Softs & Scholarships Forum

(Applications Advice, Letters of Recommendation . . . )
Post Reply
singapore_sling

New
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:51 pm

Softs & Scholarships

Post by singapore_sling » Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:57 am

I'm curious as to what people think about how softs affect top scholarship chances. When it comes to 2/3 or full tuition scholarships awards, are softs much more important than raw numbers? Also, are schools like UT less willing to give people applying from in state large scholarships because they figure those students will stay in state anyways?

User avatar
manbearwig

Bronze
Posts: 351
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 4:38 pm

Re: Softs & Scholarships

Post by manbearwig » Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:34 pm

singapore_sling wrote:I'm curious as to what people think about how softs affect top scholarship chances. When it comes to 2/3 or full tuition scholarships awards, are softs much more important than raw numbers? Also, are schools like UT less willing to give people applying from in state large scholarships because they figure those students will stay in state anyways?
I got a full tuition scholarship to a school I'd get instate tuition at. I also didn't have any outstanding softs.

User avatar
ggocat

Gold
Posts: 1825
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2008 1:51 pm

Re: Softs & Scholarships

Post by ggocat » Wed Jul 21, 2010 12:38 pm

singapore_sling wrote:When it comes to 2/3 or full tuition scholarships awards, are softs much more important than raw numbers?
No.

User avatar
20160810

Diamond
Posts: 18121
Joined: Fri May 02, 2008 1:18 pm

Re: Softs & Scholarships

Post by 20160810 » Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:37 pm

I'm actually going to go the other way here and say that softs are CRUCIAL for the big scholarships. Reason being, everyone under consideration is going to have similar (and similarly impressive) numbers. The committee is going to want to give that money to someone they really feel deserves it, and that's where softs come into play.

In my case, my (pretty good) soft factors didn't really impact my admissions cycle appreciably (though I did get fee waivers everywhere, and I got a lot of T14 WLs for what little that's worth), but they did have an impact on my scholarship situation.

User avatar
GordonCole

New
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:36 pm

Re: Softs & Scholarships

Post by GordonCole » Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:48 pm

It can go either way. For example, I got a full tuition scholarship at my state U law school where I would be in-state. However, my GPA is above their 75th percentile and my LSAT is 15 points above their 75th percentile. In that case they're not going to begrudge me for my lack of fulbright scholarship.

On the other hand, the Hamilton at Columbia and similar scholarships at top schools are a whole other kettle of fish. For those scholarships having the numbers is not enough and soft factors matter.

jman77

Silver
Posts: 627
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2010 3:33 pm

Re: Softs & Scholarships

Post by jman77 » Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:01 pm

I think softs do play a significant role in determining scholarship money. I have a 167 LSAT and no LSAC GPA (3.87 from a non-US school, so this would have counted as a soft and not a hard GPA number for admissions purposes). I have pretty solid WE. Got the following schollies: $105K from Illinois (above median LSAT), $117K from WUSTL (at median LSAT) and $30K from UCLA (below median LSAT).

Based on my numbers alone, I should not have gotten the kind of money those schools offered.

Want to continue reading?

Register now to search topics and post comments!

Absolutely FREE!


Post Reply

Return to “Law School Admissions Forum”