Do Law Schools Lowball Veterans on Scholarship Offers? (OU!) Forum

[grungy89]

What do you think?

Do they assume that veterans all have adequate educational benefits that scholarship offers wont factor as heavily into deciding where to go?

Someone I know......
......had a 160 LSAT....and a 3.75......
.......and applied to OU.......whose LSAT median is 158...and whose GPA median is...3.41....
...and was offered by OU $10,000/yr...and was thusly disappointed...thinking they would get a much better offer. (full ride, or close). This person is not an OK resident.

Did the school think this person's veteran status (as evidenced by application, and mentioned in PS) would afford him/her a no-cost/low-cost legal education and therefore offered him/her less?

Or were the applicant's hopes unreasonably high and they should stop feeling slighted?

[ScottRiqui]

I think some of the public schools realize that offering a tuition/fees scholarship to someone who will be applying under the Post-9/11 GI Bill is pointless, and doesn't really provide any incentive to the applicant. Unless the scholarship can be earmarked as not being for tuition and fees, it won't save the student any money - it will just save the VA money.

But I also don't know how much OU typically offers for students with similar numbers.

ETA - I should say that a public school tuition/fees scholarship is worthless to a GI Bill attendee *as long as they're eligible for in-state tuition*, either because they're a resident or because the state in question offers in-state tuition to all veterans using the GI Bill. If they're being charged the out-of-state rate, then a scholarship could be useful to make up the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition.

[grungy89]

I think some of the public schools realize that offering a tuition/fees scholarship to someone who will be applying under the Post-9/11 GI Bill is pointless, and doesn't really provide any incentive to the applicant. Unless the scholarship can be earmarked as not being for tuition and fees, it won't save the student any money - it will just save the VA money.

But I also don't know how much OU typically offers for students with similar numbers.

ETA - I should say that a public school tuition/fees scholarship is worthless to a GI Bill attendee *as long as they're eligible for in-state tuition*, either because they're a resident or because the state in question offers in-state tuition to all veterans using the GI Bill. If they're being charged the out-of-state rate, then a scholarship could be useful to make up the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition.

You're right but the school's shouldn't assume that a veteran didn't just use all/most of their GI Bill on undergrad

[ScottRiqui]

I think some of the public schools realize that offering a tuition/fees scholarship to someone who will be applying under the Post-9/11 GI Bill is pointless, and doesn't really provide any incentive to the applicant. Unless the scholarship can be earmarked as not being for tuition and fees, it won't save the student any money - it will just save the VA money.

But I also don't know how much OU typically offers for students with similar numbers.

ETA - I should say that a public school tuition/fees scholarship is worthless to a GI Bill attendee *as long as they're eligible for in-state tuition*, either because they're a resident or because the state in question offers in-state tuition to all veterans using the GI Bill. If they're being charged the out-of-state rate, then a scholarship could be useful to make up the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition.

You're right but the school's shouldn't assume that a veteran didn't just use all/most of their GI Bill on undergrad

That's true, and I'm not saying that OU *is* lowballing him because of his veteran status (or lowballing him at all, for that matter). I was just pointing out that some schools are in a tough position when it comes to enticing veterans with scholarships.

[14G]

Assuming you will be attending LS with full Post 9/11 benefits, how difficult is it to get schools to code scholarships as something other than "tuition/fees?" Would they be willing to apply it as a living stipend or something similar?

[grungy89]

Even though I think youre the one who picked the Eagles to win the division, I'll tell you what I know. Depending on what type of school you're planning on attending (public vs. private) the ability to give certain types of scholarships may vary. From what I've been told, some public schools have more limitations on scholarships that can be used for more than just tuition. When you get your acceptances/awards, you should call the school to see if the scholarships offered are "tuition only" or not, and if/when it comes time to compare offers let the schools know that a tuition only scholarship doesn't benefit you. I would wait until you have offers to call about the type of scholarship because schools offer scholarships from different sources and you want to know which specific one to mention (private endowment, deans, other named scholarships)

[Black Hat]

What do you think?

Do they assume that veterans all have adequate educational benefits that scholarship offers wont factor as heavily into deciding where to go?

Someone I know......
......had a 160 LSAT....and a 3.75......
.......and applied to OU.......whose LSAT median is 158...and whose GPA median is...3.41....
...and was offered by OU $10,000/yr...and was thusly disappointed...thinking they would get a much better offer. (full ride, or close). This person is not an OK resident.

Did the school think this person's veteran status (as evidenced by application, and mentioned in PS) would afford him/her a no-cost/low-cost legal education and therefore offered him/her less?

Or were the applicant's hopes unreasonably high and they should stop feeling slighted?

I think they do assume that because you are a veteran your school is pretty much paid for.

However, I applied to about 10 different schools. Some of the lower ones on the list gave me incredible scholarships despite knowing I had the Gi Bill. However, most gave me the difference between what the VA would cover and what the standard tuition is, so the cost to me would be covered but the school could still get as much as possible from the VA.

COA isn't as big of a deal for veterans as it is other applicants. It would be foolish to believe that admission committees/boards aren't privy to this.

[Nova]

love the poll