Weird line in Cornell scholarship letter Forum

[goodolgil]

"Please note that scholarship awards are given with the understanding that there is a moral obligation to repay the Law School if future financial circumstances permit repayment."

Oh whatever.

Oh, and tuition is $51,150 for the coming year. Jesus.

[Bert]

Are you serious about that?

"Here's free money, but you owe it to us if you make a lot in the future."

[sundevil77]

Wow. Desperate times call for desperate......non-binding statements that merely attempt to guilt trip students soon to be $150K in the hole?

[blue5385]

whaaaa.....? I know some schollys come with strings attached, like placing in top 1/3 or 1/2, but this is crazy.

[goodolgil]

Yeah, I don't know if anyone else has gotten this letter, since Cornell offered me the scholarship under (somewhat) unique circumstances. The deposit deadline passed and they emailed me saying unless they heard from me they were gonna cancel my admission. I emailed them back saying I hadn't done anything since I hadn't heard anything about merit aid. They asked me if I had any other offers and I told them about my Michigan offer (I had no others since I had already withdrawn everywhere else), and they agreed to do a financial review. The offer amount was the same as Michigan's.

[PoliticalJunkie]

This isn't really that odd. Alot of grad schools, and even many undergraduate institutions, expect that as an alumni you will contribute to the school via donations in the future. Law Schools are behind the curve in this respect, though many will be/already are doing this.

[goodolgil]

I think "moral obligation" is a little strong.

[blue5385]

Yeah, soliciting donations is one thing (and completely normal/expected), but putting you on a moral guilt trip is entirely another.

[Hammurabi]

Are they referring to alumni donations or you win the lottery/ great uncle inheritance. etc. scenario while you're still in law school?

[tamlyric]

I think "moral obligation" is a little strong.

Is there any other kind of obligation? Regardless, at best, that's an awfully tacky thing to say in a scholarship letter. You seriously thinking about taking Ithaca over A2?

[Tautology]

I think "moral obligation" is a little strong.

Is there any other kind of obligation? Regardless, at best, that's an awfully tacky thing to say in a scholarship letter. You seriously thinking about taking Ithaca over A2?

Legal obligation, for one?

[goodolgil]

Nah, they were gonna have to offer (probably significantly) more money than Michigan for me to waiver

[tamlyric]

I think "moral obligation" is a little strong.

Is there any other kind of obligation? Regardless, at best, that's an awfully tacky thing to say in a scholarship letter. You seriously thinking about taking Ithaca over A2?

Legal obligation, for one?

Yeah, I suppose. (I just think of legal obligations as a subspecies of moral obligations, which isn't to say that law and morality are the same thing.) Surely that's not what Cornell meant, though, right? Yikes!

[tamlyric]

Nah, they were gonna have to offer (probably significantly) more money than Michigan for me to waiver

Woohoo! Go Blue!

[shepdawg]

These scholarships are crazy full of conditions. Mine says that the scholarship becomes a loan with back interest if I transfer or don't take the CA bar exam.

[romothesavior]

Wow, that's a low move there. A moral obligation? WTF? Makes me even more glad I turned them down.

[holybartender]

It comes in every Cornell scholarship letter. It has no binding force, they're just saying if you make boatloads of money later it'd be nice if you donated to the school.

[romothesavior]

It comes in every Cornell scholarship letter. It has no binding force, they're just saying if you make boatloads of money later it'd be nice if you donated to the school.

There are ways of going about this without calling it a "moral obligation." Also, its bad form to be soliciting donations before you even send in a deposit.

[holybartender]

It comes in every Cornell scholarship letter. It has no binding force, they're just saying if you make boatloads of money later it'd be nice if you donated to the school.

There are ways of going about this without calling it a "moral obligation." Also, its bad form to be soliciting donations before you even send in a deposit.

They're giving you money for free, I don't care what they say as long as the check clears.

[romothesavior]

It comes in every Cornell scholarship letter. It has no binding force, they're just saying if you make boatloads of money later it'd be nice if you donated to the school.

There are ways of going about this without calling it a "moral obligation." Also, its bad form to be soliciting donations before you even send in a deposit.

They're giving you money for free, I don't care what they say as long as the check clears.

They weren't giving me any money for free. Wish they had, though.

[jks289]

The wording is odd, but I don't really see an issue with the concept. Scholarships are available to the class of 2013 thanks in part to donations from successful alum. They are helping you become educated, and saying that should you benefit from their gift by ending up in a position to do so, their hope (and you obligation in accepting the money) is that you will pay it forward to the next generation of lawyers.

[romothesavior]

The wording is odd, but I don't really see an issue with the concept. Scholarships are available to the class of 2013 thanks in part to donations from successful alum. They are helping you become educated, and saying that should you benefit from their gift by ending up in a position to do so, their hope (and you obligation in accepting the money) is that you will pay it forward to the next generation of lawyers.

I don't see a problem with it either, but I think a better place to say it is right before graduation. It seems silly and off-putting for a school to say it up front.

I got a full-ride scholarship to my undergrad, and there is certainly the expectation that I give back to the school as much as possible. That seems like a perfectly reasonable expectation given how much the school has done for me by funding my education and putting me in the position to go to law school. But when the president of the university called me back in high school to tell me I had won the scholly, he didn't say, "Just so you know romothesavior... if you become successful, you really need to pay us this money back. Sound good?"

[sumus romani]

Other schools do this too. I seem to recall NYU suggesting that their scholarships for those in the furman fellows program (for those wanting to be law academics) morally ought to be paid back if the person does not go into academia. I could be mis-remembering the details here, but seem to recall it.

[Bert]

The wording is odd, but I don't really see an issue with the concept. Scholarships are available to the class of 2013 thanks in part to donations from successful alum. They are helping you become educated, and saying that should you benefit from their gift by ending up in a position to do so, their hope (and you obligation in accepting the money) is that you will pay it forward to the next generation of lawyers.

and

I don't see a problem with it either, but I think a better place to say it is right before graduation. It seems silly and off-putting for a school to say it up front.

This is what I was getting at. I totally agree with the concept of giving back to our schools when we are able, but a schoool outright saying it is a tad tacky IMO.

[kaydish21]

I've seen a bunch of PI scholarships that also state there is an either implicit or explicit expectation that the scholarship is repaid if you do not enter public interest law. Some of them have interest and others don't. Nonetheless, the wording in that is beyond ridiculous.