Cornell ($$) and a weird deferral situation Forum

[SupCutie]

Right now it's Cornell (100k) this year, Cornell next year, or re-applying next year.

The scholarship is at the sweet spot where I will not incur significant debt thanks to family and personal savings. I'm still waiting on CN and V; on the off chance I get into any of those at sticker, would it be worth attending? I'd be debt financing about 140-160k. Unless it'd substantially help my career, I'd rather not waste money.

My goals: Bigfed > State/City Govt (i.e the NYC city attorney program) >>>>> Biglaw.
Geographic preferences: SF > LA/NY > DC. Have ties to SF and LA.

Here's the tricky part. I'm looking to defer a year. I have personal projects and also financial debt that I want to clear off in a year. I have a SO that needs the year before moving to NYC. Long distance between NYC and Ithaca seems much more doable than from the west coast. Cornell does not defer scholarships, my understanding from talking to finaid is that it's entirely based off LSAT/GPA medians. With the uptick in applicants, I'm thinking I stand to lose 0-10k/year in scholarships. Or maybe they do me dirty and I get 0, who knows.

I have already applied twice and taken the LSAT 4 times. I'm at a 169. I'm confident I could increase at least one point if I retook (I took it twice pre-TLS regimented studying and one was a cancel due to the flu), but I feel like taking it 5 times is a bad look and honestly I'm not sure if I want to put myself through that again.

I'm going to be honest, I wrote dogshit essays this cycle. I could also re-apply without re-taking and tailor my essays towards Berkeley (SO would move to SF), Penn, NYU too. I generally like Cornell, but am hesitant to pull the trigger just because of the uncertainty of the scholarship situation.

[SupCutie]

Any input? Should I gamble on my scholarship remaining about the same?