for the love of paper cuts
After handling stacks of application papers, four of my fingers are covered in bandages. You’d think I would be more careful after the first…or even the second one. I finished applying for several scholarships over the past few weeks in the hopes of paying for some of my law school expenses. Most likely, the scholarship committee will take one look at my wimpy resume, snort, and throw it in the auto-deny pile. Sigh. Well, at least I can say I honestly tried.
Most unfortunately, the majority of the good ones depend on your first semester 1L grades. BOOOO. Also, there is some SERIOUS moolah available to minority students who get good grades during their 1L year. For example, law firm fellowships offer a paid summer associate position AND scholarship money. Unlike a lot of college scholarships I’ve seen, many of these minority law school scholarships categorize Asians/Pacific Islanders as minorities. Also, try googling your local/state bar to see if they offer special scholarships– I live in the middle of nowhere and will be attending law school in another state, so I wasn’t able to take advantage of these types of scholarships.
For entering law students, there are some options. Mainly there’s writing competitions (blargh, more soul writing involved), CLEO programs, and bar association scholarships. For anyone interested (some of these scholarships stipulate that you must be a 2L or 3L so if you’re currently in law school, you’ve got some options!), check out Yale Law School’s Scholarship Database. It’s one of the better ones I’ve seen.
You’re baaaaack! FINALLY! Where have you been? tsk tsk
This is an awesome post, and a great resource. Thank you for sharing this information! I’m starting to freak out about paying for law school as I start looking at the full amounts. Oh jeez.
I hope things have been going well for you! I look forward to hearing more about your journey leading up to, and during, law school.
A word of caution about scholarships: I suggest thoroughly researching your school’s policy on funds received. There are federal guidelines that apply to financial aid so depending on your goal, you may end up spending time filling out apps and writing essays for money that you would have been eligible to borrow anyway. If you’re goal is to minimize the amount you borrow, that’s one thing, but I know many law students, myself included, who wanted these scholarships just to make it because a semester’s worth of financial aid was never enough. Just about finals time I’d be freaking about how to pay my bills and buy food.
Depending on your school’s policy, look for awards that are given by outside entities, not by the school. There are some that will give you a check directly made out to you. These, at least at my school, didn’t count towards my financial aid and so this was money on top of my financial aid. And I really needed this.
Also, be strategic about the amount of time you spend on apps. Those that require a little more leg work to prepare might be worth it because other students will be lazy and not get the letters of rec, the essay, the transcript, etc..
Lastly, don’t discount applying for an award because you think that the criteria don’t apply to you. Think critically about your experience and your skills; you might surprise yourself how something you’ve done in the past or while you’re in law school can be framed in a way that makes you eligible after all. You’re in law school–write persuasively and make them see things your way.
I applied for 10 awards/scholarships and was lucky enough to win 6 of them while in law school. I received a trip to NYC (to receive one of the awards), and attended two formal functions for another two awards. I also met many interesting and influential people from all over the country with whom I still network.
Law school has been a blast! Best of luck!
Were any of these as an incoming student? I’d be interested in applying to scholarships that increase the budget as the ones you mentioned.
Nope. Nobody ever clued me in on the fact that there are outside scholarships for incoming students; which there are. I see them all the time on our weekly online newsletter. My school does consider all applicants for scholarships, but those are administered internally and subject to the whole cost of attendance bs that the feds set.
That being said, you should check your school’s policy because I know for a fact that some schools do collect checks from students even if they receive them from outside sources. One of my awards was with a student from another law school. We each got a check for the same amount, made out to and given to us at a function not in the least affiliated with our law schools. I checked with my Dean and was told I could keep it, but when the other recipient advised her school they told her she HAD to sign the check over to them. She did and they took it. Again, it’s money she won’t have to pay back in the end, but my point is that if you can’t even financially make it “to the end” what good is the fact that you saved money along the way?
Thanks for the advice, I’ll have to look into it. I think my school’s policy is that you have to reduce your other financial aid if you receive outside aide which is why I haven’t bothered applying for anything outside of the school.
Hm, it shouldn’t affect the amount of aid you get directly from the school. But I might be wrong on that front. If you’re talking about federal loans, I think getting an outside scholarship is better since you don’t have to pay back with interest!
Ouch… there’s nothing more painful than a papercut. Well, almost nothing!
It’s great to see you back, btw!
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Reblogged this on vivre l'aventure and commented:
This is great information for my fellow 0L’s. Follow Legal Rabbit if you’re not already!