Dear friends,

Most of us successfully applied for an interesting LL.M. program at well respected US universities, beautiful campuses or sunny beaches.

We all know such a LL.M is a very expensive study (tuition fee, living costs, traveling, no income), however many (?) of us got a scholarship (need based, merit based, etc.).

Many of you may have the same question as me: Do universities give a lot of scholarships? Or is it for a happy few? Are some law schools more generous than others? Is it difficult to get one, if you don't qualify for a need based one? Is it a big honor, or is it just to convince half of the first choice students to go to their law school? And what is a common scholarship: 5k, 10k, 20k, 'free ride'?

What are your experiences, or those of your LL.M friends?

You can try also Fullbright, Ford, Rockfeller and other sponsor organizations.

I might be mistaken but I understand for the top tier schools, only NYU (around 40 slots) and Yale (around 35 slots) offers a purely merit based scholarship.

Actually: no, there are other schools, too. I'm sure that there are even a lot; I know from my and other's experience that
Boston University offers some interesting LLM-Scholarships, as well as Chicago Kent and Cardozo (all merit-based).

But maybe this doesn't help you as these are top tier, but no TOP 10 schools... :-)

Do LL.M students often get a scholarship other than need based?

..I actually obtained a Fulbright Grant (which won't cover for all the costs) and a 5k tuition award from CLS...
I don't know how many tuition awards does CLS offer, or the specific reason why it was granted... but, as long as I already had one Scholarship, I guess it was more merit-based...

Anyone else with some information?

Do LL.M students often get a scholarship other than need based?

If you look through the threads on schools, you will notice that a merit award from aTop 5 is not all that uncommon. Anywhere from $5000 to full waivers are given. I received substantial grants, including one from Columbia, from all but a few schools I applied to. They seem to go to students who may be 'poached' from elsewhere, specifically those who likely to be (or have been) accepted by, and are considering another 'competitor'. Read the threads and you may glean insight.

Hey,
I am a Fulbright Scholar and was also offered (and accepted!) a waiver at CLS consisting of one-half of my academic tuition, based on, and I quote, the fact that they were "very impressed with my academic and professional credentials".
Hope that helps, I'm still trying to find more scholarships, since I'm still about 10K short of covering my estimated tuition and expenses.

congratulations LConesa! would you care to share with us your credentials, just so we can have an idea of what kind of standards we need to achieve ourselves in order to be a strong candidate in LLM programs? thanks!

Hey,
I am a Fulbright Scholar and was also offered (and accepted!) a waiver at CLS consisting of one-half of my academic tuition, based on, and I quote, the fact that they were "very impressed with my academic and professional credentials".
Hope that helps, I'm still trying to find more scholarships, since I'm still about 10K short of covering my estimated tuition and expenses.

Most of the schools offer only merit based scholarships for their LL.M candidates and it truely depends on how much they want you to come in.
From my experience..if they feel that you are not desparate and not over the moon to get THEIR admission letter, but have such credentials that guarantee you other viable alternatives in your professional or academic life, you have a strong chance to be awarded a merit based fellowship. For sure, a lot depends on their budget for the particular year and allocation of resources, your nationality and your profile (as it could be a special criteria that are nort revealed by the school but specified by the particular financial donor).
Just try over and good luck with it!

I might be mistaken but I understand for the top tier schools, only NYU (around 40 slots) and Yale (around 35 slots) offers a purely merit based scholarship.

Many schools a little lower down on the top 100 list, but with plenty of money, grant tuition waivers to get diversity. At my school I know several got at least half tuition waiver. Although, it seems easier to get a tuition waiver if you are from a country with fewer applicants. Like say my country, Norway.

Hi hannenyh,

do you know what is the procedure for that ? Can you get a grant tuition waiver after you said "yes" to the school?

That probably wont happen. They pretty much use it as a carrot to get you to say yes to their school.

Top schools (including Harvard and NYU) may not grant scholarships based on diversity alone, but they sure do admit students based on diversity criterias.

Right, so this would apply to schools a little lower ranked. Like i.e. below 20 or something. Just guessing. My school is ranked 36, and I know they do it. Granted I never really got an explanation for why I got a scholarship, but I am pretty sure it was for diversity purposes, as they have mostly Asian applicants.

Hi,

Iam an Indian applicant. I submitted my application to NYU late March with permission for LLM in corporation law. I ve been put in wait list now. I wish to know whether there will be good chances for me to avail scholarship.
Additionally, I would like to know whether being in wait list is a barricade to get my admission in corporation law and scholarship.
Any details regarding scholarship is solicited.

Regards...