at stugots26 for advising someone not to negotiate the terms of a scholarship. Schools will not withdraw their offer just because someone asked. When I was emailing a similarly awful TTT (Barry) about a full-ride scholarship offer, I asked them about the stipulations and they kindly said sorry, but they can't be removed. Here is their actual response to me:Accordingly, one should never feel bad for asking such a question; if a law school makes you feel uncomfortable for asking a question like this, you probably shouldn't go there.Barry University School of Law wrote:Good afternoon Regulus,
Thank you for your interest in Barry University School of Law! Based on the parameters as stated in your email, you would be eligible for a full tuition award for the first 2 semesters. Unfortunately we would not be able to waive the renewal requirements necessary to retain the scholarship. All merit awards have stated renewal requirements which must be met in order to keep the scholarship active.
I hope this information helps!
Adcomm
Admissions Office Manager
Barry University School of Law
6441 E. Colonial Dr. Orlando, FL 32807
321.206.5683
Second, as you will notice in this link, 109 / 217 (over half!!!) of the students lost some-to-all of their scholarships last year at John Marshall.
This is only slightly better than the percentage of Barry students who lost their scholarships (61%). Additionally, based on this, only 6.6% of students had full-ride scholarships at John Marshall; although this data is telling, it would be nice to have a break-down that shows what percent of students enter with full-rides and what percent lose them. Either way, a school that cuts over half of its students' scholarships in a single year is scum. The main reason that schools give students scholarships based on GPA and LSAT is so that they can boost their stats in the USNWR; accordingly, what TTT like this are doing is essentially bribing students with "high" (by their standards) test scores and grades to come to their school so that they can increase their stats, and then they "throw away" as many of these students as possible after they've "used" them. From what I can tell, not even the infamous Thomas M. Cooley Law School uses conditional scholarships. 
Third, it just doesn't make sense to pay (or risk paying by accepting a conditional scholarship) to go to John Marshall when there are cheaper options with equally-as-bad outcomes in the same state. Here is a comparison of the employment outcomes for ABA-approved law schools in Illinois, and here is a comparison of tuition and other metrics of the entering class. Really, the only worse decision that someone could make is DePaul University because they cost more, require higher a LSAT/GPA, and have worse outcomes than John Marshall. This by no means suggests that John Marshall is a good idea... just that it is only comparatively better than one other expensive school with dismal outcomes in the state of Illinois.
Fourth, the entire post history of stugots26 does a great job of personifying "special snowflake syndrome." He was smart enough to go to UPenn for undergrad, but was apparently an underachiever as he only got a ~3.0 UGPA and a 158 on the LSAT. Instead of doing the right thing and retaking until he got a score that was closer to his true testing abilities (he said he was scoring around 167 on prep tests), he justified (and continues to justify) his decision to compromise his future by going to a sub-par law school. At the end of the day, he might be one of the few lucky ones who actually ends up with a decent job from John Marshall, but it is ridiculous of him to discourage people from negotiating and shooting higher. It almost seems like he is spiteful that he couldn't get into NU (which he was shooting for); in his past posts, he complained a lot about how admission committees should treat him differently because he has a PhD, has been out of school for several years, and has a decent score (750) on the GMAT. (stugots26 should hook up with the prestigious Ms. Paskiewicz and create a guild of underachieving non-traditional applicants that promote the idea that they deserve more because of their valuable life experiences.) Long story short, it has probably been rough on the ego to fall from the Ivy League to the bottom tier of law school.
