I am sure the students you are referring to with 168+ LSAT scores are from states like Virginia, Michigan, California, maybe Texas, that have extremely competitive state flagship universities (and I am sure that these applicants received in-state tuition fee waivers and more money than their in-state counterparts with similar stats). The points I have assembled are accurate and have been verified using the University of Georgia Law website and the University System of Georgia website. As far as my data points being "quantitatively and qualitatively sparse", let's use US News to back my opinion. Last year the 75th percentile scholarship package was $10,000/yr. Numerous in-state TLS posters and myself have stats that put us well above the 75th percentile of students attending UGA (probably well above the 75th percentile of those attending with scholarships, the LSAC law school calculator gives my stats a 90-100% chance of acceptance), so it would seem that I would be given a scholarship package greater than the 75th percentile. Yet, like everyone else with stats similar to mine or better, I was offered $5,000/yr. I don't doubt that many of the students at UGA law are classified as in-state students and may have even been residents of Georgia before attending, that is not what this "debate" is about. When I stated that demographically speaking the majority of faculty, staff, and students at UGA are most likely not Georgians (meaning they are transplants, their families are not historically from Georgia), regardless of whether or not they are Georgia residents (this is not anecdotal, it's just the truth, a population doesn't naturally rise from 2.2 million in 1900 to 6.5 million in 1990 to over 10 million in 2016, it's just not a natural growth rate). I think someone with reasonable intelligence, like a law student, could understand the difference between where someone grew up and lives versus where someone is actually from. The reason I threw that comment into my previous arguments is due to the fact that transplants may feel that they are entitled to benefits from the state they are currently residing in, and therefore, they may be more inclined to feel that others who are going to be incoming transplants are entitled to the same benefits. As for why in-state students are discriminated against in terms of scholarship dollars, I have no idea why the University of Georgia would do such a thing. I would assume corruption, as they are manipulating the system every time they advise out-of-state students that they can have in-state tuition for their second and third years. If the out-of-state student moved to Georgia before law school started, got a job before law school started, and retained that job through the entirety of their first 12 months in the State of Georgia that would be a different situation. You're in law school, you should understand about principles. It's not the fact that UGA Law is lowballing in-state applicants, it's the fact that they are doing something that seems less-than-legitimate. In all fairness, not a dime of taxpayer money should be spent on out-of-state students.unsweetened wrote:Someone in the admissions office is more qualified that I am to speak about subjectively qualified v. unqualified students and scholarship tiers. It doesn't seem to make sense why UGA would discriminate against highly qualified in-state residents - what would be the point of that?
I find it hard to put too much stock in data points that are quantitatively and qualitatively sparse. If you are unhappy with the scholarship amount you have been offered, let admissions know your situation with regard to other scholarships and negotiate.
FWIW, a couple of my classmates that were 168+ LSATs were WL'ed or flat out rejected at state flagship universities in their home state. Who knows what the reasoning was behind that?
Regardless of whether or not the points you've assembled are accurate, UGA has announced improvements to the scholarship program this year, so that's good for your cycle. As far as anecdotal evidence goes, I can unequivocally say that Georgia Law isn't predominantly out of state students - that's something everybody finds out on the first day of orientation.
As for your advice to negotiate scholarship amounts, I think it is sound advice and will be negotiating.
