Admissions Interactions: Scholarship Negotiation and Reconsideration
Admission Digest, 02.21.22
What's Going On in the Admissions Cycle Right Now?
Law schools will continue to push out admissions decisions and scholarship offers as quickly as they can. Admitted students should anticipate communications regarding scholarship decisions, reconsideration policies, and upcoming events. Waitlisted candidates should prepare any relevant updates for submission, as admissions offices may take looks at their lists as we near commitment deadlines this spring.
Some students are seeing that their status is “Hold.” This is a pre-decision status, which means that you are still being considered for admission; however, the admissions team needs more time to evaluate your candidacy. They may want to see more of the application pool and/or need a candidate with balancing credentials before they can offer a seat. There isn’t anything that you need to do if you are placed on a hold, though any positive updates to your application materials would be welcomed.
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Discussion
This week, our discussion continues on interactions with the law schools in terms of scholarship reconsideration and negotiation.
When it comes to asking for scholarship increases, pay close attention to the communications that you receive from admissions offices after they communicate their initial offer of acceptance. Sometimes, they lay out their scholarship policies and procedures in the same communication. Other times, they might have everything posted within their admitted student portal. Few provide all of their policy details on the public website.
It is important to pay close attention to each school’s policy. Even peer schools can have vastly different procedures or requirements, while some schools won’t consider increase requests or scholarship negotiation communications at all. Follow directions, and if a school will consider an increase or reconsideration request, or they’re open to negotiate, give them all of the information that they need to get to an affirmative decision.
What is the difference between scholarship negotiation and reconsideration? Over time, I’d say that the biggest difference is the perceived leverage that a candidate has to induce a school to award additional funding. Essentially, the processes for negotiation and reconsideration are similar; however, there’s a difference in the perception of power in negotiation versus being reconsidered.
After the 2008–2009 subprime crisis and a lot of bad press, many law schools struggled to meet their class goals in terms of size and credentials. Applicants were extremely risk adverse and afraid to take on the student loan debt needed to cover a legal education, so many went straight into the work force. This left law schools in a vulnerable position that opened the door to negotiating scholarships.
As time has passed and law school applications have gotten closer to stabilizing, many schools have gotten away from “negotiating” or “matching” scholarships. Instead, they’re “reconsidering” candidates for scholarship dollars based on a set of required criteria. They’re looking to provide potential increases without necessarily matching awards dollar for dollar.
At this point, scholarship negotiation policies and reconsideration policies mean the same thing—schools will consider a candidate’s request to either increase an initial scholarship award or make an award where none was originally given. This consideration is based on specific requirements and documentation, and each school handles this a bit differently.
Some schools will require candidates to complete a form and upload documentation, which typically includes copies of awards received from other institutions. Others might ask for a written statement to justify why they should receive additional funding, what makes their institution a great fit, or how they might contribute as a member of that law school’s community. Others want to know how you came to the figure that you’re asking for, and they’ll require you to do the math of calculating out the differences in cost of attendance as a part of the explanation of your request. Some may allow you to provide documentation for unusual circumstances that directly affect your and/or your family’s finances.
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
Timing of request: make sure that you’re not jumping the gun. If a school provides a specific window in which they allow these requests, make sure that you aren’t submitting your request outside of that time frame. Additionally, if you don’t have competitive offers from schools that the institution would consider peer schools, you might want to allow more time for a competitive offer to come in—an offer from a direct competitor is going to be much more effective than an offer from a school that may be significantly lower in the rankings, because there is a perceived value in attending that higher-ranked school.
One bite at the apple: many law schools only allow one request to increase scholarship, so if you pull the trigger too early and subsequently receive a much stronger offer later, there’s no going back to request an additional increase. Candidates often feel that they have to be the first to make their request when the negotiation/reconsideration period opens, but ensuring that you’ve got the strongest documentation to show AOs is important.
There’s no way to predict what awards may come, so the best thing to do is consider whether the award offer you’re using to negotiate is strong enough to justify your ask. Schools that aren’t focused on matching awards dollar for dollar are likely to make offers that they feel are competitive based on cost of attendance, rankings, programmatic offerings in the candidate’s area of interest, the candidate’s desired location of practice, and potential loan repayment assistance programs.
Post-commitment lists: after you’ve been considered for increase via the reconsideration or scholarship negotiation process, some AOs will keep lists of students still hoping for an additional bump—no matter the amount. If you’re open to receiving any additional funding, it doesn’t hurt to reach out to the AOs responsible for awarding scholarship dollars to ask if they’ll consider you for any funding that becomes available following the commitment deadlines.
Often, schools may have a bit of money to play with after the second deposit deadline, either due to candidate withdrawals or from smaller institutional funding sources that become available over the summer months. Requesting to be on the list of students still hoping for a little bump in scholarship funding (and being patient with the process) is another great way to be considered for increase after the negotiation and reconsideration processes have concluded.
We will cover commitment deadlines and extension requests in upcoming newsletters—how to ask for extensions, when they are most appropriate, what information schools will need. Next week, we’ll move to admitted student weekends and events. Stay tuned!
Upcoming Recruitment Events
Boston University Law is offering guided tours and some financial aid webinars during the month of February. For guided tours, proof of vaccination and mask wearing are required, and interested applicants may sign up via the tour calendar here. On Wednesday, February 23 at 5:30 p.m. ET, the financial team is offering a virtual webinar on Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Register here.
Duke Law is offering law student-guided tours on Mondays and Fridays at 2 p.m. ET. Tour size is limited, so registration is advised. Register here.
Notre Dame Law is offering in-person visits for prospective and waitlisted applicants on Mondays, which include a class observation, admissions information session, and student-led tour. Visits are limited to 10 people at a time. Register here.
UCLA Law is offering online information sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 12:15 p.m. PT. Register here.
WashU Law in St. Louis is offering meetings with admissions, virtual open houses, and live-streamed events. For more details and to sign up, click here.