Sooner or later I was going to have to figure out how to pay for law school. Up until now school was a remote possibility or the schools I was getting into were offering me gobs of money. I have a feeling this won't be the case at any school that I actually decide to attend. The mere cost of moving from AK is a staggering amount, 5k minimum and topping out at 10k if we ship the car and take all of our stuff. I'd almost rather pay less and spend that money on all new stuff once we're there. As a matter of fact I'd almost rather sell everything, fly down on miles, live with relatives and spend nothing to move. Not reasonable considering that I would never be able to pare down my clothes to two suitcases let alone get rid of my wedding album, nice dishes or my 800 thread-count sheets.
Does anybody know whether financial aid is negotiable? Has anybody had any luck convincing a school to offer you scholarships when none were previously offered, especially this late in the cycle? Fat chance. I know. Well then, here's another question, I know that for undergrad there are scholarships everywhere you turn, from writing a new commercial jingle to poetry contests to female engineering scholarships (my personal favorite); do these exist for law school? Or is it all just loans, debt or savings wipe out? I will definitely be trolling the archives of frugal law students: Frugal Law Student, Running With Scissors and Laws of Finance for advice. it's not that I totally can't afford school, but having a savings account and an emergency fund feels really good. Being able to make my Roth IRA grow is also nice. Wiping out 10k to move to school, followed by $26,320 for just tuition for a year is a hard pill to swallow especially when taken with the one-two punch of the loss of one income (mine) and the serious decrease of another (hubby's, Army doesn't pay as well). It all reminds me of a scene in the movie White Christmas. The characters scheme up a way to do something nice for the old man who taught them how to peel a potato in the Army, the forgotten general. When Danny Kaye asks Bing Crosby what it's all going to cost the reply is the now classic: "Somewhere between ouch and POING!" That's exactly how I feel right now.
Posts
peach and crème fraîche pie
1 hour ago
13 comments:
First of all, congratulations on your acceptance!!! That must have come as quite the pleasant surprise. Regarding financial aid, I was able to successfully leverage additional financial aid from Denver and Idaho, both of which didn't offer me any initially. If you'd like, I can forward to your e-mail what I wrote them. Basically it was like "i'd really like to go here but I'm poor and have better offers elsewhere, but if you can make attending your school financially feasible, I'd really appreciate it."
I was actually really surprised that ASU didn't offer me any financial aid aside from the stafford loans. It's worth a shot to ask them, especially since they offered you a spot over the phone. It's not like they can take your offer of admission away for asking for aid.
As for me, I'm sticking around the 'Banks for another year and applying again for 2008. Buncha factors played into it; didn't wanna leave my first professional job after just 5 months, wanted to save some more money, wanted to apply to schools I didn't apply to this cycle b/c I didn't think I had a shot at, etc. I figure my application package can't get *worse* after a year of full-time work, and I'm gonna use my employee tuition waiver to take some paralegal courses at TVC, so it should work out okay. What's this you were mentioning about a law school in Alaska? I've heard nothing of the sort, but am interested in learning more!
Keep us posted, and best of luck!
First of all, congratulations on your acceptance!!! That must have come as quite the pleasant surprise. Regarding financial aid, I was able to successfully leverage additional financial aid from Denver and Idaho, both of which didn't offer me any initially. If you'd like, I can forward to your e-mail what I wrote them. Basically it was like "i'd really like to go here but I'm poor and have better offers elsewhere, but if you can make attending your school financially feasible, I'd really appreciate it."
I was actually really surprised that ASU didn't offer me any financial aid aside from the stafford loans. It's worth a shot to ask them, especially since they offered you a spot over the phone. It's not like they can take your offer of admission away for asking for aid.
As for me, I'm sticking around the 'Banks for another year and applying again for 2008. Buncha factors played into it; didn't wanna leave my first professional job after just 5 months, wanted to save some more money, wanted to apply to schools I didn't apply to this cycle b/c I didn't think I had a shot at, etc. I figure my application package can't get *worse* after a year of full-time work, and I'm gonna use my employee tuition waiver to take some paralegal courses at TVC, so it should work out okay. What's this you were mentioning about a law school in Alaska? I've heard nothing of the sort, but am interested in learning more!
Keep us posted, and best of luck!
Another way to pull scholarship money out of schools is to provide them with copies of the offers made by other schools. For example, Northwestern offered to match the $$ amount of the scholarship offered to me by UT (even though NU didn't offer me money to begin with). I thought this was interesting because I had always assumed that the school you're asking for money from would have to be ranked lower than the school offering you money.
I should add that my negotiation with Northwestern took place in July during the last cycle. So, it's not too late to ask.
PS, above was me, dude from pistol class. I couldn't remember my password for the "arctic" username.
*shrug*
thanks for your comment Justin. Please send me that e-mail. I'm really wondering how to approach this, but I figure I should give asking a shot, it can't hurt.
Alaska is getting a law school "Alaska School of Law" opening Fall 2008. It will probably take a couple years for them to get their provisional ABA accredidation. http://www.alaskaschooloflaw.com/ It will be in Anchorage and my guess is it will be associated with UAA.
Paragon 2 Pieces, how did you do your negotiation? Phone or e-mail? I'm just trying to figure out my approach before I do anything.
Yes, but IP is such a great field. No doubt you'll do well financially when you get out because the demand is so great. Don't worry so much! ;)
Thanks for the thought PT-Law Mom, honestly I hadn't thought of it that way before. It kind of is an investment. I'll still try talking them into some money, especially as I have 49k and 45k scholarship offers elsewhere, but I won't stress as much.
It's definitely worth a try. Another thought - my school is highly ranked for IP and many of the students are patent agents. Their firms are paying 100% of their tuition! It's probably too late for you at this point, but I was really wowed by that. You pointed out our similarities in your comment on my blog. Only glaring difference is that I am a complete moron when it comes to science/math. My father's a chemical engineer but somehow those genes didn't transfer. LOL!
I asked one school for financial aid and did not receive any, but the school that I'm attending upped my financial aid offer without my even asking. More money had become available. I would imagine that as they find out people aren't coming, they'll have more funds. I would ask.
I haven't started yet, but I have heard that there are writing competitions and other smaller scholarships available after you begin. Might be worth looking into.
Good luck!
Quirky, thanks for your advice. I'll definitely have to check into those competitions and opportunities. It's nice to know that this might not be the financial package that I'm locked into for 3 years.
I'm sure the time has passed (I am still catching up with the blogs I missed on vacation!!) but I hope you asked at least :). UCLA didn't offer me anything until I informed them that USC was giving me 75% of tuition for three years (apparently the same award from Duke wasn't enough to convince them). And I've looked for outside scholarships, but there are not many--most are the kinds that are open to just about everyone and I'm sure the same five people win all of them. There are some that become available in the second and third years that I'm hoping to apply for... check your school's financial aid office to find them.
Post a Comment