Top Law Schools

So when talking about getting money from a school, I'm used to the undergraduate style of "money". For example, I had what you could consider a "full ride" to my UG school but I still ended up having to cough up money for living expenses, bills, etc. When my G/F got a "full ride" for her Masters @ U of Chicago for their Slavic linguistics program, she actually got a full ride -- as in, complete tuition remission and a yearly stipend of around $21,000.

When talking about law school and scholarship money, is it closer to the undergraduate way, or the graduate way? When people refer to "getting money" do they mean just getting tuition remission? Or do law schools give stipends (provided you have the numbers, of course).

I'm asking because I've been reading about people who got scholarships who still wracked up tens of thousands in debt, and I wasn't sure if that was because they took out loans for living expenses, or to make up a shortfall in their aid package.

technically most would say a true full ride = tuition plus stipend, but this is very rare. There are a few schools that offer a couple of these. Full tuition scholarships are more common. small scholarships are even more common. Go on LSN and look that the schools that you are looking at, it should be pretty clear what types of scholarships they typically offer.
Ex. Vanderbilt offers 3 or 4 full rides plus stipends and then a lot of people either 27k, 24k, 20k or 15k a year. They dont have a full tuition scholarship without a stipend and they dont have a real 3/4 scholarship. Different schools have different ones and a good percentage are given fairly formulaistically.

But yes, full ride for law school often means just tuition is covered. but a stipend also possible

OldTymeyFaceSmasher wrote:So when talking about getting money from a school, I'm used to the undergraduate style of "money". For example, I had what you could consider a "full ride" to my UG school but I still ended up having to cough up money for living expenses, bills, etc. When my G/F got a "full ride" for her Masters @ U of Chicago for their Slavic linguistics program, she actually got a full ride -- as in, complete tuition remission and a yearly stipend of around $21,000.

When talking about law school and scholarship money, is it closer to the undergraduate way, or the graduate way? When people refer to "getting money" do they mean just getting tuition remission? Or do law schools give stipends (provided you have the numbers, of course).

I'm asking because I've been reading about people who got scholarships who still wracked up tens of thousands in debt, and I wasn't sure if that was because they took out loans for living expenses, or to make up a shortfall in their aid package.

Yeah, most of the time when people talk about getting a full ride from a law school, they mean a full tuition scholarship. Some schools do give stipends, although a stipend large enough to completely cover living expenses completely is extremely rare, and I don't know anyone with a stipend that large.

Most people who get full rides at schools still have to take up in the neighborhood of 60-90k in loans to cover cost of living expenses.

Knock wrote:

OldTymeyFaceSmasher wrote:So when talking about getting money from a school, I'm used to the undergraduate style of "money". For example, I had what you could consider a "full ride" to my UG school but I still ended up having to cough up money for living expenses, bills, etc. When my G/F got a "full ride" for her Masters @ U of Chicago for their Slavic linguistics program, she actually got a full ride -- as in, complete tuition remission and a yearly stipend of around $21,000.

When talking about law school and scholarship money, is it closer to the undergraduate way, or the graduate way? When people refer to "getting money" do they mean just getting tuition remission? Or do law schools give stipends (provided you have the numbers, of course).

I'm asking because I've been reading about people who got scholarships who still wracked up tens of thousands in debt, and I wasn't sure if that was because they took out loans for living expenses, or to make up a shortfall in their aid package.

Yeah, most of the time when people talk about getting a full ride from a law school, they mean a full tuition scholarship. Some schools do give stipends, although a stipend large enough to completely cover living expenses completely is extremely rare, and I don't know anyone with a stipend that large.

Most people who get full rides at schools still have to take up in the neighborhood of 60-90k in loans to cover cost of living expenses.

I guess I can put off buying a house for a few more years.

ETA: Though I guess I should've known that.

Okay so to post in my own thread . . .

Here's what Cornell (as an example) lists:

Tuition $53,150
Room and Board $11,250
Books $1,100
Personal/Travel $5,000
Health Insurance $1,880
Total $72,380

Now how does that "Room and Board" part work? Do they slice you a check at the end of the semester for the value of the room and board (I'm assuming their law school students live off campus) Is that generally how they do it?

OldTymeyFaceSmasher wrote:Okay so to post in my own thread . . .

Here's what Cornell (as an example) lists:

Tuition $53,150
Room and Board $11,250
Books $1,100
Personal/Travel $5,000
Health Insurance $1,880
Total $72,380

Now how does that "Room and Board" part work? Do they slice you a check at the end of the semester for the value of the room and board (I'm assuming their law school students live off campus) Is that generally how they do it?

I'm pretty sure those are just guidelines for budgeting/taking out loans. You don't actually pay Cornell for room and board, assuming you're living off campus.

