Hi guys!

I have sent my LLM application to some law schools in the US, and later I started wondering whether I answered correctly to the Financial Information question that some law school have.

I answered that I didn't have sufficient funds to cover the cost of attendance to the LLM, because I wanted to be considered to eventual financial aid or tuition partial waiver. Do you think that this answer could harm my admission chances? Actually, UCLA is the only Law School that specifically states that this question is for International purposes only, and that it's not evaluated as part of the application, but I don't know about the others.

Has anyone replied with unsufficient funds and still get admitted?

Thanks a lot for your answers.

Regards!

Hello!

In many law schools the scholarship committee is a different one than the admission committee and therefore they will start to review your scholarship request only after admitted you (e.g. Duke, Cornell, etc.). That's why scholarship offers can be released few weeks after your admittance.

With the benefit of hindsight, I am not sure that the argument about the lack of sufficient funds is a good leverage because the majority of the LLM (and JD) students do a bank loan (or a federal loan if you are an US citizen) in order to afford the legal studies costs in USA. And so, the law school will probably expect that you will do the same. That's why I don't think it help you neither deserve you at the admission level. => In my case I always said that I had the funds (because it was the truth) and I get scholarships.
In any case you have nothing to loose to do a scholarship request. In addition, the committees are aware that the US tuition costs are highly expensive and so they understand that applicants have to take into consideration scholarship offers received from other law schools.

To my analysis, the scholarship committee is more sensitive about the applicant's curriculum (e.g. if the applicant is well above the group = better GPA, significant work experience), applicant's practice area (e.g. human rights, etc.) or the applicant's origin (e.g. if the applicants are the only one of their country/region/continent, etc.).

Moreover, I believe that as applicant your best scholarship leverage will be the scholarships offers received from other law schools. So, when you receive a scholarship offer, do not hesitate to contact other law schools in order to challenge them (By asking them to reconsider the award of a scholarship, increase your scholarship or ask update about your admission). In that context I would recommend you to also apply in some T25 law schools in order to get a an important scholarship offer to use as leverage (e.g. USC Gould is usually quite generous, Boston University, etc.).

Good luck!

[Edited by # on Nov 21, 2019]

Hello!

In many law schools the scholarship committee is a different one than the admission committee and therefore they will start to review your scholarship request only after admitted you (e.g. Duke, Cornell, etc.). That's why scholarship offers can be released few weeks after your admittance.

With the benefit of hindsight, I am not sure that the argument about the lack of sufficient funds is a good leverage because the majority of the LLM (and JD) students do a bank loan (or a federal loan if you are an US citizen) in order to afford the legal studies costs in USA. And so, the law school will probably expect that you will do the same. That's why I don't think it help you neither deserve you at the admission level. => In my case I always said that I had the funds (because it was the truth) and I get scholarships.
In any case you have nothing to loose to do a scholarship request. In addition, the committees are aware that the US tuition costs are highly expensive and so they understand that applicants have to take into consideration scholarship offers received from other law schools.

To my analysis, the scholarship committee is more sensitive about the applicant's curriculum (e.g. if the applicant is well above the group = better GPA, significant work experience), applicant's practice area (e.g. human rights, etc.) or the applicant's origin (e.g. if the applicants are the only one of their country/region/continent, etc.).

Moreover, I believe that as applicant your best scholarship leverage will be the scholarships offers received from other law schools. So, when you receive a scholarship offer, do not hesitate to contact other law schools in order to challenge them (By asking them to reconsider the award of a scholarship, increase your scholarship or ask update about your admission). In that context I would recommend you to also apply in some T25 law schools in order to get a an important scholarship to use as leverage (e.g. USC Gould is usually quite generous, Boston University, etc.).

Good luck!

In the US system the most important is to tell the truth. So, if you need to do a loan in order to finance your studies, in that case "you don't have sufficient funds to cover the cost of attendance to the LLM".

[Edited by # on Nov 21, 2019]