How do Fee Waivers work mechanically? Forum

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keepcalm

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How do Fee Waivers work mechanically?

Post by keepcalm » Tue Aug 24, 2021 4:28 pm

Sorry if this is a deeply stupid question, I did try to search but all "fee waiver" brought up wasn't this in-the-weeds. If School A has sent me a recruitment email with a fee waiver do I have to do something to "apply" that (should I keep the otherwise spammy email indefinitely for this purpose?) or does it just "know" not to charge when I apply through LSAC? I tried to poke around in the app but with them not being open yet there's not a lot I can do about that.

Relatedly if School B sends me recruitment emails without a waiver can I followup to request one? People on Reddit say to just email and ask but especially after getting emailed without one "excuse me where's my waiver?" seems pretty awkward to me.

HopefulSplitter0000

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Re: How do Fee Waivers work mechanically?

Post by HopefulSplitter0000 » Fri Aug 27, 2021 12:57 am

keepcalm wrote:
Tue Aug 24, 2021 4:28 pm
Sorry if this is a deeply stupid question, I did try to search but all "fee waiver" brought up wasn't this in-the-weeds. If School A has sent me a recruitment email with a fee waiver do I have to do something to "apply" that (should I keep the otherwise spammy email indefinitely for this purpose?) or does it just "know" not to charge when I apply through LSAC? I tried to poke around in the app but with them not being open yet there's not a lot I can do about that.

Relatedly if School B sends me recruitment emails without a waiver can I followup to request one? People on Reddit say to just email and ask but especially after getting emailed without one "excuse me where's my waiver?" seems pretty awkward to me.
There are two ways this works IIRC:
1. The fee is waived automatically when you apply via LSAC. If you signed up to allow LSAC to report your LSAT score, and a school noticed your performance and waived your fee, this is how it is done. Fee waiver emails will almost always tell you that the fee is waived automatically. Columbia, NYU, and most schools do this.

2. You receive a waiver with a code, and when prompted by LSAC, you would input that fee waiver code in order to skip paying the fee. This sometimes happens if you request a waiver manually by emailing a school. For instance, the University of Michigan granted me a waiver request, and they sent me a code to use in LSAC to waive the fee. These codes would be used when you go to pay.

As for another question you implied, I do not know whether or not fee waivers expire. Holding onto emails is probably a good idea.

keepcalm

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Re: How do Fee Waivers work mechanically?

Post by keepcalm » Mon Aug 30, 2021 6:21 pm

HopefulSplitter0000 wrote:
Fri Aug 27, 2021 12:57 am
keepcalm wrote:
Tue Aug 24, 2021 4:28 pm
Sorry if this is a deeply stupid question, I did try to search but all "fee waiver" brought up wasn't this in-the-weeds. If School A has sent me a recruitment email with a fee waiver do I have to do something to "apply" that (should I keep the otherwise spammy email indefinitely for this purpose?) or does it just "know" not to charge when I apply through LSAC? I tried to poke around in the app but with them not being open yet there's not a lot I can do about that.

Relatedly if School B sends me recruitment emails without a waiver can I followup to request one? People on Reddit say to just email and ask but especially after getting emailed without one "excuse me where's my waiver?" seems pretty awkward to me.
There are two ways this works IIRC:
1. The fee is waived automatically when you apply via LSAC. If you signed up to allow LSAC to report your LSAT score, and a school noticed your performance and waived your fee, this is how it is done. Fee waiver emails will almost always tell you that the fee is waived automatically. Columbia, NYU, and most schools do this.

2. You receive a waiver with a code, and when prompted by LSAC, you would input that fee waiver code in order to skip paying the fee. This sometimes happens if you request a waiver manually by emailing a school. For instance, the University of Michigan granted me a waiver request, and they sent me a code to use in LSAC to waive the fee. These codes would be used when you go to pay.

As for another question you implied, I do not know whether or not fee waivers expire. Holding onto emails is probably a good idea.
Thanks, that's a helpful walkthrough.

I got offered one with a code attached today, so I'm assuming the ones I was confused about earlier were just of the "auto" variety and I wasn't processing how they worked because there was no need to "make them work" but thank you for explaining.

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