Early Admission at George Washington U Law offers full-tuition scholarship, worth it?

[JChance]

As stated in the title, George Washington U Law offers full-tuition scholarship for its early admission applicants, is it worth it to commit to their law school and given up the choice of comparing scholarship/financial aid package? George Washington U Law is number 20 on T-20 law schools and number 3 on IP law, which is something i'm interested in. Please let me know your opinion on this.

 

[dragon8]

In this day and age, its difficult to pass up a free ride. I'd do it unless Yale, Harvard, Stanford come calling.

 

[Huntsman]

That was the package I was shooting for. GW is well regarded for patent, which is my chosen specialty, and is within spitting distance of the USPTO to boot. Sadly, I withdrew from the last LSAT admission that would have allowed me to apply for that program, and though GW did accept me, it was not with a package that I felt made accepting a sound choice. I plan to post something a little more involved in your other thread soon.

Bottom line here: You don't really have enough information to consider this as you don't know yout LSAT score. If you knew your LSAT score, you could reasonably well predict your chances at schools higher than GW. So, keep it in mind, but you are not in a position to judge it yet.

~ H

 

[dfagdfsh]

keep in mind that even if your tuition is waived (good), this might not cover fees (not as good) and you still have to pay cost-of-living in DC (bad)

 

[CunningSmeagol]

Originally Posted by Teger

keep in mind that even if your tuition is waived (good), this might not cover fees (not as good) and you still have to pay cost-of-living in DC (bad)

Thanks, Milton.

 

[JChance]

Say GW's tuition is $45K a year, now how much of that amount would theoreticallt be fee?

Originally Posted by Teger

keep in mind that even if your tuition is waived (good), this might not cover fees (not as good) and you still have to pay cost-of-living in DC (bad)

 

[kxk]

http://www.law.gwu.edu/Admissions/tu...s/default.aspx Even if they cover the 44k tuition, you'll still be spending 25-30k/yr (living like a student) which will mostly have to come out of loans By Early Admission, you mean Early Decision, right? http://www.law.gwu.edu/Admissions/ap...ges/early.aspx (early admission often refers to programs that will accept you way earlier in the process, during your junior year in college, etc) It really depends on your stats--have you taken the LSAT? Even a practice test? If you're a borderline T20 candidate, then you haven't much to lose. If you want to go into IP, and you have a science/engineering background (you do have a science/engineering background, right?), firms tend to dig a little bit deeper. But generally, I've found that law schools are usually more than willing to toss out money like candy even if you're a "competitive" candidate. At my school, I think over 60% of students receive some kind of MERIT aid--I must be the only fool paying full tuition--and I ended up receiving a full scholarship plus stipend from the next-next highest ranked school that I got into. And schools are more than willing to haggle with you, too. My only problem was that there was too big a gap between the schools that gave me money and the ones that I ended up attending--but otherwise, making schools match/exceed others' offers is pretty standard.

 

[Joffrey]

I'd say yeah it's worth it. Of course, it depends on what your other options are but to graduate a good law school with $30,000 in debt versus $150k would be awesome and would give you a ton more flexibility with pursuing your career.

 

[Connemara]

I'd do it if I were you. Law school is just outrageously expensive otherwise.

 

[vidhartha]

Do it, but only if you are sure you want to go to GWU, and have the numbers. From what I recall, when I was applying to law schools I had the impression GWU ED was for students who had t-10 or t-6 numbers. Is GWU worth turning down possible Columbia/Chicago/NYU? I'd say no way, even with the debt. Job opportunities there are above and beyond GWU. I know several people at my law school that came in focused on IP and changed their mind. GWU might be great for IP, but if you can get the job from GWU, you can from any t-10 school if you have the IP background.

 

[NoVaguy]

hmmm, tricky.

Either get your LSAT score or take a practice LSAT under as close to real conditions as possible and try to figure out your odds of getting into the T-14.

Full-time, I am not sure daytime GW is worth passing up the T-14. I would say it is much more desirable to be part-time night law at GW and combine it with really relevant work experience in the DC region, and doing that can be worth passing up the T-14 (but keep in mind that Georgetown also has a night program).

 

[NoVaguy]

Originally Posted by Connemara

I'd do it if I were you. Law school is just outrageously expensive otherwise.

If the OP is T-14, I am not sure about that. Passing up any of the top-6 is foolhardy. It's only if the OP really doesn't feel like T-14 material - for example, low to mid 160s lsat.

Or if the OP is absolutely committed to one of the areas GW is big on - such as IP. Even then, top 6 is still better.

 

[Ambulance Chaser]

I passed up a full-tuition scholarship to Northwestern (and less free money to Michigan and Virginia) to go to Chicago. I don't regret my decision. Of course, I went to law school when it cost half as much as it does today and the legal job market was twice as good. YMMV.