Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach this? Forum

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alyoshanks

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Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach this?

Post by alyoshanks » Wed Feb 28, 2018 1:33 am

I believe this is the right forum, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I just received an email from GULC today saying that I was being considered for scholarship funding. I'm sure people on TLS will be familiar, but the wording is that "the Committee encourages you to tell us such things as where Georgetown fits into your plans and what level of funding would make a difference in your decision." I've tried to search but I haven't seen any specific advice about this approach, and as it seems GULC is rather unique I'd like to hear any advice y'all might offer. I know that it's possible to leverage other scholarships in some when discussing scholarships with GULC, but what would be the best approach?

Other relevant information:
  1. 3.9/168
  2. Financial aid is hugely important to me, and will be a big factor in my decision.
  3. GULC was my top choice until I (obviously mistakenly) believed that I was not receiving scholarship money from them. I've been accepted into UVA with no scholarshop and been offered the Dean's Fellowship from WUSTL, and those made up my other two top choices. As of now I feel confident that I would be choosing between these three, and probably between GULC and WUSTL given my lack of interest in biglaw.
  4. Offered 135k from GWU, if that sort of DC competition makes any difference
  5. Similar amounts from Alabama (Dean's Scholar), Emory, and Notre Dame
Any help at all would be appreciated, if even if it's just pointing me in the direction of a guide that someone else has written.

Justtrying2help

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by Justtrying2help » Wed Feb 28, 2018 1:51 am

You have the numbers for a 150K to full tuition scholarship offer ($172,728 according to LSN I believe) from Georgetown. You have adequate leverage to extract a great offer. 150K is the least amount of scholarship aid you should be willing to accept and you should be willing to sit out a cycle or attend a better school to get it.

alyoshanks

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by alyoshanks » Wed Feb 28, 2018 2:27 am

Justtrying2help wrote:You have the numbers for a 150K to full tuition scholarship offer ($172,728 according to LSN I believe) from Georgetown. You have adequate leverage to extract a great offer. 150K is the least amount of scholarship aid you should be willing to accept and you should be willing to sit out a cycle or attend a better school to get it.
That's great to hear--glad to hear at least from one person what ballpark I'm looking at. Obviously I'm not requesting you to write this email, but do you have any advice for how to engage with GULC? Is this the right time to just lay out all my offers on the table and say that DC is my top choice if it's financially viable?

Justtrying2help

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by Justtrying2help » Wed Feb 28, 2018 10:56 am

What schools are you still waiting to hear back from?

alyoshanks

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by alyoshanks » Wed Feb 28, 2018 1:00 pm

Justtrying2help wrote:What schools are you still waiting to hear back from?

Just uPenn, but at this point I'm not expecting anything. It's been a very long time and they're a significant outlier re:timeline compared to my other applications. I'm assuming that I'll be choosing between the schools listed in the op.

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Justtrying2help

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by Justtrying2help » Wed Feb 28, 2018 10:49 pm

You erred big time by not blanketing the top-13 law schools. WUSTL is your best leverage at the moment but it is not the most compelling leverage. You should wait until you hear back from Penn. Never lay all of your offers out on the table while in negotiations. If Penn doesn't give you a compelling offer, I would try to get Georgetown to match the WUSTL offer. If they give offer you less than 150k, tell them (if it its the truth) that Georgetown is your number 1 choice and that you would attend for 150k in scholarship money. A Georgetown law degree isn't worth more than 100k in debt, especially if you don't have an interest in working in biglaw. WUSTL should be fine as a backup considering your goals and scholarship.

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Wild Card

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by Wild Card » Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:42 pm

Justtrying2help wrote:You erred big time by not blanketing the top-13 law schools. WUSTL is your best leverage at the moment but it is not the most compelling leverage. You should wait until you hear back from Penn. Never lay all of your offers out on the table while in negotiations. If Penn doesn't give you a compelling offer, I would try to get Georgetown to match the WUSTL offer. If they give offer you less than 150k, tell them (if it its the truth) that Georgetown is your number 1 choice and that you would attend for 150k in scholarship money. A Georgetown law degree isn't worth more than 100k in debt, especially if you don't have an interest in working in biglaw. WUSTL should be fine as a backup considering your goals and scholarship.
Penn is extremely sleazy, and won't put out unless you present a competing offer from what it perceives to be its peer: like, it will match only CCN.

