Top Law Schools

I want to shift the discussion on law schools away from rank toward the quality of their financial aid programs. I applied to a bunch of schools and here's how I would rank them based on my experience. I hope it will be helpful to future generations in terms of helping them decide where to apply. Also, by all means share your offers.

LSAT: 170
GPA 3.94

Excellent financial aid programs (full tuition covered)
Texas, Irvine, WUSTL, Iowa

Good (partial scholarship)
Cornell, USC, GW, U of H [they did the best they could, but it wasn't good enough]

Bad (very little money)
UCLA

Terrible (no money at all)
UPenn (even though my numbers were 75th percentile) shame, shame, shame on UPenn

This doesn't seem terribly helpful without knowing every specific detail, like LSAT/GPA, financial situation, specific money offers, etc. Your list also seems strange, since getting into Penn indicates that you should have had other T14 offers to use for leverage.

cavalier1138 wrote:This doesn't seem terribly helpful without knowing every specific detail, like LSAT/GPA, financial situation, specific money offers, etc. Your list also seems strange, since getting into Penn indicates that you should have had other T14 offers to use for leverage.

Point taken. I updated it to add my LSAT/GPA. I was not admitted to other T14 schools besides Cornell/Penn. I applied to all of them though however.

Did you apply late in the cycle or have other weird application factors? Your results really don't match your numbers.

My heart was set on a full scholarship offer (I'm middle class, so not rich enough to pay my own way and not poor enough for need based), and I don't think that applying earlier would have given me anything different. Maybe I would have gotten a few more acceptances, but the financial aid packages would not be full. I don't see a universe where I'd be getting full at Cornell or UPenn, and for me it's a huge risk. I know of people at Penn that have gotten all B minus and then landed discretionary C. Their GPA is basically below 2.7 for OCI. Penn was especially cavalier about not giving financial aid. They put an adminsitrator next to me during ASW, who basically bragged about how Penn usually doesn't give any money at all.

This post isn't supposed to be about me though, lol. I wanted the focus to be more on the adequacy or inadequacy of various school's financial aid programs.

This is a weird thread though, because I don't think applications are as directly comparable for financial aid as the OP suggests - there are definitely financial aid packages that are more about softs than numbers. Plus, from your other posts, OP, it sounds like you're done with law school and working. The drop in applications in recent years has changed the standards for getting in/getting money, so not getting money around 2011 or so doesn't mean not getting money now. People already post about this stuff in the individual acceptance threads for each school by year, which provides more comparable data.

And if you were only accepted into Cornell and Penn after applying to the entire T14, then for some reason even with your excellent numbers you weren't a shoo-in candidate and it's not super surprising you didn't get money.

What I really mean: I'm not sure anyone can generalize from one person's experience.

I don't knowwwwww. To me, it read a lot like you're not as cool as you think you are

Well, that's a weird response.

Well, it looks like Penn is pretty stingy with money according to their 509, and your personal experience matches that.

But you're incorrect about application timing. It had the same effect on scholarships as it does on admissions. Later in the cycle means fewer spots and less money to go around, because the schools have already begun to award scholarships. In general, it looks like a lot of your experience cam be chalked up to applying late, because short of some as-of-yet undisclosed problem with your app, that's the only thing that explains your results.

But as mentioned, scholarship decisions are all over the place, so personal experience doesn't count for a lot.

Penn lied to me and low-balled me at every step of the financial aid process.

Wild Card wrote:Penn lied to me and low-balled me at every step of the financial aid process.

How did they lie to you?

I'm thinking LawSchoolNumbers would be a great way to learn this, if you already have certain schools in mind,

My numbers for last cycle, after the June LSAT (so, VERY late):

3.3 LSDAS GPA
158 LSAT

Great (85%-100% ship)
Syracuse (came with a stip)
Villanova
Akron (Guaranteed, recently did away with having stips)

50%+
Cincinnati

Terrible/Stingy:
Georgia State (I hear that they are very stingy, even with better numbers)

Accepted but withdrew before scholarship info:
Penn State Law
University of Tennessee (UTK) Law

I will be retaking for this coming cycle.

Not to be harsh, but this thread seems really stupid. Scholarships will generally depend on the strength of your application, and a school isn't necessarily "terrible" or "stingy" because they didn't offer you much; maybe you were simply a weak candidate.

WheninLaw wrote:Not to be harsh, but this thread seems really stupid. Scholarships will generally depend on the strength of your application, and a school isn't necessarily "terrible" or "stingy" because they didn't offer you much; maybe you were simply a weak candidate.

Well, the OP was being ridiculous, but certain schools do have reputations for being more or less generous with scholarship money. The 509 reports for schools make it pretty clear that some institutions grant a lot more aid than others, which is good information to be aware of.

cavalier1138 wrote:

WheninLaw wrote:Not to be harsh, but this thread seems really stupid. Scholarships will generally depend on the strength of your application, and a school isn't necessarily "terrible" or "stingy" because they didn't offer you much; maybe you were simply a weak candidate.

Well, the OP was being ridiculous, but certain schools do have reputations for being more or less generous with scholarship money. The 509 reports for schools make it pretty clear that some institutions grant a lot more aid than others, which is good information to be aware of.

Absolutely, and that information is helpful to applicants. The individual scholarships of a few TLS posters...is not.