Help! $60k with strings, or $36k guaranteed? Forum

[patrickd139]

Not sure if this has been asked above, but OP, what school? Shouldn't affect your analysis at the school-specific level, I'm just curious.

Also: take the certain money.

It's one of the three mid-tier (T80ish) schools in Chicago.

Interesting scholarship program. I approve.

Also: take the certain money.

[MChun08]

Watch out for strings. Some law schools that offer $$$ w/ GPA requirements put all the scholarship kids in the same section. Since they grade on a curve, this means that at the end of the semester some kids will inevitably lose their scholarship. Not only that, the schools stipulate that if you transfer out, you have to pay back whatever scholarship $ were granted. It's a lose-lose situation, so be careful.

[thinkbig]

Watch out for strings. Some law schools that offer $$$ w/ GPA requirements put all the scholarship kids in the same section. Since they grade on a curve, this means that at the end of the semester some kids will inevitably lose their scholarship. Not only that, the schools stipulate that if you transfer out, you have to pay back whatever scholarship $ were granted. It's a lose-lose situation, so be careful.

Wow, I had no idea some schools were that sneaky. Thanks for the heads-up. Does the "you must pay back the scholarship money you used" apply if you drop out as well?

[itsfine]

20 k youll have for 1l year, if u keep it the 20k stipulation, you would be very smart to have decided on the 20k. So pick the 20k

20k you have for 1l year, if you lose 10,000 of it, by the end of law school youll still have 40k total taken off your tuition, (better than 3 years of 12K and assuming if you get over a 3.0 your first year youll keep it there for your third and final year thsu garunteeing that last 10k for third year), so take the 20k

20k you have for 1l year, if you lose it all, then it was not smart to take the 20k...so this is the only situation where you are not smart for taking the 20k a year, and it seems to me that u need to ask urself, are you really that uncomfortable in getting at least a 3.0 gpa at this school? if you really are that scared of not maintaining a 3.0, take the garunteed money, but even if u fail to keep it all after first year, it still makes sense to take the 20. so make sure u understand this.

I would think 20k for the win.

btw, sorry for the AIM-like writing of this response.

[A'nold]

I can't believe people are saying to take the sure money. Bottom 1/2, like another poster said, is a sure kiss of death anyway. If you can keep close to "the sure thing" just by staying at or above median, there's not really an issue, unless you suck it up next year, then you are going to be hurting anyway. I'm not trying to be too blunt, but I mean it's basically just the way things are. This isn't much of a gamble. Schollies contingent on top 1/2 never seem like a huge gamble to me unless you are looking at like a top 30 and probably more like a t14 school. If you have killer pre-law #'s compared to the other peeps coming in AND it is a top 1/2 requirement, it seems like you should be fine. This is just IMO though.

[Mal]

I can't believe people are saying to take the sure money. Bottom 1/2, like another poster said, is a sure kiss of death anyway. If you can keep close to "the sure thing" just by staying at or above median, there's not really an issue, unless you suck it up next year, then you are going to be hurting anyway. I'm not trying to be too blunt, but I mean it's basically just the way things are. This isn't much of a gamble. Schollies contingent on top 1/2 never seem like a huge gamble to me unless you are looking at like a top 30 and probably more like a t14 school. If you have killer pre-law #'s compared to the other peeps coming in AND it is a top 1/2 requirement, it seems like you should be fine. This is just IMO though.

TITCR