No one in the UMN admissions thread has mentioned a 3.0 stip.

A 3.0 is about top 75%.

[Ricky-Bobby]

I knew I should have just waited until you swooped in with this. You're like a scary sticky-post bird of prey.

the combo of OPs username and the length of the OP's OP without mentioning goals/ties/COA left me no choice.

Since when did MN have a stip like that? I thought they held up the "good academic standing" of what a strong regional should be.

I haven't seen that before either. No one in the UMN admissions thread has mentioned a 3.0 stip.

A 3.0 is about top 75%.

They have conditional scholarships, but nobody loses them.

ETA: OP is probably confused, as UMN puts 2.5 stips on scholarships.

[Nova3175]

In order to receive the best feedback in this forum, please provide as much of the following information in your original post as possible:
-The schools you are considering
-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each. COA = cost of tuition + fees + books + cost of living (COL) - scholarships.
-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings
-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
-Your general career goals
-Your LSAT/GPA numbers & How many times you have taken the LSAT

Apologies,
Notre Dame: COA $52,790/yr
Fordham: COA $62,722/yr
Boston College: COA $64,591/yr (Scholarship offer not yet received)
Minnesota: COA $37,136/yr
I'm from NY, hoping to land a job in NYC after graduating law school (Also open to other cities: Philly, Chicago, etc.). I'm interested in practicing IP/Patent Law.
I'm financing law school on my own, so I'll be paying what I can and taking loans to supply the rest. Would prefer to get the tuition expense down below $20,500/yr so that I can finance with one Fed-Subsidized loan and not have to go beyond that to private lenders and higher interest rates. May have been confused about the MN offer stipulated GPA requirements - don't have them in front of me at the moment.

Thanks for the responses thus far, still wondering what y'all would pick if you were in my shoes? Thoughts on negotiating merit scholarships? Thanks for the feedback!

[Attax]

In order to receive the best feedback in this forum, please provide as much of the following information in your original post as possible:
-The schools you are considering
-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each. COA = cost of tuition + fees + books + cost of living (COL) - scholarships.
-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings
-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
-Your general career goals
-Your LSAT/GPA numbers & How many times you have taken the LSAT

Apologies,
Notre Dame: COA $52,790/yr
Fordham: COA $62,722/yr
Boston College: COA $64,591/yr (Scholarship offer not yet received)
Minnesota: COA $37,136/yr
I'm from NY, hoping to land a job in NYC after graduating law school (Also open to other cities: Philly, Chicago, etc.). I'm interested in practicing IP/Patent Law.
I'm financing law school on my own, so I'll be paying what I can and taking loans to supply the rest. Would prefer to get the tuition expense down below $20,500/yr so that I can finance with one Fed-Subsidized loan and not have to go beyond that to private lenders and higher interest rates. May have been confused about the MN offer stipulated GPA requirements - don't have them in front of me at the moment.

Thanks for the responses thus far, still wondering what y'all would pick if you were in my shoes? Thoughts on negotiating merit scholarships? Thanks for the feedback!

You should aim for COL + tuition (including all expenses to the law school and book store). below $20,500. Are you wanting to do patent prosecution or litigation? Because a biology degree isn't the most useable in terms of prosecution. Yes, it makes you patent bar eligible, but there aren't many biology patents seeing as how God doesn't walk this earth patenting his creations.

Those are all regional schools, if you want NY go to Fordham.