Need Based & Merit Based Scholarship Combination

[amh235]

Hello,

I am currently preparing to apply to some great T14 schools. Very excited about the future and grateful to Powerscore. I am a splitter with a 3.45 GPA and a 171 LSAT from Georgetown. I also have 4 years of strong work experience, although unrelated to the legal profession (business, emphasis on technology start-ups).

I am debating whether to do ED to Northwestern and hopefully be admitted and receive the 150K merit-based scholarship, or to just do everything regular decision.

While I don't believe that I'd get anywhere near a $150K merit-based scholarship elsewhere, I am wondering if I would get some merit (figure 10K a year to 30K a year) at a school like UPENN, Columbia, NYU, and then additionally receive some need-based scholarships. A combination like that could potentially dilute the 50K a year NU opportunity.

1) So, can one get both merit based and needs based scholarship? Is the former taken into account, thereby dilutes the needs based amount?

2) Specifically, does NU give the 150K PLUS needs-based grants to ED acceptees?

3) Does NU give more than 150K in scholarships to regular decision candidates? I think they might, but probably not for a splitter.

FYI, I am a URM.

[Dave Killoran]

Hi A,

I am heading out of town on business, so I'm going to make a relatively quick reply here, and then depending on any followup questions you have, I'll answer when I'm back (probably Tuesday).

First, congrats on the LSAT score and getting ready to apply—it's a nice feeling to be moving forward with apps, I'm sure!

Second, I want to link some articles here that you should find of high value:

• Applying to Law School: To Early Decision or Not to Early Decision
  
  Do Underrepresented Minority (URM) Applicants Have a Law School Admissions Advantage?

Both those articles are stat-laden, and are right at the heart of the topics you've asked about That aside, here are some more in-depth answers to your questions:

• 1. What you get these days is a financial aid package/offer that covers all sorts of elements. Each component is considered, and used in combination with the other pieces to get to a number the law school is comfortable with. These offers are negotiable, and you can use an offer from one school to leverage a better offer from another school (if you want an interesting read, go through all the comments at Scholarship vs. Prestige: When to Take the Money and Run? I talked repeatedly with student there about the choices they were facing, and in some cases you saw students return with news of better offers from certain schools. Fair warning: there are a ton of comments to read through!). While need is certainly considered, just keep in mind that law schools expect that students will take out loans as required, and that's built in to their mindset and thus their offers.
  
  
  2. The award here is $150K, and the program does allow you to apply for additional aid (see http://www.law.northwestern.edu/admissi ... cation.pdf) but there are no guarantees as to whether that is granted, which can put you in a tough spot since the ED stipulations state that you must accept if admitted.
  
  For anyone else reading who isn't aware that the Northwestern ED program is a killer financial deal, here's some additional information:
  
  
  • Northwestern Law—Early Decision Program
    
    Northwestern Law Admissions Blog—Why Early Decision?
  
  3. Yes, they do, and with your URM status, you could be a candidate. But as you rightly note, the splitter situation could offset, so it's extremely hard to know what would happen with your application and aid offer.
  
  This link should help you here too:
  
  
  • Which Law Schools Are Splitter-friendly? And Which Aren't?
  For anyone else reading, we have the same analysis for Reverse Splitters:
  
  
  • Are There "Reverse-Splitter Friendly" Law Schools?
  It's also notable that financial aid offers change from year to year depending on the strength of the overall applicant pool at each school. So, one year Northwestern might be relatively stingy and the next they could be far more generous. You aren't in a vacuum, and the actions of other candidates (their choices to accept or not, their GPA/LSAT numbers, etc) have an effect on how the school acts as a whole.

Please let me know if that helps. I'll check back in when I return. Thanks!