Top Law Schools

Hi there,
I'm relatively new to the process of law school applications etc, so I'd appreciate some input. I'm a PhD level scientist working in biotech drug discovery and I'm making the move to patent law. My goal is to attend a top law school, Stanford being my first choice. I've got good academic credentials and my first recent pass of the LSAT has been okay, and I'm pretty sure that with some practice I'll be able to bump up my score into the 170s. I'm 35 yrs old and therefore not the age of most potential law students although I have been reassured by the schools I'm interested in that this is far from unusual these days in particular for scientists moving to IP law.
A major concern I have is how I'm going to fund the 3yrs of school. So I'm wondering if people on this forum can direct me to sources for scholarships that I might be able to pursue. I'm not going to apply until 2013 and will get my application in 1st round to increase my chances. Is there anything I can do in advance or are scholarships handled by the schools on a case by case basis once the applications have been received?

Thanks.

For merit based scholarships that depends largely on the school and your LSAT score, as you probably guessed. Stanford, like Harvard and Yale, don't give merit based but do provide generous need-based scholarships. Here are two links that may be helpful in your search, the first is a link to a thread on this site that does a great job breaking down the scholarships for the top 14 (T14), and the second is link that provides a database of hundreds of outside scholarships that you can apply for as well.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5&t=144338

http://www.law.uidaho.edu/external_scholarships

Hope this helps!

Thank you!

cmo01 wrote:Thank you!

+1

I hadn't seen that and there are a couple of small ones on there that I may qualify for.