Miami Scholars Forum

[Username123]

If anyone knows the details of this program, please PM me. I got the award and am going to the scholarship conference at the end of February and have a few questions.

Thanks!!!

[Tomasz]

well from the looks of it it is a 80% tuition waiver with some unlisted amount of summer funding for public interest work (not too uncommon for law schools anyway). From Miami's disclosure it looks like about 1/5 students get half to full scholarships, but almost no one gets full, so this would be competitive for a student at Miami. Question is if your numbers are significantly better than Miami's medians.

Important point though ... are you ok working in Miami? Aka do you speak Spanish?

[shockingly_cavalier]

I got this award back when I applied in 2012-2013 and decided not to take it. Definitely take advantage of the free trip to Miami though. One thing to be aware of is that Miami is known for section stacking, and all of their scholarships are contingent upon being in the top X% of the class (not sure what their stipulations are now).

Anyway, I retook the LSAT and ended up at a T20 with a full scholarship so there's always that route too.

[Username123]

I would love working in South Florida - born and raised in Fort Lauderdale and my entire family lives in Miami (Hialeah, Kendall, etc.).

Scholarship stip is top 80%, or 2.5 GPA. If I have lower than that after my first semester/year, I'd strongly consider dropping out. I was offered 96K Deans merit award, but then got the Miami Scholars last week, which increased my award to 108K.

I'm above 75th LSAT/above 25th GPA at Miami. Have a full ride at Illinois (small ties to the Midwest, more so Ohio) and waiting to hear back regarding admission/scholarships elsewhere.

I'm definitely taking the trip to Miami at the end of February, but I have more detailed questions about the program that I guess I'll ask the students in the scholars program while I'm there.

Good thing about potentially attending Miami is that I have extremely strong ties to South Florida (born and raised in FTL, mom has been a paralegal forever for big firms and I know attorneys at these firms, I am close with a couple judges through playing sports and going to school with their children, etc.), I know a bunch of UM Law students (current 1Ls and 2Ls) and my cost of living would be minimal, about 10-15K over three years, which is probably on the high end.

[Tomasz]

I think Miami is a good choice if you want to live/work in S. Florida for a long time. Anecdotally, I lived in FL for a while and knew someone who went to UM (class of 2011) and he and many of his classmates found decent jobs quickly (in the 50-80k range I would guess). Big law is obviously the less likely outcome, but Miami places well everything else for the region.

With the 80% scholarship your COA is reasonable, so the only two concerns should be geography (you will be extremely restricted) and big law (you have a low chance of a 6 figure job right out of school).

I'm not a big fan of school visits. The Value of Law School is in job potential, and for that everything is fairly transparent. Culture, campus, students, etc. are all just distractions.

[Winston1984]

I would love working in South Florida - born and raised in Fort Lauderdale and my entire family lives in Miami (Hialeah, Kendall, etc.).

Scholarship stip is top 80%, or 2.5 GPA. If I have lower than that after my first semester/year, I'd strongly consider dropping out. I was offered 96K Deans merit award, but then got the Miami Scholars last week, which increased my award to 108K.

I'm above 75th LSAT/above 25th GPA at Miami. Have a full ride at Illinois (small ties to the Midwest, more so Ohio) and waiting to hear back regarding admission/scholarships elsewhere.

I'm definitely taking the trip to Miami at the end of February, but I have more detailed questions about the program that I guess I'll ask the students in the scholars program while I'm there.

Good thing about potentially attending Miami is that I have extremely strong ties to South Florida (born and raised in FTL, mom has been a paralegal forever for big firms and I know attorneys at these firms, I am close with a couple judges through playing sports and going to school with their children, etc.), I know a bunch of UM Law students (current 1Ls and 2Ls) and my cost of living would be minimal, about 10-15K over three years, which is probably on the high end.

You would have to drop out. Which I doubt is a decision that a lot of people will make if that time comes.