Knock wrote:

OldTymeyFaceSmasher wrote:Okay so to post in my own thread . . .

Here's what Cornell (as an example) lists:

Tuition $53,150
Room and Board $11,250
Books $1,100
Personal/Travel $5,000
Health Insurance $1,880
Total $72,380

Now how does that "Room and Board" part work? Do they slice you a check at the end of the semester for the value of the room and board (I'm assuming their law school students live off campus) Is that generally how they do it?

I'm pretty sure those are just guidelines for budgeting/taking out loans. You don't actually pay Cornell for room and board, assuming you're living off campus.

Right, but I was wondering if scholarship money reflected the room and board aspect, or that would be considered an outside amount.

Also, 11,250 for living in Ithaca is hilarious. I'm from the area (moved away recently) and it always astounded me how goddamn expensive it is to live in Ithaca. In Rochester, barely an hour away, $11,500 would pay your rent in a 2 floor townhouse for 2 years.

OldTymeyFaceSmasher wrote:

Knock wrote:

OldTymeyFaceSmasher wrote:Okay so to post in my own thread . . .

Here's what Cornell (as an example) lists:

Tuition $53,150
Room and Board $11,250
Books $1,100
Personal/Travel $5,000
Health Insurance $1,880
Total $72,380

Now how does that "Room and Board" part work? Do they slice you a check at the end of the semester for the value of the room and board (I'm assuming their law school students live off campus) Is that generally how they do it?

I'm pretty sure those are just guidelines for budgeting/taking out loans. You don't actually pay Cornell for room and board, assuming you're living off campus.

Right, but I was wondering if scholarship money reflected the room and board aspect aspect, or that would be considered an outside amount.

Also, 11,250 for living in Ithaca is hilarious. I'm from the area (moved away recently) and it always astounded me how goddamn expensive it is to live in Ithaca. In Rochester, barely an hour away, you can $11,500 would pay your rent in a 2 floor townhouse for 2 years.

If you had a full tuition (no-stipend) scholarship, then only your tuition is covered, and you'd have to pay room and board out of pocket/loans. If you do have a full tuition + stipend, then i'm not exactly sure how they would give you your stipend money.

Knock wrote:

OldTymeyFaceSmasher wrote:

Knock wrote:

OldTymeyFaceSmasher wrote:Okay so to post in my own thread . . .

Here's what Cornell (as an example) lists:

Tuition $53,150
Room and Board $11,250
Books $1,100
Personal/Travel $5,000
Health Insurance $1,880
Total $72,380

Now how does that "Room and Board" part work? Do they slice you a check at the end of the semester for the value of the room and board (I'm assuming their law school students live off campus) Is that generally how they do it?

I'm pretty sure those are just guidelines for budgeting/taking out loans. You don't actually pay Cornell for room and board, assuming you're living off campus.

Right, but I was wondering if scholarship money reflected the room and board aspect aspect, or that would be considered an outside amount.

Also, 11,250 for living in Ithaca is hilarious. I'm from the area (moved away recently) and it always astounded me how goddamn expensive it is to live in Ithaca. In Rochester, barely an hour away, you can $11,500 would pay your rent in a 2 floor townhouse for 2 years.

If you had a full tuition (no-stipend) scholarship, then only your tuition is covered, and you'd have to pay room and board out of pocket/loans. If you do have a full tuition + stipend, then i'm not exactly sure how they would give you your stipend money.

Cool man, thanks! Appreciate the replies.

Remember the "board" part of that, which is food. So, it's not quite so surprising (though I know nothing of the area).

Scholarship money doesn't "reflect" any particular expense, per se, but a general discount they are going to give you on your costs of attending law school (tuition + cost of living).

If they give you a scholarship that is greater than tuition (which is, as stated before, rare), you can put that money towards whatever you want. They will just write a check, as far as I know. Those other figure are just their estimates for your particular cost of living expenses.

No problem .

The stipends that people have referred to getting on TLS are always small and usually don't even cover all of the room/board/other costs. I have never seen anything on the order of a PhD stipend (20k+ per year).

This is to be expected because law students are almost never required to TA or teach courses, which many other graduate students do in exchange for their living stipends.

Haha sooooo . . . .

How feasible is working while going to law school . . .

OldTymeyFaceSmasher wrote:Haha sooooo . . . .

How feasible is working while going to law school . . .

Not a good idea during 1L for sure. Gun for a market paying summer associateship and you can cut a little bit off COA.

Knock wrote:

OldTymeyFaceSmasher wrote:Haha sooooo . . . .

How feasible is working while going to law school . . .

Not a good idea during 1L for sure. Gun for a market paying summer associateship and you can cut a little bit off COA.

Haha yeah I was mostly kidding. I was glad to escape UG with practically no debt, so I guess I should be thankful.