Be careful with tuition waivers.

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Be careful? What do you mean be careful? It’s free money! True, but there are few things you should be aware of when accepting money from certain law schools, particularly lowered tiered schools.

Law school, like all of American higher education, is a business. Competition among schools can be fierce. Flaming the fire of law school competition is U.S. News’s annual rankings. Each year, schools attempt to go up in the rankings, so they can attract more students. These students bring prestige and money to the school.

The schools that are battling the hardest to go up in the rankings are usually the third and fourth tier schools. One of their best tools is tuition waivers. Here’s how it works.

Two of the criteria that U.S. News and World report uses to rank schools are students’ LSAT scores and undergrad GPA. Third and fourth tier schools often have low averages in both criteria. So, in order to attract high scorers, these schools offer very lucrative scholarships. An applicant who may have had a high enough score to get into a first or second tier school without any scholarship offers can often get full rides from tier three and four schools. Thus, many financially savvy law students pick the school that, while ranked low, offer them the most money.

Remember, if something is too good to be true, then it probably is. In order to maintain your scholarship, you usually have to maintain a 3.0 gpa while in law school. This doesn’t seem too bad. The problem is that most lower tiered schools have wicked 1st year grading curves. At most, the average grade is a 2.75. That means most students won’t even get a 3.0 average. For example, at my school, only 30% of students will have a 3.0 at the end of their first year. Yikes.

What does this mean to your scholarship? Well, think about it. The law school can afford to offer several well funded scholarships, knowing that only a few of the students will actually keep them because of the curve. So, if you don’t maintain a 3.0 you’re stuck with several problems. First, you can’t transfer to a better school because of your GPA isn’t good enough. Second, you’re stuck picking up the entire bill for tuition. And third, you’re going to have a tough time finding an internship during the summer. How do you explain a bad GPA at a low ranked school?

Does it suck? Well, yes, but it’s an incredibly smart business move. You might be thinking, “Aw, third and Fourth tier students are a bunch of dummies, I can handle it.” I wouldn’t be so sure. Sure, what third and fourth tier students lack in LSAT and GPA, they make up with it in hard work. Also, one thing a friend (who was also offered a huge scholarship from the school) and I have noticed is that almost everyone in our section has really good scholarships. We might be completely paranoid, but we think the school has put all the scholarship students in the same section, so they can weed each other out. It’s like Survivor!

Anyway, just remember if you get offered an awesome scholarship from a lower tiered school to make sure and check what their grading curve is. It might be better to go somewhere else.

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9 Comments

1. JMG on 22.12.2006 at 07:17 (Reply)

   Excuse me, but passing up a free ride is almost certainly nuts.

   Anyone who has the numbers needed to win a free ride can maintain it if they treat law school like a full time job, which it is. A reasonably well-paid job at that if you are being paid with free tuition.

   I went to a 4th tier no-name law school because it was within walking distance, got a full free ride, and enjoyed getting an excellent JD for $20 per term (the student activity fee). By judiciously failing to complete all the required classes until the last term I went for a seventh term so that I could graduate in Dec and take the February bar.

   After graduating, I went to work in the state appellate courts with the “name” school grads, and I didn’t give up anything to those “name school” grads in terms of my education. (If anything, the name grads had bigger holes in their educations, the result of being able to take courses like “Feminist Jurisprudence.”)

   The only real difference among us was that that they often obsessed about what they were going to do next and how much they had to earn pay on their loans each month.

   Meanwhile, I enjoyed putting half my salary into my 401k and 457 plan and she put 40% of her salary away similarly (This gave us a raise–my wife and I had lived comfortably on her income throughout law school, so why couldn’t we keep it up now that I was working).

   Different surveys suggest that maybe as many as half the lawyers in America are unhappy with their choice of profession. That is almost entirely the result of the pressure to make the meter spin, which is a function of the insane salary scale, which drives tuition prices up through the roof. A much different path awaits those who can get through without debt—you can get a decent legal education just about anywhere, which means you can take the bar and then do whatever makes you happiest.

2. The Frugal Law Student on 22.12.2006 at 07:40 (Reply)

   Apparently you missed the point of my post, JMG. I agree that you can get a decent legal education at ANY law school. And, yes going to the school that offers you lots of scholarship money is a good idea.

   The problem is when you lose that scholarship. Like I said in my post, most fourth tier schools have wicked 1st year curves. So, the schools offer lots of scholarships to get students to come knowing that only a few will actually keep them. If you’re able to maintain it, then going to that school was a great idea. But, if you can’t, well, you’re screwed. Your stuck picking up the entire bill. Because the school that I attend is private, that would mean I would have to pay $25,000 a year and would have to take on student loans.

