Top Law Schools

Hi everyone,

I'm in the top 10% at a top 20 law school. I'm applying to transfer to Columbia, NYU, and Penn. I hope to get into one of them, but I also would stay at my school if my scholarship was increased. I'm getting minimal $ where I am now and feel that I have outperformed my scholarship. How do I go about asking my current school for a bigger scholarship? Can I only ask for that should I get accepted into one of those schools?

Thanks to everyone who has advice.

Snake0221 wrote:Hi everyone,

I'm in the top 10% at a top 20 law school. I'm applying to transfer to Columbia, NYU, and Penn. I hope to get into one of them, but I also would stay at my school if my scholarship was increased. I'm getting minimal $ where I am now and feel that I have outperformed my scholarship. How do I go about asking my current school for a bigger scholarship? Can I only ask for that should I get accepted into one of those schools?

Thanks to everyone who has advice.

From personal experience and self-reporting from others, it's unwise to expect anything close to a full ride. There are merit-based scholarship increases, but it likely will not exceed the benefit of jumping into T6/T14. If you were trying to force your current school's hand, make sure to have leverage first, in the form of transfer acceptance letters. Be prepared for your current school to offer a paltry increase (if one at all), or shrug at the notion that you'll leave.

The hard truth is that law schools just don't care. People transfer in/out all the time now and most scholarship money goes to the incoming class to attract better candidates. They don't care if the guy sitting at #1 pays sticker. If he leaves, someone else will be #1.

So you would not advise approaching your school's financial aid department before submitting applications or receiving acceptances? Anyone have any successful experiences negotiating for increased scholarship with their original school with or without an offer in hand?

Volake wrote:So you would not advise approaching your school's financial aid department before submitting applications or receiving acceptances? Anyone have any successful experiences negotiating for increased scholarship with their original school with or without an offer in hand?

When I submitted requests for a Dean's Certification, faculty began contacting me about the decision to transfer... However, my school is notorious for not negotiating at all, so it was really just a browbeating.

LazinessPerSe wrote:The hard truth is that law schools just don't care. People transfer in/out all the time now and most scholarship money goes to the incoming class to attract better candidates. They don't care if the guy sitting at #1 pays sticker. If he leaves, someone else will be #1.

I agree in this case because OP goes to a T20. But I also think a lower ranked school has a much bigger incentive to hold onto the top students. A school ranked 75-100 might send 5% or less to biglaw or clerkships. Losing someone at the top hurts their employment numbers and the transfers coming into those schools are not getting biglaw. Also a T20 realizes that their top 10% + law review students are not going to significantly improve their prospects by trading up. They don't have to offer that much to make it worth it for the kid to stay. There is more value in transferring from a T2/TTT to a T14, so those schools have to offer more to get people to stay.