<p>I want to go to law school after undergraduate school, and I’m trying to put myself in the best position to do that. I think going to Northwestern would be a good start! However, money is a bit of an issue. Here are my stats:</p>
<p>Subject tests:
Math II: 750
World History: 760
US History: 790
Chemistry: 800</p>
<p>GPA:
4.0 UW</p>
<p>AP Classes:
Four so far: World History, US History, English Language, Chemistry (all 5’s on the exams)
Taking 6 AP’s senior year</p>
<p>Mediocre extracurricular activities…some pretty neat research internships for the past 2 summers, coaching soccer for the past 4 summers, varsity soccer for 4 years in high school, and volunteering at hospital for the past two summers</p>
<p>I plan on majoring in economics, if that information helps.</p>
<p>Thanks, and any additional info helps a lot!</p>
<p>Zephyr: I don’t know much about Northwestern, other than the stats needed to get in to the school. So, I don’t really have any idea what my chances are :)</p>
<p>As for your chance for acceptance, any opinion other than that of Northwestern admissions is irrelevant. But regarding the scholarship, I believe Northwestern does not give out any merit money so the price of your education would depend on your EFC and financial aid, not on SAT score.</p>
<p>john1222, you have a good chance at all of the schools for which you have posted chances posts, but they are all highly selective schools so no one can say with certainty whether or not you will actually get in. It seems as though you are looking for merit $$ though, and I don’t think many of the schools you are putting up chances posts for provide merit $$. Vanderbilt does give out some merit $$, I think, maybe UChicago too, but I don’t know the details of these programs. You should be focussed on finding schools where your stats will get you the merit $$ you require. There are lots of threads here on CC which focus on merit $$ - you should do some research there.</p>
<p>jrpar: Thanks for the response. I’m not exclusively looking for merit money, though. If I can get into a top-10 school, I’d go there for sure. I’m talking about perhaps getting some sort of scholarship for a top-30 school.</p>
<p>Ok. Then you need to come up with a list of schools comprised of schools that don’t offer merit $$ but you would still be willing to attend + a list of schools that offer merit $$ for students with your stats. Northwestern isn’t a merit $$ play (if you are a National Merit scholar I think you can get $2500 a year for that), nor are a lot of the other schools on your list. There are some great schools in the T30 range that would offer you merit $$. Time to do some research here on CC to fill out your list with some good merit $$ schools.</p>
<p>First on money – as others have posted, in general, NU does not give significant Merit Money. There are top 30 schools that do have merit aid – Vandy and Wash U come to mind. However, those scholarships are highly competitive Basically, no one is a lock.</p>
<p>However, virtually all schools offer scholarships based on need. I would recommend that you find one of the various financial aid calculators and see what your family would be expected to pay.</p>
<p>If you’re willing to drop down a bit – say top 50 or so, you will find significant merit money that you should easily be able to qualify for with your stats.</p>
<p>On the merits – Your academics qualify you for any school in the US. Your ECs look a bit better than mediocre. Based on what you’re showing – top 10 or top 15 schools are well within your reach.</p>
<p>If you want BIG merit money from a “Top 30” School (and not sure if you mean USNWR Top National school or if you are throwing in LACs in your personal Top 30 list), but…
IF you took the PSAT and qualify for the National Merit, you would be up for a Presidential Scholarship (1/2 tuition for four years) at USC (now ranked on USNWR 23). </p>
<p>If you want to get into law school, your GPA will be important and you have to ask yourself, do you really want to go to a Top 10 school and possibly have a lower GPA or go to USC and maybe get a solid 4.0. You have to be careful about the schools that grade deflate if you are looking ahead to the grad schools. </p>
<p>If you really want that Top ten status and are willing to pay for the school and willing to work hard to get a high GPA, then go for it. </p>
<p>And honestly, you have a good shot at NU if that is your number one school. And if it is, then you should apply EARLY because the admissions were quoted last spring that they like offering admission to a large group of Early applicants because they know that NU was their number one choice. </p>
<p>But I would definitely consider USC. Even if you don’t get the NMS award, they have a lot of merit based scholarships and you may actually be up for an even bigger, Trustee scholarship, which is FULL tuition for four years. </p>
<p>I didn’t look at your list, but other schools that give out merit awards: Notre Dame, Emory, Boston College (ranked 30, I think) … but ALL of the schools I mentioned have early application cut off dates to be qualified for merit scholarships in either November or December. </p>
<p>The nice thing about the ED is that the rules do not apply to schools that have early deadlines for their merit scholarships.</p>
<p>I feel like I should say something before OP sets his expectations too high…</p>
<p>I’ve noticed that the OP has posted similar threads in many top schools’ forums. But: for top 10 schools, he simply asks “Chance at [top 10 school] with 2300 SAT?” while in the forums of the next ten schools he asks “Chance at getting scholarship at [#11-20 school] with 2300 SAT?” Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it seems like he thinks the schools outside of the top 10 are “beneath” him, and that he’d require financial incentives to even consider attending one of these schools.</p>
<p>OP, you have an inaccurate view of college admissions. There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of students who have achieved similar SAT scores as you. By thinking this way, you’re only setting yourself up for disappointment. You should take a step back and re-evaluate your approach.</p>
<p>Fickle–Actually, my approach is quite the contrary. I’d be perfectly happy to attend my state school in order to save money for graduate school. I just want to keep my options open, like I think everyone should do. So, if there’s a chance–albeit a small one–that I’ll get a scholarship to a good school, why not try for it? What’s the harm in that?</p>
<p>john1222, one thing to consider is that there is a lot of merit $$ available from law schools for applicants with high LSAT scores. Someone who scores 2300 on the SAT is likely to do well on the LSAT with appropriate prep. If you remain committed to law school (and your plans may very well change over the next 5 years or so!), you may find that you can finance a good portion of law school tuition with merit $$. The top law schools website/forum is a good resource for law school admissions.</p>