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Quick question: do schools offer merit scholarships based on your first-year performance?

I would imagine that they would want to provide a student in the top 5% with some sort of incentive to stay and not transfer. Is this common?

Some do, some don't. The consensus, though, is that having a transfer acceptance (regardless of your plans) is a good tool to get a post-1L scholarship.

Generally, schools will not give you scholarships based on top 5 %. However, some schools provide a small scholarship for Number 1 in the class. There are plenty of outside scholarships that you can try to receive.

Shaggier1 wrote:Quick question: do schools offer merit scholarships based on your first-year performance?

I would imagine that they would want to provide a student in the top 5% with some sort of incentive to stay and not transfer. Is this common?

I actually think Boalt does have something like this. I can't remember where I saw it though.

This is rare. The more important point, though, is that (from the student's POV) it's random. You have no way of knowing, going into a school, whether you'll get additional $$ even if you do well. It's possible to get $$ post-1L, but it's not something that you should ever count on (or worse, feel entitled to).

Wow. Thanks everyone for the nearly-instant feedback.

This is interesting:

The consensus, though, is that having a transfer acceptance (regardless of your plans) is a good tool to get a post-1L scholarship.

I don't think I would have any desire to leave Boalt, but if I did well enough to transfer to a higher-ranked school (certainly not something I am betting on, just playing the 'if" game), it would make sense to send out some apps as a leverage tool.