I think 150K is over the top given your numbers. I'd start at 135K, which is already a punch in the gut for them. They'd probably respond with 90K. You'll end up at 105K, I predict.

da.goat

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by da.goat » Thu Mar 01, 2018 12:01 am

Wild Card wrote:
Justtrying2help wrote:You erred big time by not blanketing the top-13 law schools. WUSTL is your best leverage at the moment but it is not the most compelling leverage. You should wait until you hear back from Penn. Never lay all of your offers out on the table while in negotiations. If Penn doesn't give you a compelling offer, I would try to get Georgetown to match the WUSTL offer. If they give offer you less than 150k, tell them (if it its the truth) that Georgetown is your number 1 choice and that you would attend for 150k in scholarship money. A Georgetown law degree isn't worth more than 100k in debt, especially if you don't have an interest in working in biglaw. WUSTL should be fine as a backup considering your goals and scholarship.
Penn is extremely sleazy, and won't put out unless you present a competing offer from what it perceives to be its peer: like, it will match only CCN.

I think 150K is over the top given your numbers. I'd start at 135K, which is already a punch in the gut for them. They'd probably respond with 90K. You'll end up at 105K, I predict.
eh I think you do need to negotiate for sure with P, but they matched my Mich offer as a data point

alyoshanks

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by alyoshanks » Thu Mar 01, 2018 12:34 am

Justtrying2help wrote:You erred big time by not blanketing the top-13 law schools. WUSTL is your best leverage at the moment but it is not the most compelling leverage. You should wait until you hear back from Penn. Never lay all of your offers out on the table while in negotiations. If Penn doesn't give you a compelling offer, I would try to get Georgetown to match the WUSTL offer. If they give offer you less than 150k, tell them (if it its the truth) that Georgetown is your number 1 choice and that you would attend for 150k in scholarship money. A Georgetown law degree isn't worth more than 100k in debt, especially if you don't have an interest in working in biglaw. WUSTL should be fine as a backup considering your goals and scholarship.
I realized that long after the fact. :cry: Unfortunately, in all my preparation, applying to schools purely to use them as leverage for the school you really want was simply not something I had ever heard about. I only applied to schools that I thought I might end up at. Perhaps that was a complete lapse on my part, but no point worrying over that now. Also, I may have misunderstood your question--I'm still waiting to hear from Penn about admission at all, much less scholarship (which I don't expect). Additionally, I have to respond to GULC by Friday, so waiting for Penn simply isn't an option in this case. The rest of your points make sense--thanks for your time!

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alyoshanks

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by alyoshanks » Thu Mar 01, 2018 12:38 am

Wild Card wrote:
Justtrying2help wrote:You erred big time by not blanketing the top-13 law schools. WUSTL is your best leverage at the moment but it is not the most compelling leverage. You should wait until you hear back from Penn. Never lay all of your offers out on the table while in negotiations. If Penn doesn't give you a compelling offer, I would try to get Georgetown to match the WUSTL offer. If they give offer you less than 150k, tell them (if it its the truth) that Georgetown is your number 1 choice and that you would attend for 150k in scholarship money. A Georgetown law degree isn't worth more than 100k in debt, especially if you don't have an interest in working in biglaw. WUSTL should be fine as a backup considering your goals and scholarship.
Penn is extremely sleazy, and won't put out unless you present a competing offer from what it perceives to be its peer: like, it will match only CCN.

I think 150K is over the top given your numbers. I'd start at 135K, which is already a punch in the gut for them. They'd probably respond with 90K. You'll end up at 105K, I predict.
So my only question is this: am I expected to literally give a number to Georgetown? I sort of assumed that was a little...crass, but I could obviously be completely wrong. I thought that showing them my other top choices and saying that a competitive offer in relation to those would be enough. Thanks for the help! As I think I said in the op, this is all quite new to me.

Justtrying2help

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by Justtrying2help » Thu Mar 01, 2018 2:23 pm

alyoshanks wrote:
Justtrying2help wrote:You erred big time by not blanketing the top-13 law schools. WUSTL is your best leverage at the moment but it is not the most compelling leverage. You should wait until you hear back from Penn. Never lay all of your offers out on the table while in negotiations. If Penn doesn't give you a compelling offer, I would try to get Georgetown to match the WUSTL offer. If they give offer you less than 150k, tell them (if it its the truth) that Georgetown is your number 1 choice and that you would attend for 150k in scholarship money. A Georgetown law degree isn't worth more than 100k in debt, especially if you don't have an interest in working in biglaw. WUSTL should be fine as a backup considering your goals and scholarship.
I realized that long after the fact. :cry: Unfortunately, in all my preparation, applying to schools purely to use them as leverage for the school you really want was simply not something I had ever heard about. I only applied to schools that I thought I might end up at. Perhaps that was a complete lapse on my part, but no point worrying over that now. Also, I may have misunderstood your question--I'm still waiting to hear from Penn about admission at all, much less scholarship (which I don't expect). Additionally, I have to respond to GULC by Friday, so waiting for Penn simply isn't an option in this case. The rest of your points make sense--thanks for your time!
You never stated in any prior statement in this thread that you needed an immediate answer for GULC. It was reasonable to believe that you had time to wait on Penn to make an admission and possible scholarship decision in that time. Tell GULC you want them to match your WUSTL offer. That would be the best outcome considering you don't have any other leverage at this moment.

