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Hi all,

I've heard/read from law students and advisers that scholarships to law school are fairly negotiable, based on what you're offered at other schools you've applied to. I have already applied to 12 schools (I cringe typing that because it already seems like so many--in case anyone is curious--Berkely, UCLA, Chicago, Columbia, Georgetown, Harvard, Mich, Minnesota, NYU, NU, Pennsylvania, and Stanford), and my stats are 3.9/170. I know that some schools I'm basically guaranteed acceptance (UCLA, Minnesota) based on my numbers, and I have already been accepted to Georgetown. Other schools are much, much more unlikely (Harvard, Columbia).

My question is, should I apply to more "reachable"/guaranteed schools in order to get scholarships that I can leverage? I'm afraid at this point I won't get a ton of scholarship offers based on my pool, and therefore won't be able to leverage scholarships very well.

Am I overthinking this? Should I apply more broadly? I definitely plan on attending one of the schools I have already applied to, so any future applications would be strictly for scholarship-leverage purposes (I haven't applied to Duke or UVA because I have *zero* desire to live in the South). As we all know, apps cost money (even with a fee waiver--looking at you CAS reports), so I don't want to waste the $$$ if it's not going to make a difference in the scholarship endgame.

Thanks for any help or advice you have for me!

There's no reason for you to apply to more "safety" schools; you should be getting money from quite a few of the lower-ranked ones. If you were going to change anything, I'd add UVA or Duke to the mix, because Michigan has a tradition of YP that might see you on their waitlist and missing out on a scholarship offer.

The basic rule of thumb is that schools only negotiate based on offers from what they see as "peer" schools. So Northwestern, for example, really won't alter your scholarship offer based on a scholarship at Vanderbilt or WashU. But they will do it for somewhere like Georgetown or Duke. So the only reason I'd say to get something in that's around Michigan (and less stingy than Penn) is that it gives you the potential to bring something to higher-ranked schools who won't pay attention to your scholarships at Minnesota or UCLA.

I would add Cornell, as they'll give you a ton of money and could be a good bargaining chip.

Somehow I missed these replies! Thank you both!

I ended up applying to Duke and UVA, too, for schollys, and I might as well add Cornell to the mix while I'm at it.

Thanks again!

With a 3.9/170, you're in a good spot. I would apply to H, then every school between t14 and t6, excluding maybe Berkley. Then throw in Vandy and WUSTL for leverage.

SweetTort wrote:With a 3.9/170, you're in a good spot. I would apply to H, then every school between t14 and t6, excluding maybe Berkley. Then throw in Vandy and WUSTL for leverage.

Why would you exclude Boalt?

lymenheimer wrote:

SweetTort wrote:With a 3.9/170, you're in a good spot. I would apply to H, then every school between t14 and t6, excluding maybe Berkley. Then throw in Vandy and WUSTL for leverage.

Why would you exclude Boalt?

Reputation for being stingy with scholarships. But mainly I am just crazily biased against them for lots of reasons.

SweetTort wrote:

lymenheimer wrote:

SweetTort wrote:With a 3.9/170, you're in a good spot. I would apply to H, then every school between t14 and t6, excluding maybe Berkley. Then throw in Vandy and WUSTL for leverage.

Why would you exclude Boalt?

Reputation for being stingy with scholarships. But mainly I am just crazily biased against them for lots of reasons.

So strictly on the basis of scholarship negotiations. Just wanted to make sure you weren't advocating against B if OP wanted to attend generally.

lymenheimer wrote:

SweetTort wrote:

lymenheimer wrote:

SweetTort wrote:With a 3.9/170, you're in a good spot. I would apply to H, then every school between t14 and t6, excluding maybe Berkley. Then throw in Vandy and WUSTL for leverage.

Why would you exclude Boalt?

Reputation for being stingy with scholarships. But mainly I am just crazily biased against them for lots of reasons.

So strictly on the basis of scholarship negotiations. Just wanted to make sure you weren't advocating against B if OP wanted to attend generally.

Ahhh no, not at all. And Berk isn't as stingy as I'm making it out to be. I'm just egregiously anti-Berk.

.

chargers21 wrote:As someone who personally wants big money to Cornell, DON"T APPLY THERE. But as a nice guy on the internet, I would say that with your numbers you could definitely get big money for a bargaining chip if you did apply Cornell.

hahaha thank you unfortunately for you (maybe?) I applied to Cornell because hey--why not?

just got accepted to NYU and now I'm hoping/praying to the financial gods that I will get a scholarship there (or be able to negotiate one)...I really want it, fam