Top Law Schools

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Other than the very very top (HYS), need based aid is almost non-existent. So when you’re browsing mylsn and lawschoolnumbers, as you should, the $$$ data points are pretty much all merit. URM boost exists but that’s more for acceptance than a boost for more scholly $ at most schools (I think, I’m not especially well versed on URM applications).

In short, everyone other than HYS gives full rides to people every year. Pretty easy to get one outside of the top 30ish schools, then there are some known money throwers like WUSTL (as you mentioned) in the top 20. But check the sample data, because even Columbia and UChi give money out every year. You just gotta be excellent in one or more ways to get it.

Try to get your GPA and LSAT up as much as possible because that is what the scholly game is all about. Softs don’t matter much for $ purposes. Good stats and negotiation are king.

Merit money is almost entirely determined by LSAT/GPA. If you're a URM that will factor in as well.

WUSTL/Emory are both generous and will more or less give the same money to the same people. Cornell also doled out of a lot of big scholarships this year. If you're wanting the most accurate and thorough info, I would just sort by scholarship amount on lawschoolnumbers.com and see what LSAT/GPA is needed at certain schools to get a certain scholarship amount.

Hope this helps!

Duke, cornell, uva, and michigan all seem to give out a healthy amount of money. Not a ton of full rides, but getting 75k+ can easily happen for people above one median, and 120k+ happens regularly for people at/above both medians. At least thats what I've seen. Scholarships are hard to predict with any real accuracy though, naturally.

Georgetown maxes out at 120k in merit aid - and is notoriously a low-baller - which is a joke. Northwestern is notoriously generous. YMMV with others. I found I got more money than deserved from Chicago, and maybe Penn. Northwestern, Mich, UVA each basically gave me an expense account, surprising given my low numbers. I felt I was low-balled by NYU. It's mostly going to come down to your LSAT/GPA. I probably would have received more money from NYU if my resume matched the scholars they are looking for. And I was given a lot of money from other schools because they liked what they saw outside of my numbers.

thanks yall!! This is very helpful

Chicago has several very generous scholarships (Rubenstein scholars) each year. Most law schools offer substantial scholarships to those applicants whose LSAT score & GPA are above that particular school's median for most recently accepted students.

I was really impressed with Penn's financial aid package this year. They are the only school that offered me a financial aid package (and it was generous). Also, Indiana University - Bloomington is generous with full rides.

RareExports wrote:Merit money is almost entirely determined by LSAT/GPA. If you're a URM that will factor in as well.

WUSTL/Emory are both generous and will more or less give the same money to the same people. Cornell also doled out of a lot of big scholarships this year. If you're wanting the most accurate and thorough info, I would just sort by scholarship amount on lawschoolnumbers.com and see what LSAT/GPA is needed at certain schools to get a certain scholarship amount.

Hope this helps!

This wasn't my experience. WUSTL offered me $120k and Emory put me on the WL.

RancidSumo wrote:

RareExports wrote:Merit money is almost entirely determined by LSAT/GPA. If you're a URM that will factor in as well.

WUSTL/Emory are both generous and will more or less give the same money to the same people. Cornell also doled out of a lot of big scholarships this year. If you're wanting the most accurate and thorough info, I would just sort by scholarship amount on lawschoolnumbers.com and see what LSAT/GPA is needed at certain schools to get a certain scholarship amount.

Hope this helps!

This wasn't my experience. WUSTL offered me $120k and Emory put me on the WL.

Same here. Emory may have changed its merit money, but when I applied Emory offered me less than almost any other school I applied to and every school ranked higher than Emory offered me more than Emory fwiw. Also Emory refused to negotiate at all.

wustl is extremely generous to splitters. like full ride generous. even with gpa <3.0
GW is the direct opposite

I have what is probably a really stupid question, but I can't seem to find an answer anywhere. When you're looking at the charts that show the average merit scholarship amounts for people who were admitted to a particular school with a certain Gpa/LSAT, for example , "60% with 3.85/168 receive $75,000"....does that amount mean the applicant was offered $75,000/year or is that a total amount for 3 years? I'm hoping it means yearly, because that amount would cover tuition, books and make a huge dent in other expenses. I'm afraid that's probably not what it means though .

Scalvert wrote:I have what is probably a really stupid question, but I can't seem to find an answer anywhere. When you're looking at the charts that show the average merit scholarship amounts for people who were admitted to a particular school with a certain Gpa/LSAT, for example , "60% with 3.85/168 receive $75,000"....does that amount mean the applicant was offered $75,000/year or is that a total amount for 3 years? I'm hoping it means yearly, because that amount would cover tuition, books and make a huge dent in other expenses. I'm afraid that's probably not what it means though .

You think 3.85/168s are getting $225k scholarships?

Hell, idk how badly WUSTL wants to supplant Vandy.


So.... total then.

If you have a good gpa, don't go to law school until you get 170+.

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