I was granted a scholarship from upenn covering half the tuition fees... however, the university has set 2 conditions for it..that I accept it by march 13 and that I withdraw my other LLM applications...I'm faced with a dilemma.. on one hand, i'm still not sure that I will be able to secure finances for the remaining tuition fees and on the other hand It is hard for me to give up on better raking universities...can anyone please advise?...I mean if I accept the scholarship and then decline it...will I be black listed in the US?

If you accept the scholarship, you can't after decline that law school offer. In theory, they could sue you in that case, but for sure you will be blacklisted in the US and they could arose that circumstance if you want in the future to take the bar.

There are many other threads that state further consequences of accept a scholarship.

As I said at a previous thread, your two reasons for withdrawal are very different. If you accept the scholarship you just need to follow all the instructions including withdrawing from all other LLM programs. If you accept however and cannot get the financing to attend, I do not believe you will suffer any real adverse consequences. You can even talk to the school about that contingency.

I got my admission to the LLM program last Wednesday and received a 20,000 tuition waiver!.

A friend of mine had a similar problem last year. He sent e-mails to the Universities that had not send the admission letters and explained the situation. Those universities told him what his admission status was by a confidential e-mail.

scholarship should be seen as a privilege, no as an unfair burden...20,000 scholarship from UPenn means that you're an excellent LL.M applicant, and as employer I'd rather choose someone from UPenn with scholarship than another just accepted to CLS or even Harvard...of course this is me and my own opinion...best of luck and congrats, whatever you decide for

Honestly, I would get the scholarship and withdraw the other applications (I will do it if any top school offer me a scholarship). UPenn is such a great school, Ivy League, well ranked, with Wharton, nice place... Also, as I said in other posts, being awarded a scholarship is something to be highlighted in your curriculum.

C'mon, you've done such a great job! They not only accepted you, but also granted a half tuition scholarship! That's heaven on Earth for the majority of the applicants (including me)...

I agree and disagree with the above. If financial considerations are your main consideration, I agree: do anything you need (including withdrawing from other institutions that would have otherwise been your first choice) to make sure you lock in the funding.

If financial considerations are not your main consideration, then you might want to give it a second thought. Do you really want to give up the school of your dreams for a partial fee waiver / scholarship? I disagree with many of the above posts on the "bumping" effect that a scholarship has on the CV. I may be seeing this purely from the lenses of a person who espouses a certain point of view but from the little I've seen, employers almost always never care whether you get a scholarship or not - it's a plus point of course if you do, but it never, to my knowledge, has the effect that a great institution has on your resume. I know this is a highly contentious point and I readily concede that there are differing views on this, but to me, there is a reason why all the more prestigious schools (HLS, YLS, SLS, CLS in any order you see them) give out no scholarships whatsoever (tuition waivers are not counted since they are needs-based not merit based) and most other schools do.

Of course, to reiterate, if money were the overriding concern and if the aim of the LLM is to merely intellectual enrichment or experience life in the US, then I would say take any scholarship you get. If the aim is to enhance future prospects though, I would hesitate to readily take such a course of action.

to be honest, I have talked to many senior partners in different prestigious law firms, they told me prestige is the most important thing during school selection. They will not go into details during interview what does this or that scholarship account for? But if Harvard give u nothing, you get full tuition waiver from michigan, and money is your biggest concern, you definitely should go for michigan.

by the way, schools such as harvard and yale are all need-based scholarship schemes, they can offer you how much you needed. Most law-teaching people and recent graduates got full tuition waiver from harvard law school LLM programs, if they claim their parents are not rich....

If youre thinking in working within USA or in a big law firm abroad, I would recommend you to accept the offer from the school that give you the scholarship, since partners of big law firms know that is more difficult to get an scholarship from a top law school (i.e. Columbia, Penn, NYU, etc.) than a simple acceptance from one of the big three (Yale, SLS, HLS). The same if you have a scholarship offer from a good law school (i.e. Michigan, Duke, GULC) and a simple offer from a top law school (CLS, Berkeley etc.)

In fact, especially in US, you will have meetings with important people as a student with a scholarship (for example, Hauser and others NYU scholars have meetings with alumni, diplomats, ambassadors, important attorneys etc.). Maybe if youre thinking in working for people that dont know about LLM degrees (i.e. governmental institutions, in-house attorney of a given company etc.), maybe it will work better for you to accept the offer of SLS, YLS and HLS, but only if you have enough money to pay everything without loans; in other case, go to the law school that give you the scholarship.

In any case, congratulations for the scholarship!

"consequences for accepting a scholarship": very good education at low price!!
I would go for it without thinking and torturing myself so much!

i think the best answer is "it depends",different people have different concerns....I know lots of lawyers in paul hastings in my country gave up Hauser Scholarship of NYU and go to Harvard..

from a long term perspective, 20K-40K USD is not big thing, if you engage in private practice

I second Cravath66's view completely. No law firm partner in the US (to be fair, I can't say the same for other countries, having no real understanding of their legal systems) cares as much about scholarships as they do law schools. Of course, I can imagine the tension if it is between your first-choice school and second-choice school and the latter gives you $20k more than the former (since if you like both schools and if they are almost equally good, how do you choose?), but I find it hard to believe that any law firm in the US would care too much about the receipt of a scholarship when juxtaposed against the reputation of the law school. I can also imagine that your country might have a different take on it, and that's perfectly fair. The same does not apply in the US though.

Is it fair? Of course not. Does it make sense? Not really. But does it happen? Yes, without a doubt.

Dear Cleo,

I m french and I have been accepted to Upenn too ..And I d like to know if you accepted or not the fee waiver !! . I was expecting it but I think it won't work for me ; I m trying to find the money and it's really hard... Did you apply to fullbright as well ?

interesting post
I face the same problem and been asking a lot of people
BU+15K scholarship or KCL

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Hi guys,

I just saw the above threads, I was wondering to know what is the black list?Because it's the first time I've heard about it..
are they ( ll.m. commitee or assisten of director) have it?
What you have to do to be put on the black list, and if so how long you are in?
In other words when they could put you in this one?
I'm very interested because I didn't have any ideas regard it.
Thank you in advance for your answers

I have exactly the same question: Are the law schools allowed to distribute information on individuals and put people on a black list. I have my doubts...

Regarding "Blacklists" there is a thread on http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,4011394.0.html about multiple seat deposits:

"This was sent to me from UPenn.

Please read the following *important* information from the LSAC (www.lsac.org) about the possible risks of holding a seat deposit at more than one law school beginning next week. As you will see, if you are currently deposited at multiple law schools, we strongly recommend that you withdraw your deposit(s) from all but the one law school you will/will most likely attend before their June 15 notification deadline.

Multiple Deposit Notification

Each year, law schools that participate in LSACs commitment overlap reporting service provide LSAC with information about applicants who have been accepted and have paid a deposit or provided a verbal or written agreement to attend their schools. Each spring, participating law schools receive periodic reports detailing the number of their committed applicants who have submitted seat deposits or commitments at other participating schools, as well as the identification of those other schools.

Starting on June 15, 2008, those reports will also include the names and LSAC account numbers for all candidates who have deposits/commitments at multiple participating schools."