4.19 / 171 LSAT - Chances for scholarship at T-14? Forum

[hkrgv]

Hey! I'm a prospective law student from Canada who will be applying in the fall for school. I have a 4.19 GPA (CAS Law School GPA Calculator) and a 171 LSAT score. What are my chances at getting scholarship money at a T-14, and how much roughly would I be likely to get? For reference, I come from a lower-middle class family, making roughly 60k CAD per year (roughly 45k US), so I feel like financial aid may be a factor as well? Thank you so much

[DerKatze]

Most need-based financial aid comes in the form of loans. That said, assuming your GPA and LSAT are equivalent to American ones (I don't know anything about applying from Canada), your GPA and LSAT are both above the 75th percentile for most of the T14, and your GPA is above the 75th percentile for the entire T14, which is an excellent position to be in for scholarships.

[hoos89]

Hey! I'm a prospective law student from Canada who will be applying in the fall for school. I have a 4.19 GPA (CAS Law School GPA Calculator) and a 171 LSAT score. What are my chances at getting scholarship money at a T-14, and how much roughly would I be likely to get? For reference, I come from a lower-middle class family, making roughly 60k CAD per year (roughly 45k US), so I feel like financial aid may be a factor as well? Thank you so much

Law schools don't really give need-based financial aid (except I think HYS might give some...but not really sure how much or to whom). For grad school your parents don't really "count" so pretty much everyone is in the same boat financially as far as admissions is concerned. That said: with a 4.19 and 171 you can expect to get into a lot of T13 schools and probably also receive quite a bit of merit-based aid (again HYS are the exception here: I don't think they really give merit-based aid). Data is a bit limited because your GPA is fairly uncommon, but see below for some data.

As you can see, you have a shot at every school (although your LSAT is probably going to hold you back from Yale and Stanford...and UVA is probably going to Yield Protect you unless you right a compelling "Why UVA?" to them...which given that you're from Canada I kind of doubt they'll find convincing). I would recommend applying to every T13 school plus probably a few in the 14-18 range (WUSTL is particularly generous with scholarship aid so I recommend you apply there to hopefully gain a little scholarship negotiation leverage with the T13 schools...not sure if they'll play ball based on a WUSTL full ride, but worth a shot). Do it on the first day applications are open next year. Once you have all admissions decisions and scholarship info back you can negotiate scholarships against eachother and try to find the best value between total COA and employment options. App fees add up so I'd recommend e-mailing admissions offices and asking for fee waivers (might also be worth it to try for an LSAC fee waiver). In any case, assuming that you calculated your GPA correctly I expect you to have a very good cycle.