Evaluating whether to apply early decision to law schools is complicated. Advantages include giving your application a competitive edge and learning the admissions decision sooner.
Some of the drawbacks are an early application deadline, a required commitment to attend if accepted and potentially decreased ability to negotiate financial aid.
[Unravel the pros and cons of applying early decision to law school.]
Weighing the pros and cons of applying early decision can be difficult, particularly if you are concerned about how you’ll pay for law school. An early or expedited decision is binding, which means you need to commit to the school before you find out whether you will receive any merit-based funding.
Many law schools even include a disclaimer on their website discouraging potential early decision applicants from committing if funding is paramount. If that’s true for you, consider applying with the regular applicant pool instead.
[Discover what law schools don’t tell parents about financial aid.]
Early decision applicants are still eligible for scholarships, but the binding nature of the admissions agreement makes financial negotiation difficult. To address this disadvantage, several law school programs have incorporated merit-based funding awards as part of the early decision process to entice top applicants to commit to their schools.
For example, Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law award ed accepted early decision applicants a $150,000 merit scholarship divided over three years. At the University of Texas–Austin, nonresident early decision applicants receive resident tuition rates, plus an annual $1,000 stipend over three years, while residents receive an annual $10,000 stipend over three years.
The School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis gives early decision applicants a full tuition scholarship. The School of Law at Boston University offers two early decision options: Applicants accepted via the Distinguished Scholars Binding Early Decision program receive full tuition, while applicants accepted via the “BU-Bound” Binding Decision Program do not receive merit scholarships but are eligible for need-based scholarship aid.
[Learn how to decode priority track and early decision in law school applications.]
Here are three factors to help you assess schools with combined early decision and funding options.
1. Keep competition in mind: Competition is higher when money is at stake. A commitment to attend in these situations may not give you a significant competitive edge.
For example, the Boston University Distinguished Scholar Binding Early Decision Program is much harder to get into than the “BU-Bound” Binding Decision Program.
2. Assess the strength of your application: If you have a competitive application, you may receive funding regardless of whether you apply early decision.
For example, the University of Texas–Austin was the top choice for one of the applicants I counseled. After evaluating his application, I advised against applying early decision because I was confident he would receive several appealing aid offers.
The applicant was accepted to the University of Texas–Austin and received more funding than he would have received had he applied early decision. Not only that, he was able to leverage scholarship awards from other programs to negotiate an even greater increase in funding.
3. Don’t get discouraged: If you are deferred from early decision, don’t be discouraged. Even if you are not accepted early decision, law school a dmissions committees will often place promising applications back into the regular applicant pool. When that happens, you are no longer bound to enroll if accepted.
Need help deciding whether to commit to law school? You can email me at lawadmissionslowdown@usnews.com.
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