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I recently received notification that I have won the Earl Warren Civil Rights Training Scholarship. The letter stated that “You have been awarded $3,000 to attend Fordham Law School….if you will not be attending this institution or withdraw please return the $3,000 immediately.” I now plan on attending a different law school. When you apply for the scholarship you are required to be accepted into a law school and it asks you to list the name of the school you plan on attending. When I submitted the application in late January this was the only school that I had been accepted to and was seriously considering. However like many applicants I was accepted into a better school later in the cycle (April). I’m wondering does this mean that if I don’t go to the specific school I listed in the application I will have to return the money. It doesn’t seem at all logical that this would be the case, but the wording does seem to allude to this. The fund has no affiliation with any particular school so it seems that the school you attend would not matter to them. The scholarship deadline is in March so I am sure that it is entirely common for people to switch their choices between March and June.

I was thinking about not mentioning that I will be attending another school, assume it doesn’t matter, and just take the check (renewable each year) instead of risking losing the scholarship all together. But, then I thought that this could come back to bite me later, so I was wondering if there are any recipients of this scholarship that may be able to advise on this before I give the fund a call.

DustyfootPhilospher wrote:I recently received notification that I have won the Earl Warren Civil Rights Training Scholarship. The letter stated that “You have been awarded $3,000 to attend Fordham Law School….if you will not be attending this institution or withdraw please return the $3,000 immediately.” I now plan on attending a different law school. When you apply for the scholarship you are required to be accepted into a law school and it asks you to list the name of the school you plan on attending. When I submitted the application in late January this was the only school that I had been accepted to and was seriously considering. However like many applicants I was accepted into a better school later in the cycle (April). I’m wondering does this mean that if I don’t go to the specific school I listed in the application I will have to return the money. It doesn’t seem at all logical that this would be the case, but the wording does seem to allude to this. The fund has no affiliation with any particular school so it seems that the school you attend would not matter to them. The scholarship deadline is in March so I am sure that it is entirely common for people to switch their choices between March and June.

I was thinking about not mentioning that I will be attending another school, assume it doesn’t matter, and just take the check (renewable each year) instead of risking losing the scholarship all together. But, then I thought that this could come back to bite me later, so I was wondering if there are any recipients of this scholarship that may be able to advise on this before I give the fund a call.

Do the right thing and give them a call. Don't be crazy. No one will ever want to hire a civil rights attorney who gets caught stealing scholarship money.

^ TITCR

Why would you even consider not telling them? I'm sure you'll be able to keep the scholarship anyways - they probably just want to make sure you are enrolled in law school.