albanach

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by albanach » Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:24 pm

And then, if they bite, at least reach out to UVA and say GT are offering you $$$. It's late, but you could see movement unless they're happy with their current class size and composition.

alyoshanks

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by alyoshanks » Thu Mar 01, 2018 6:42 pm

Justtrying2help wrote:
alyoshanks wrote:
Justtrying2help wrote:You erred big time by not blanketing the top-13 law schools. WUSTL is your best leverage at the moment but it is not the most compelling leverage. You should wait until you hear back from Penn. Never lay all of your offers out on the table while in negotiations. If Penn doesn't give you a compelling offer, I would try to get Georgetown to match the WUSTL offer. If they give offer you less than 150k, tell them (if it its the truth) that Georgetown is your number 1 choice and that you would attend for 150k in scholarship money. A Georgetown law degree isn't worth more than 100k in debt, especially if you don't have an interest in working in biglaw. WUSTL should be fine as a backup considering your goals and scholarship.
I realized that long after the fact. :cry: Unfortunately, in all my preparation, applying to schools purely to use them as leverage for the school you really want was simply not something I had ever heard about. I only applied to schools that I thought I might end up at. Perhaps that was a complete lapse on my part, but no point worrying over that now. Also, I may have misunderstood your question--I'm still waiting to hear from Penn about admission at all, much less scholarship (which I don't expect). Additionally, I have to respond to GULC by Friday, so waiting for Penn simply isn't an option in this case. The rest of your points make sense--thanks for your time!
You never stated in any prior statement in this thread that you needed an immediate answer for GULC. It was reasonable to believe that you had time to wait on Penn to make an admission and possible scholarship decision in that time. Tell GULC you want them to match your WUSTL offer. That would be the best outcome considering you don't have any other leverage at this moment.
Sure, sorry about that. I just assumed from other posts and forums that Georgetown's format was common knowledge. After the feeler email, they only give students about a week to respond. Thanks so much for your help!

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cityb101

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by cityb101 » Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:39 pm

da.goat wrote:
Wild Card wrote:
Justtrying2help wrote:You erred big time by not blanketing the top-13 law schools. WUSTL is your best leverage at the moment but it is not the most compelling leverage. You should wait until you hear back from Penn. Never lay all of your offers out on the table while in negotiations. If Penn doesn't give you a compelling offer, I would try to get Georgetown to match the WUSTL offer. If they give offer you less than 150k, tell them (if it its the truth) that Georgetown is your number 1 choice and that you would attend for 150k in scholarship money. A Georgetown law degree isn't worth more than 100k in debt, especially if you don't have an interest in working in biglaw. WUSTL should be fine as a backup considering your goals and scholarship.
Penn is extremely sleazy, and won't put out unless you present a competing offer from what it perceives to be its peer: like, it will match only CCN.

I think 150K is over the top given your numbers. I'd start at 135K, which is already a punch in the gut for them. They'd probably respond with 90K. You'll end up at 105K, I predict.
eh I think you do need to negotiate for sure with P, but they matched my Mich offer as a data point
Yeah, they matched my Mich offer as well (well until Mich raised it without my asking), but I highly doubt that OP will be able to get $150 out of Gtown. I am well above both 75ths and couldn't get over $120 out of Gtown. I will likely be attending HYS…so yeah, Gtown's not super generous. I didn't bother telling them about my WUSTL scholarship. I figured they wouldn't look at it.

alyoshanks

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Re: Georgetown has offered scholarship, pending my response with a specific desire level of funding. How do I approach t

Post by alyoshanks » Mon Mar 26, 2018 12:36 pm

Quick update, since I've so often come across threads like this when searching for an answer and wished the OP would have posted a conclusion: I sent the email asking them to roughly match GW/WUSTL and said that GULC was my first choice if that happened. An admissions counselor replied and set up a phone call with me. During that call the counselor started by saying that GULC doesn't give out full tuition scholarships, and then basically repeated, word for word, the questions in the original email. I took that as them saying I needed to make a more reasonable request, and said that anything below 50% would make GULC a really tough choice. They just came back with a scholarship offer that's almost exactly 2/3s of the cost of tuition per year, which I'm very happy with. Based on what some others with my scores have reported (as well as the predictions of some in this thread), I think I was helped by being very clear that GULC was my top choice if the finances worked out. Thanks to all for your advice!

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