Law Schools’ Merit Scholarships May Help Schools More Than Students

A growing number of law students are receiving merit scholarships that cover the first year of tuition but often disappear when students don’t meet the grade requirements to maintain them, The New York Times reports.

As a result, some students are complaining that they were never told how difficult it would be, given their schools’ grading curves, to keep the scholarship dollars flowing. Some legal experts say law schools use such scholarships to lure strong students and boost the schools’ rankings in U.S. News & World Report. Drucilla Stender Ramey, dean of Golden Gate University School of Law, says students can’t assume they’ll do well in law school just because they aced their college courses. They wouldn’t be so surprised “if they read our materials, if they listen to anything we told them in our admission process, or read our course catalog,” she told the Times.