Comments on: For the 0Ls (Prospective Law Students)

By: Ann K. Levine

Ann K. Levine — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:12:50 +0000

Good post, but another point: You are more likely to be able to keep your scholarship if you had a good UGPA. If you are one of those folks with a 2.5 and a great LSAT (hence the scholarship to the lower ranked school), then it’s a tougher bet that you’re the person who will be likely to keep the scholarship. (A tough but true statement). If you don’t have a proven track record of success in the classroom (because you’re bored in lectures or undisciplined or for whatever reason) then it’s less likely you’ll meet that threshold to keep the scholarship. Of course, many people turn themselves around and become grown-ups about their academics in law school, but it’s one thing I tell my clients with low UGPAs to consider.

By: Jansen

Jansen — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:21:06 +0000

But of course!

By: butterflyfish

butterflyfish — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:07:22 +0000

May I post this at Wish I Would Have Known?

By: Jansen

Jansen — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:28:44 +0000

The benefits are amazing, I hear. USAA!

By: Anon

Anon — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:13:01 +0000

As a fellow UMN 2L, I would also recommend that everyone RUN.

Two years ago I never thought I’d be saying this, but I wish I had joined the military instead of come here.

By: Jansen

Jansen — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:48:26 +0000

Valid points. The worst I’ve heard from one of our transfers is that her school in Cali had some classes with a 1.9 curve. Eek.

By: Live-Fire — Fearfully Optimistic

Live-Fire — Fearfully Optimistic — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:54:40 +0000

[...] has a great advice post for 0Ls up today, but his best piece of advice is the disclaimer at the end: Again, I recommended that you [...]

By: Ricky Nelson

Ricky Nelson — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:31:34 +0000

Point 3 is slight hyperbole. I don’t think most students at all “less prestigious school” lose their scholarships, though I suppose all of this depends on how we define “well-ranked” and “less prestigious”. I’ve been interested in scholarships to lower the debt load of law school and I’ve asked schools about how many students keep their full scholarships and they’ve all had percentages above 50%. I have some friends at some of these schools and they’ve said most people keep them. Perhaps your experience (or the experience of your classmates and other law school friends) has been different.

Questions that you should ask about scholarships and the sort

1. What percentage of students keep their full scholarships for the entirety of law school. Make sure the question includes the phrase full scholarship as some schools have a lower threshold to keep half the scholarship.

2. What is the expected percentage increase in tuition during your time at the law school. Your scholarship becomes less meaningful if your school decides to go the Berkeley route and leech the money off their students like it’s water

3. What is the curve? (if your scholarship is GPA contingent). You should know just how hard it is to keep it.

Obviously if you can talk to a student that hasn’t been designated to sell the school and ask them all these questions would be good. As much as a I hate to say it, this is one thing those law school message boards may be useful for (with appropriate grains of salt)