What do schools base merit scholarships on? Forum

[totoro]

Someone told me it's almost all numbers, but I was admitted to a school where I should have gotten a higher scholarship increment with my numbers - many people posted who got at least 15k more with lower numbers. Number-wise I think I should be in one of these "groups." , unless timing makes that much of a difference. Anyway, this whole process seems kind of random. Does anyone know how this is decided? Is it just cause my application was sent in later? Or perhaps there is some "soft" factors that go in?

[stillwater]

Someone told me it's almost all numbers, but I was admitted to a school where I should have gotten a higher scholarship increment with my numbers - many people posted who got at least 15k more with lower numbers, one person got 45k more with a higher GPA than me. Number-wise I think I should be in one of these "groups." Also, many of them were admitted at the same time, though several applied earlier, it was only a couple weeks earlier, unless timing makes that much of a difference. Anyway, this whole process seems kind of random. Does anyone know how this is decided? Is it just cause my application was sent in later? Or perhaps there is some "soft" factors that go in?

TROLLOLOLOLOL, its just a combo of your LSAT/GPA (with the former being more important because thats how USNWR). I dont know whether URMs get a boost and there may be some calculus on whether youll attend or not. But merit scholarships are just a way to bolster numbers.

[totoro]

Hm ya, the data still doesn't really make sense, unless they are somehow weighing GPA much more than LSAT, though I don't know why'd they do that. I think there's too many people that have posted really high schollies for them all to be URM's, though you are right that being URM could be a boost.

[pruufreadr]

Some schools are not too concerned about waiving their out-of-state tuition for folks with a scholarship. So, an out-of-state student may look to be given a larger scholarship, but paying the same actual dollar amount as the in-state student with the same numbers.

Also, there are sometimes a limited number of donated Named scholarships, and some schools select those students upon admission.

At least one of the schools I applied to has a scholarship w/stipend for working for one of their law centers. The $$ isn't much better, but it looks harder to hang on to because the stips are the same as the LSAT/GPA scholarships there, but with additional obligations on one's time.

[Nova]

I dont know whether URMs get a boost.

URM + at/above median LSAT = Bank

[LexLeon]

The process is probably not always based on numbers alone.

And Pruufreadr has some good points.