Top Law Schools

Hey everyone,

I know that a few people have had an issue regarding the LSAC fee waiver and LSAC considering you to be a "dependent," solely based on age and having nothing to do with how you filed your taxes. I'm currently an Americorps VISTA and make about $11,000 annually, which comes out to less than $5.00 an hour. I only made $11,100 in 2013 and filed independent of my parents, but in my forum research I've discovered this might not matter, since I'm under 25 (birthday 3/28/91). When I went to apply for the LSAC fee waiver, I noticed it just asked if I was born before January 1, 1991, and if I had my birthday entered truthfully it automatically lumped me into the "dependent" category. If I had my birthday as December 28, 1990, just three months before my birthday, it lumped me into the "independent" category, which would presumably allow me to be granted the waiver. Does it really come down to a difference of three months?!

I'm going to apply for the waiver regardless, but I wanted to hear from others out there who might be in the same predicament. Would it pay to wait a few months? Does LSAC even change that "cut-off" birthday before the new year? It's all very frustrating, especially since the $120 LSAT registration fee plus the reporting services is more than half of my monthly income.

Let me know what your experiences have been!

allisonkristyne wrote:Hey everyone,

I know that a few people have had an issue regarding the LSAC fee waiver and LSAC considering you to be a "dependent," solely based on age and having nothing to do with how you filed your taxes. I'm currently an Americorps VISTA and make about $11,000 annually, which comes out to less than $5.00 an hour. I only made $11,100 in 2013 and filed independent of my parents, but in my forum research I've discovered this might not matter, since I'm under 25 (birthday 3/28/91). When I went to apply for the LSAC fee waiver, I noticed it just asked if I was born before January 1, 1991, and if I had my birthday entered truthfully it automatically lumped me into the "dependent" category. If I had my birthday as December 28, 1990, just three months before my birthday, it lumped me into the "independent" category, which would presumably allow me to be granted the waiver. Does it really come down to a difference of three months?!

I'm going to apply for the waiver regardless, but I wanted to hear from others out there who might be in the same predicament. Would it pay to wait a few months? Does LSAC even change that "cut-off" birthday before the new year? It's all very frustrating, especially since the $120 LSAT registration fee plus the reporting services is more than half of my monthly income.

Let me know what your experiences have been!

I applied for it when I was making not much more than that and actually had my own place (actually had to pay my own bills) and was denied. Good luck.
I think they mostly want to just give it to the homeless if they apply.

When I applied for undergrad, FAFSA has an exemption for if you were raised by a legal guardian that allows you not to give parental income information. LSAC doesn't have that, so they told me I had to give parental income/tax information. I told them that I wouldn't be able to provide that to them, hence the legal guardian thing. They told me tough luck.

Moral of the story is, LSAC doesn't give a fuck. Best apply to schools directly for free waivers. I had good luck with that.

arklaw13 wrote:When I applied for undergrad, FAFSA has an exemption for if you were raised by a legal guardian that allows you not to give parental income information. LSAC doesn't have that, so they told me I had to give parental income/tax information. I told them that I wouldn't be able to provide that to them, hence the legal guardian thing. They told me tough luck.

Moral of the story is, LSAC doesn't give a fuck. Best apply to schools directly for free waivers. I had good luck with that.

The fee is a few hundred bucks. Take out a credit card if you have to and pay it off with interest on a monthly basis for a year.
Orchard Bank will give cards to anyone (ANYONE) but has an annual fee.

Depends how bad you want it. If you won't take a loan for this, how can you justify even a "good deal" for thousands of dollars of debt in law school? (cost of books alone, without tuition)

I applied for the fee waiver a few months ago and was accepted. I was born in 89 and have been filing taxes independently for the last three years. I was making around 14000 a year.

Hope this helps.

Godric32 wrote:I applied for the fee waiver a few months ago and was accepted. I was born in 89 and have been filing taxes independently for the last three years. I was making around 14000 a year.

Hope this helps.

were you living with parents when you applied? If so, I am pissed about them denying me. Mind snap type pissed.

thebarcaneatme wrote:

Godric32 wrote:I applied for the fee waiver a few months ago and was accepted. I was born in 89 and have been filing taxes independently for the last three years. I was making around 14000 a year.

Hope this helps.

were you living with parents when you applied? If so, I am pissed about them denying me. Mind snap type pissed.

No, I was living, and continue to live, on my own. Were you pre-approved? Did you appeal their decision?

Godric32 wrote:

thebarcaneatme wrote:

Godric32 wrote:I applied for the fee waiver a few months ago and was accepted. I was born in 89 and have been filing taxes independently for the last three years. I was making around 14000 a year.

Hope this helps.

were you living with parents when you applied? If so, I am pissed about them denying me. Mind snap type pissed.

No, I was living, and continue to live, on my own. Were you pre-approved? Did you appeal their decision?

I didn't appeal, I didn't even give that part much thought at the time.
Did you win on appeal?

...

Learn_Live_Hope wrote:

thebarcaneatme wrote:

allisonkristyne wrote:Hey everyone,

I know that a few people have had an issue regarding the LSAC fee waiver and LSAC considering you to be a "dependent," solely based on age and having nothing to do with how you filed your taxes. I'm currently an Americorps VISTA and make about $11,000 annually, which comes out to less than $5.00 an hour. I only made $11,100 in 2013 and filed independent of my parents, but in my forum research I've discovered this might not matter, since I'm under 25 (birthday 3/28/91). When I went to apply for the LSAC fee waiver, I noticed it just asked if I was born before January 1, 1991, and if I had my birthday entered truthfully it automatically lumped me into the "dependent" category. If I had my birthday as December 28, 1990, just three months before my birthday, it lumped me into the "independent" category, which would presumably allow me to be granted the waiver. Does it really come down to a difference of three months?!

I'm going to apply for the waiver regardless, but I wanted to hear from others out there who might be in the same predicament. Would it pay to wait a few months? Does LSAC even change that "cut-off" birthday before the new year? It's all very frustrating, especially since the $120 LSAT registration fee plus the reporting services is more than half of my monthly income.

Let me know what your experiences have been!

I applied for it when I was making not much more than that and actually had my own place (actually had to pay my own bills) and was denied. Good luck.
I think they mostly want to just give it to the homeless if they apply.

I got an LSAC fee waiver.

no details of any kind, great post

thebarcaneatme wrote:

Godric32 wrote:

thebarcaneatme wrote:

Godric32 wrote:I applied for the fee waiver a few months ago and was accepted. I was born in 89 and have been filing taxes independently for the last three years. I was making around 14000 a year.

Hope this helps.

were you living with parents when you applied? If so, I am pissed about them denying me. Mind snap type pissed.

No, I was living, and continue to live, on my own. Were you pre-approved? Did you appeal their decision?

I didn't appeal, I didn't even give that part much thought at the time.
Did you win on appeal?

No. I was pre-approved and they just wanted to confirm my income by sending them my IRS forms. I faxed that information to them and they approved me within the week. Frankly I thought the process was quite easy and not as horrible as I have read in other posts. I would recommend you contact them and ask if you can still appeal it. The worst they can say is no.

...

I think it may be a bit too late for me.
-already did JD

Ha nice.

Godric32 wrote:Ha nice.

maybe they got nicer?
I dunno. Happy for you though.