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I'm at a lower Tier 1 school, pulled all As (3 total) in Contracts, Civ Pro, and Torts, and a Pass with Honors (top 20%) in my P/F legal writing class. My LSAT was above the 75th percentile and my GPA was at the 25th percentile coming into school, and consequently I was awarded a 2/3 scholarship. Is it possible/advisable/ethical to ask about a scholarship increase with the financial aid department? I feel like at this point I'm the proven commodity, but I just don't know if this is "done" or not. Is it likewise possible to suggest that I might transfer to another school and use that as leverage?

These might sound like crappy, greedy, or self-serving questions, but I'll do whatever I have to do to avoid more debt. Thanks for any responses.

EDIT: I would be asking about the scholarship starting in the 2L year.

I've heard of people threatening to transfer to get a scholarship increase.

It doesn't hurt to ask... give it a shot. The worst that can happen is that they'll tell you no.

I don't know that TLS will help much, though... this sort of question is best tailored to the school you're at.

My feeling is that doing either is a bad move.

The scholarship was designed to induce you to enroll. You enrolled.

You might be able to get more if you applied to transfer later, were accepted, and then came to them. But honestly, you've got a 2/3 scholarship, what else do you want? Full scholarship? It seems unlikely, but maybe worth a shot when you actually get to that point. If you're able to transfer up, and feel comfortable paying full price, go for it.

Right now they have no reason to increase your scholarship. I'd concentrate on killing it second semester first.

I was curious about this as well.

I'm attending a tier two school, and performed similarly to OP in my first semester, and was curious if anyone had successfully leveraged a scholarship increase by threatening to transfer at the end of the year.

Would love to hear from anyone who has pulled this off successfully and how they went about doing so.

Far as I know the only scholarship increases are at the end of your 1L year. Basically, if you are able to transfer, the school might increase your scholarship. I don't see any reason for the school to increase your scholarship now. However, it never hurts to ask.

random5483 wrote:Far as I know the only scholarship increases are at the end of your 1L year. Basically, if you are able to transfer, the school might increase your scholarship. I don't see any reason for the school to increase your scholarship now. However, it never hurts to ask.

Yeah I didn't mean right at this moment, sorry for any confusion. I meant at the end of the year, but since these are the first substantive grades, I didn't know if it was possible to ask at this time.

Thanks for the other responses so far.

Highly unlikely unless you are going to transfer, from what I understand. I mean, what incentive do they have?

I would definitely try to negotiate as much money as you can. However, there is something to be said for waiting until you have a transfer acceptance in hand. You don't have any leverage right now. It may be that hitting them harder once later on would produce better results.

Didn't work for me; I had pretty damn good grades and threatened to transfer and they said no way Jose. Just me, though.

missinglink wrote:My feeling is that doing either is a bad move.

The scholarship was designed to induce you to enroll. You enrolled.

You might be able to get more if you applied to transfer later, were accepted, and then came to them. But honestly, you've got a 2/3 scholarship, what else do you want? Full scholarship? It seems unlikely, but maybe worth a shot when you actually get to that point. If you're able to transfer up, and feel comfortable paying full price, go for it.

Right now they have no reason to increase your scholarship. I'd concentrate on killing it second semester first.

+1

Thanks for the honest responses guys/gals. If anyone has anything else to add please let me know but it seems pretty clear.

This is sort of contrary to what most people have said thus far, but I think it's what you're looking for.

The purpose of the original scholarship was to induce you to enroll at your school X rather than at other school Y. But an increase in scholarship after 1L serves a similar purpose to induce you to stay rather than transfer. Your school should be more concerned with keeping a T10% student to add to its alumni network rather than keeping a OL who could easily be around median.

I went through a bit of a similar process by appealing my scholarship in the OL summer. Let me tell you how it worked:

I went to the office of admissions with a nice suit to learn more about the school. When meeting with one of the Deans, I told him how I was excited by the opportunity to go there and thankful for the scholarship offer I already had, but was still considering other schools. I *politely* asked about the possibility of appealing to the scholarship committee, and the Dean gave me the contact info and told me to write up a short letter to him and he would forward it to this committee.

So I went home and drafted this being careful NOT to make it appear as an ultimatum - ie do not phrase it in any way that suggests "If you increase my scholarship to $, I will pay my deposit and enroll." Make it something more like "I am very interested in your school, but because I am still considering other schools. I would be very thankful for an increase in scholarship as I struggle to make this difficult decision". Blah blah BS but you get the point. If the school is in a different city than your home town and you are considering a school in your home town, be sure to say so because of course it will be more expensive to attend the out-of-town/state school.

As a result, my scholarship was increased but only nominally - ie only $5k more. It wasn't a major difference, but it was something. If you are already at 2/3 tuition, the most you should expect is full tuition. But the school will be reluctant to let a top student walk away after they've already paid 2/3s of your 1L tuition. Of course you must wait until you have your actual transfer acceptance in hand before you can really pull leverage, and you must do so in the most polite and delicate manner. THIS is why Georgetown EA is a valuable asset - you can appeal in April before the school has given out the all of scholarship funds to incoming 1Ls, rather than waiting until late July when things are more set in stone.

Once you have an acceptance, meet in person and then follow up with a letter addressed to the appropriate dean/committee. Hope this helps.

OP banned for unauthorized alting.