Negotiating Cornell scholarship without competing offers Forum

[Maple90]

Has anyone had any success negotiating with a lower T-14 that initially offered them zero in scholarship, without competing offers as leverage?

Admitted to Cornell (Sticker)

GPA 3.6
LSAT 167

Due to my career goals, I only applied to a handful of T14’s that, given my stats, I both had a possibility of being admitted to, and that offered a realistic chance of obtaining such goals. There really is no point in investing three years otherwise.

The result was several waitlists, and Cornell, at sticker.

To be clear, there is no way that I will pay sticker (just shy of $300,000 at Cornell). A best case scenario of breaking even after six or so years of 70 hour weeks, is hardly a desirable outcome.

So, do schools negotiate without competing offers?

I have taken the LSAT three times, but fell short of my prep test average of 173/174. Also I have gone through two admission cycles. At this point I am willing to walk away, and pursue alternative career plans.

[Dog]

Retake and reapply, or this:

At this point I am willing to walk away, and pursue alternative career plans.

[BuddyHoller]

I tried to negotiate with Cornell w/o any competing offers but what I thought were compelling reasons. They told me that they would only reconsider if I had other offers to show them.

[hearsay77]

Did you not apply anywhere outside of the T14 that would give you a scholarship?

[Maple90]

No. I took a t14 or nothing approach when applying. Would scholarships from lower ranked schools be usable in the negotiation process anyway?

[thatsnotmyname]

No. I took a t14 or nothing approach when applying. Would scholarships from lower ranked schools be usable in the negotiation process anyway?

It would give you a lot more leverage than having nothing. If you had gotten good scholarship money from Vandy/UT/UCLA/USC that would've given you something to show them and something that they could give consideration to. I've read on these boards before that applicants were successfully able to get a little bit of scholarship money from GULC after telling them how much money they got from GWU. Cornell is one of the most generous T14s when it comes to money and their medians are closer to Vandy/UCLA than the rest of the lower T14 so it likely could have given you a bit of leverage to talk them into giving you some money.

[CanadianWolf]

You should have applied outside of the T-14 in order to get a full tuition scholarship offer. Not likely to help with Cornell, but at least you'd have a reasonable option or two. Think WashUStL, Emory, your state flagship, & any other tier one non-T-14 law school.

[negativefeedback]

n/a

[Lincoln]

I tried to negotiate with Cornell w/o any competing offers but what I thought were compelling reasons. They told me that they would only reconsider if I had other offers to show them.

[thatsnotmyname]

You should have applied outside of the T-14 in order to get a full tuition scholarship offer. Not likely to help with Cornell, but at least you'd have a reasonable option or two. Think WashUStL, Emory, your state flagship, & any other tier one non-T-14 law school.

I was accepted to Columbia and I have some great offers from Emory, UCLA, USC and GWU, but I haven't been accepted to any school between 5 and 15. Do you think I should take my scholarship offers to them or should I wait for my acceptances from Cornell, Georgetown and the rest, negotiate with them first and then take the offer up to Columbia?

I'd doubt that Columbia would give any consideration to offers received from the schools you mentioned. I'd wait until you have offers in the T14 at least to try and negotiate with Columbia.