Top Law Schools

I am applying via the Priority Track to Duke Law specifically to obtain a ballpark estimate of what my scholarships from T14 schools will look like (I know Duke is one data point and that I can negotiate upwards).

Should I be accepted with a grant, will Duke offer me a scholarship with my acceptance ("Congrats Mr. Faulkner, you are accepted, and here's $20K a year") or will it be a protracted process that follows my completion of financial aid documents?

Thanks!

You don't find out financial aid when you're admitted via PT--you have to submit the materials later on and apply for that separately

OakBrook2021 wrote:You don't find out financial aid when you're admitted via PT

Thank you OakBrook. Let's pretend I am applying to Cornell instead. Is it regular procedure to give grants upon acceptance?

It varies on the school, your competitiveness, and their available funds. You could get an offer of a tuition discount with the offer of admissions (like if you're offered a named scholarship, etc.), or you might have to sit tight.

Either way, don't worry about it. Admissions and scholarship negotiation is a long game. When the offers come is inconsequential to what you can ultimately get from the schools so long as you negotiate before the funds are gone.

UVA2B wrote:It varies on the school, your competitiveness, and their available funds. You could get an offer of a tuition discount with the offer of admissions (like if you're offered a named scholarship, etc.), or you might have to sit tight.

Either way, don't worry about it. Admissions and scholarship negotiation is a long game. When the offers come is inconsequential to what you can ultimately get from the schools so long as you negotiate before the funds are gone.

On that note--Would it be futile to retake in February for scholarship negotiation purposes? My plan was to negotiate as much as possible and then retake hopefully for an increase in points and $$

OakBrook2021 wrote:

UVA2B wrote:It varies on the school, your competitiveness, and their available funds. You could get an offer of a tuition discount with the offer of admissions (like if you're offered a named scholarship, etc.), or you might have to sit tight.

Either way, don't worry about it. Admissions and scholarship negotiation is a long game. When the offers come is inconsequential to what you can ultimately get from the schools so long as you negotiate before the funds are gone.

On that note--Would it be futile to retake in February for scholarship negotiation purposes? My plan was to negotiate as much as possible and then retake hopefully for an increase in points and $$

It's not necessarily futile, and if you can squeeze out a few more points, it'll only help. That doesn't guarantee your negotiations will improve dramatically because it depends what the exact improvement was (for example, if you're currently a 3.8/168 admitted to Duke, and you retake for a 172, it might be very effective at increasing scholarship amounts, but if you're a 3.3/172 and become a 3.3/176, they have much less incentive to bump up your tuition discount because your overall admissions profile hasn't drastically changed. Now, if you do that retake and come back with a Columbia acceptance, maybe it becomes more effective...I don't want to keep drawing up hypotheticals to show how scholarship negotiation dynamics change, but hopefully this minimally paints a picture).

Edit to more directly address your concern: funds won't be gone when February scores come back. They'll be somewhat limited, but they won't be gone.