Top Law Schools

These are some links from TLS.


Columbia Law for Class of 2017: http://columbia.lawschoolnumbers.com/ap ... cholarship

University of Chicago: http://chicago.lawschoolnumbers.com/app ... cholarship

NYU: http://nyu.lawschoolnumbers.com/applica ... cholarship

UVA: http://uva.lawschoolnumbers.com/applica ... cholarship

UPenn: http://penn.lawschoolnumbers.com/applic ... cholarship

Michigan: http://michigan.lawschoolnumbers.com/ap ... cholarship




If you see the links, you can find some applicants who have higher lsat/gpa scores than those who had received a full ride scolarship.

Why do some applicants with great lsat/gpa don't get any scolarships
and some with less great lsat/gpa get full ride & full tuition?
What is the difference?

what can an applicant prepare and do to get a scholarship?
(I'm still in school and I'm going to apply for lawschools about 3~4 years later)
I thought great lsat/gpa scores ensured scolaships but the results of the links made me nervous.

I think there are 3 things to consider:

1) Once you are above both 75ths there are diminishing returns on how valuable your numbers are. If a school's 75ths are 173 and 3.8, candidate A with a 174 and 3.85 and candidate B with a 175 and 3.9 are probably going to be viewed very similarly because both fit the numbers requirement even though one student has higher numbers than the other. Keep that in mind when you see that candidate A actually gets more money than candidate B. At that point there needs to be other distinguishing factors which brings me to...

2) Softs matter more for scholarships. If you have 2 candidates above the school's 75ths, what else they bring to the table besides numbers is going to matter a lot more. I would even say that you can have numbers below 75ths or even medians and still get great scholarships if you have something else that is strong to offer. The most helpful things imo are either very unicorn-ish things (Olympic athlete, etc.) or strong work experience (something that will make you seem more attractive to law firms once you're in law school). So yes numbers matter but numbers are not enough to guarantee anything.

3) Then there's the concept of yield protect where if your numbers are too high you may not even get accepted to the school because they do not think it is likely that you will attend given how high your numbers are and the other options you probably have. There's not really much you can do about this from a numbers end - you should try to get the highest numbers possible regardless. What you can do to help mitigate this is to show a strong interest in the schools where your numbers are very high - by writing a Why X schools statement in your application or by visiting, etc.

Anyway there's no way to "ensure" a scholarship but the best way to go about trying to get one is to:
1) Get the highest GPA and LSAT possible
2) Get some solid work experience before law school (something that looks good on a resume for law firms - NOTE: This does NOT have to be legal experience)
3) Show a strong interest in the schools that you are applying to (via essays, visits, etc.)

As someone still in school, focus on point 1 (and really only the GPA aspect) for now.

Thank you so much! It really helped!

halo234 wrote:Thank you so much! It really helped!

No problem