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Hey all! So I've been curious about this for awhile. I've noticed that often some people with the exact same GPA and LSAT scores and even other factors such as race in common will get free rides or close to it while others will pay the full ticket. Obviously there's a lot of other "soft" factors that the admissions committee looks at, but what could explain why some people would be given free rides while others receive no scholarship money at all? Obviously a major purpose of scholarships is to entice the applicant to accept, is it possible that if an applicant makes it sound like he or she would definitely 100% accept an offer (non-ED though) that he or she would receive less or no scholarship money? In other words, could including a strong (and optional) "why x" statement in the PS or addendum actually hurt the applicant when it comes to scholarship considerations? Or what do you think are some of the major reasons why some people with a 3.5/170, for example, would get a free ride while others pay full price? This is more out of curiosity than anything. Thanks!

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sublime12089 wrote:Could you provide an example? Differences are common, but I have never seen two non URM applicants with identical numbers with one offered a merit based full ride, and the other offered nothing at a school.

Sure. I've seen it plenty of times though. Often I'll look at the "applicants" tab under schools on LSN and rank by GPA to match with mine and then see what sort of LSAT scores it takes to get a decent rate of acceptances and to see what sort of scholarships are given. Often there will be high dollar scholarships side by side with $0 scholarships despite very similar/identical numbers, hence my curiosity. Often the scholarships correlate with high LSATs but at times it's also quite sporadic, hence this thread.
Ok, so here's one specific example I just found. U of Minnesota. Two "white/non-URM" applicants, both with a 168 and UGPAs of 3.68 and 3.7, so essentially identical numbers. However, the applicant with a 3.68 (BigZuck) was awarded a $143k scholarship and the 3.7 (Vlado1017) did not receive any scholarship $$. This is assuming that this applicant, and all those on LSN, report their scholarship awards on here. Most of the time it's not as extreme as full ride vs no money, but $50-90k vs nothing, etc.
I'm mostly just curious if anyone has any experience or insights into what leads adcoms to award scholarships besides GPA/LSAT numbers.

Not all applicants report $$ on LSN...

The most likely cause, considering all the numbers are correct, is the factor of need-based aid. That's about the only way I can make sense of this.

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Above are right. There are some disparities, mostly from application time (someone who applied in Sept would get the money, while a March applicant would be stuck with sticker) but I'd say the vast majority are just inaccurate data.

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You see a ton of people with the same numbers get relatively small differences in FA (NYU is a great example), but full-ride vs. sticker doesn't seem likely. Maybe if they were some amazing candidate (Rhodes Scholar + Olympic Athlete + Former Neurosurgeon) that a lower school was trying to pluck from HYS.

Thanks for the input, everyone! I kind of had a feeling much of it was due to the issues you mentioned.

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Redfactor wrote: I suspect less-than-truthful cycles are posted fairly often.

I would agree with this. LSN is a great resource but clearly it's susceptible to self-reporting bias/inaccuracies.

LSN is self reported...not exactly reliable.

sublime12089 wrote:

ManOfTheMinute wrote:Not all applicants report $$ on LSN...

That. And also if you look at BigZuck's profile, he mentions that he did not use his exact numbers for anonymity.

Credited. My gpa and LSAT are both a little higher than reported. The other poster in question probably got a large scholarship too but just didn't report it.

People not reporting money on LSN is kind of annoying (but people are weird about money things a lot of the time so I get it).

Personally I plan on updating everything and adding as much info as possible when my cycle is truly over. I think a lot of people probably have this intention but they just say "screw it" and abandon TLS/LSN when it gets closer to school starting.

My cycle re: Alabama is probably a good case of what the OP is talking about.

http://alabama.lawschoolnumbers.com/applicants

My GPA/LSAT is a little lower than people receiving less or no money than me.. It's not a full ride vs nothing, but mine was the result of honest and frank negotiations.