   It’s probably the case that those students who get the free rides or close to it are probably going to maintain it. However, there’s always a chance they won’t. A lot of people have the idea that fourth tier schools are just full of the law school rejects. It can’t be further from the truth. I’ve found my peers to be extremely motivated, smart, and competitive. So, the pressure to maintain the scholarship is intense.

   So, the point of my post was for people to consider this fact before accepting a free ride.

3. JMG on 22.12.2006 at 10:52 (Reply)

   At my school, the only requirement to maintain the scholarship was (and remains, apparently) remaining a student in good standing–essentially meaning not on academic probation (GPA > 2.0). I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of anyone losing the scholarship, or how that could possibly occur.

4. Mike on 23.12.2006 at 10:56 (Reply)

   JMG, did you go to Cooley?
   My parents live in Kalamazoo, and it looks like I could get a free ride at Cooley.

   Brett, I think this is real good advice. The thing that is appealing about a scholarship at a 3rd or 4th tier school is that I’m not going to get into a top 50 school and some of the ones right on the heels of the top 50 would be a stretch. So, at a second tier school I could get in with no scholarship, or I could go to a fourth tier school and get money based solely on my LSAT. I can work hard and keep the scholarship, and even if I lose it I’m not in much different of a position from if I had been at a low end second tier school.

5. The Frugal Law Student on 23.12.2006 at 11:49 (Reply)

   Mike-
   Glad you stopped by. The problem with me losing my scholarship is that tuition at Tulsa is over $25,000 a year. I could have gone to OU (a school with more prestige here in Oklahoma) for about $16,000 a year. If I lose my scholarship, it might turn out that I would have been better off going to OU. Not only would it be cheaper, it would probably be easier to find a job in Oklahoma given that OU is much more prestigious than Tulsa and that they don’t have such a harsh curve.

6. Mike on 26.12.2006 at 10:55 (Reply)

   Yeah, that is crazy that Tulsa does that, I hope you keep your scholarship. I was kind of surprised you didn’t go to OU with how much more prestigious it is. The midrange of graduates seem to have about the same options- but OU’s grads seem to be recruited more for big firms in Oklahoma and in the Dallas area.
   Although, I think Tulsa does a bit better job of placing students in Judicial clerkships. I talked to some people at OU about how horrible they are with placing clerkships and they said they are trying to change that. One of the big reasons it has never been a priority in the past is that local firms don’t really value clerkships much at all. In most major cities a big firm is going to give you a signing bonus and pay you more than the starting sallary if you just came off of a good clerkship. (Supposedly in Dallas it’s a 30,000 bonus your first year) Firms in OKC don’t do this, so most people that want to live in Oklahoma don’t really see any benefit to doing a clerkship first.
   I’d love to do a good clerkship if I get the chance- but I’m not going to get into a top tier school that places lots of supreme court and federal appealate clerkships. If my LSAT comes back a little higher than I expect I may just not go to any of the schools that accept me and apply again for next year to see if I can get in someplace like Notre Dame.

7. Good news on 01.04.2007 at 13:38

   […] http://www.frugallawstudent.com/2006/12/21/be-careful-with-tuition-waivers/ This is his post about the curve at Tulsa in comparison with the GPA requirement. I’m waiting on OU as well. I probably won’t get in because of my abysmal GPA, but we’ll see. Where are you doing your undergrad? […]

8. Rebecca on 04.03.2008 at 09:19 (Reply)

   I am in a similar situation. I received numerous full scholarships from T3 and 4 schools, and one from a T2. I am in my second semester at the T2, and will most likely lose my scholarship after this year (required 3.3 to keep). Our first semester grades were based on a 2.0 scale, and I ended up with a 2.62. I have several friends who ended up below a 2.0 and have to retake some classes, in addition to facing possible academic dismissal. I had no idea starting out that the grading curve was so brutal, and have felt completely foolish for not checking this out before accepting their admissions offer. I have some consolation though, as the in-state tuition is only $14,000 per year; therefore, I will be able to continue even when I lose the scholarship. The other full rides I received were at schools whose annual tuition is more than $30,000. So, word of advice to anyone looking at those full rides, as stated above, make sure you check out the grading curve before accepting. One other thing, my section is packed with people who also received full scholarships, therefore ensuring that a significant portion of us will lose them.

9. San Antonio Lawyer on 03.09.2008 at 10:43 (Reply)

   This is not something I have ever experienced, but I hope the suggestions here are followed and I will be sure to share this with others who might be facing this same situation.

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