Top Law Schools

I have read an good TLS post a while ago about negotiating, but I would still appreciate some help.

So I was accepted into WashU Law Feb. 1st (I was surprised, I am 25th percentile LSAT and 75th percentile GPA) and received the Scholar in Law award that is worth $54,000 over three years. This would still leave me with $33,216/year in tuition. I am from the STL area and this is my absolute top choice school.

I haven't done negotiating yet. I've just been waiting for responses/scholarships to roll in.
My other offers so far are:

Ohio State- $16,000/year scholarship, so tuition: $28,056, $13,104 for last two years

University of Colorado- $10,000 first year, $5,000 second and third year scholarship, so tuition: $28,652, $26,866 last two years

UIUC (my alma mater)- $27,000/year scholarship, tuition: $11,250/year

George Mason- Half tuition Scholarship, tuition: $20,000/year

UNH- full ride

SLU- full ride

Michigan state- full ride

LSU- full ride

I'm waiting on: Notre dame, Emery, BU, and Wisconsin.

I am not sure what I should do and how to negotiate. I really want to go to WashU but the tuition is more than pretty much any of these other options right now, so I want to negotiate. My question is: how should I precede? Do I wait for those other four schools to get back to me? Do I negotiate with lower ranked schools in order to have better offers to show WashU?

You've gotta wait until you get better leverage in your portfolio. What you have now isn't going to move the needle and if I'm Wash U, I call your bluff.

1. Ohio State? Wash U is a better school and has given you more already.

2. CU? Are you moving to Colorado? They also have already given you more money than that.

3. UIUC? Maybe this moves the needle, but not much. It's a much more credible competing offer though because you can likely use a UIUC degree to get you back to the St. Louis area.

4. UNH? No way. How can you be seriously contemplating regionals in New Hampshire and Missouri?

5. LSU? You going to practice in Baton Rouge or New Orleans without ties? I don't think so, so this won't help you either. Also, from a rankings perspective, LSU and UNH are light-years away from WUSTL.

Your best leverage will probably be good money from Notre Dame...it's credible for the midwest and in WUSTL's neighborhood rankings-wise. BU and Emory are also in the neighborhood, but aren't going to have much placement power into the midwest. MSU/Wisconsin are probably just weaker versions of UIUC.

So, do whatever you can to get that UIUC offer up to full scholarship (try the MSU offer) and keep your fingers crossed for good news from ND.

Once you hear back from Emory, BU and Notre Dame, then use those against each other before talking to WashU. Then take the highest offer or two, assuming it's over $54,000 or would leave you with a lower cost of admission, and present it to WashU saying that you're from St Louis, WashU is your top choice, but finances are going to play a large role in your decision. Your goal is to make WashU feel that you have a credible alternative, but that with enough $ you would definitely commit to them.

I think it really boils down to if you want to stay in STL after graduation. If you want to be in Saint Louis, I would take the SLU offer. I'm a 1L there right now. Feel free to PM.