Ep 86: How to Negotiate Law School Scholarships
In this video, we have Sydney and Alice here to discuss scholarship negotiation, a topic that can be confusing and overwhelming for many applicants who have received offers. We'll answer questions such as what exactly scholarship negotiation means, who you will be negotiating with, and what you can negotiate for. We'll also address common concerns and myths surrounding scholarship negotiation. If you're trying to figure out what school to choose and how to get the most out of your scholarship offers, this video is for you.
Episode Highlights
What is Scholarship Negotiations?
Scholarship negotiation is a standard practice in law school admissions and involves requesting additional scholarship money from a school.
Scholarship negotiation involves presenting comparable offers from other schools and building a strong case for why you are worth more money.
Most law school financial aid is merit-based, meaning that schools offer money to desirable candidates to entice them to attend.
There are different mechanisms and forms for scholarship negotiation that vary by school, but the process is generally not rude or weird.
Engaging in scholarship negotiation is an opportunity to advocate for yourself and potentially secure more financial aid for your law school education.
How Do I Start This Conversation?
There are multiple ways to approach scholarship negotiation. You can reach out to the admissions officers, send an email, or some schools have a scholarship negotiation form.
Negotiating scholarships is not about entitlement but rather genuine need, and it is still part of the relationship-building process with law schools.
In starting the conversation, you should be thankful for the scholarship opportunity and explain that the scholarship is still financially out of reach and you would like to talk about their options for scholarship reconsideration.
What Information Do I Need To Provide?
You should have your scholarship award letters ready and make sure they are truthful. It should be actual scholarship offers with dollar amounts and not just verbal conjecture.
Personal circumstances like family or health reasons that require attending a specific school should be included in the negotiation letter.
Negotiating every scholarship offer is a waste of time, and you should only negotiate for schools that you are serious about attending.
What Makes a School Comparable?
Rankings do not necessarily represent a comparable school. Schools that are comparable can be determined based on bar passage rates, employment rates, prestige, and yield.
The percentage of scholarships being offered by a school should also be taken into consideration.
A comparable school has similar types of employment outcomes, firm placements, or clerkship placements.
It is important to look at the differences in debt that may have to be taken out to come to a particular school and the overall cost of living.
How Do I Gauge If I'm Going to Get a Scholarship Increase?
It is hard to determine the likelihood of scholarship increase if you go through the appeal process because it depends on many factors such as the school's availability of funds, the students they are trying to attract, and what their yield looks like that year.
Don’t take it personally if you are unsuccessful in a scholarship appeal because there are many factors at play that have nothing to do with you. Have a backup plan in case.
If you get a no, you should say thank you and move onto that backup plan
You need to make hard decisions about your career goals and whether the difference in debt is going to drastically change your career.
Tweetable Quotes
“Be serious about your career goals. Be serious about where you think you might wanna live. What kinds of jobs do you wanna get? What doors do you want open? And whether or not the difference in debt is going to drastically change your career.”