Top Law Schools

Is there any information out there that helps one to find out where they’re most likely to score a full scholarship + living stipend (if at all)? I know living stipends are rare and just wondered how far down on the rankings I’d have to go to have the possibility of getting one.

If I go to law school, I’d really like to graduate with as little debt as possible. If I were planning on going into Big Law, it wouldn’t bother me that much, but I have other more altruistic goals which possibly won’t be earning me lots of money. I’m also older (30s) so wouldn’t be receiving any help from family. So essentially I need money to live on and don’t want to have a lot to pay back when I graduate.

I took the LSAT a few years back, mostly for fun, but briefly considered going to law school when I scored well. However, I moved to China to work with orphans instead. Now my sister just had her second baby and I want to be closer to them. I was thinking about possibly Wake Forest or Emory because I have family near both, but anywhere in the US is closer than China, so I’m not die-hard about those.

For reference, my previous LSAT score was a 173 and my undergrad GPA was a 3.87. My LSAT score expired so I’ll need to take it again. Hoping to score as well or better. I never scored below a 168 on a prep test and actually spent some time after I took the LSAT tutoring others who actually wanted to go to law school, so I’d like to think I understand it better now than I did before.

Related question - I know it’s better to apply earlier in the cycle, but if I take the LSAT in November, will that put me too late in the application process to get good scholarships? I’m assuming the January LSAT definitely would. Just wondering if I should wait till next year to apply, but I’m also not getting any younger, so not sure what to do.

Thanks!

Adelei wrote: For reference, my previous LSAT score was a 173 and my undergrad GPA was a 3.87. My LSAT score expired so I’ll need to take it again. Hoping to score as well or better. I never scored below a 168 on a prep test and actually spent some time after I took the LSAT tutoring others who actually wanted to go to law school, so I’d like to think I understand it better now than I did before.

I'm genuinely surprised if you have a 173 and 3.87 you haven't or couldn't research this yourself.

Maximize that LSAT and you have a shot at Harvard go to Harvard and take advantage of their lrap program.

If you don't get Harvard, you probably still want to look at t-14 schools just for the lrap combined with job prospects, assuming your goals would be public interest.

Your best shot at a full + stipend is the same as your best shot at admission generally - high GPA and LSAT. To the extent soft factors go into the scholarship decision (they can), offer the most compelling, coherent narrative about your application that you can, but you generally can’t manufacture magical softs in time for an application - you either have them (or the ability to cast your softs in a magical light) or you don’t. (You may, based on the working with orphans in China comment.)

As albanach suggests, an alternative is to aim for the school with the best LRAP, which is usually going to correlate with highest ranked/best option overall (like Yale has an awesome LRAP, though I think they have different initials). It’s also not clear to me how much going down the rankings is going to improve your chances at getting a full+stipend because it’s just a rare enough practice, it’s more about whether the school ever offers one than about you being able to convince them to give it to you. (I’m afraid I don’t know of a comprehensive list of schools that have offered stipends apart from the Ruby at Chicago, they come up here randomly from time to time.)

I don’t think November is too late in the cycle. It’s maybe not early bird early, but it’s not late.

I was thinking along similar lines. My family is poor, so I'm afraid of having a lot of debt. I am a bit worried about LRAP for as a non-US citizen, it seems difficult to find jobs other than big law even though I'm actually more interested in public interest, government, or academic jobs.