How to Get Fee Waivers for Law School Applications
How do you apply to law school for free? Applying to law school can be very expensive, and you might not realize that there are ways to get your law school application fees waived.
When you apply to law school, there are two sets of fees.
There is your Credential Assembly Service (CAS) report fee, which is the fee the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) charges to send your letters of recommendation, your transcripts, and all that good stuff to every law school you apply to. Unless you have an LSAC fee waiver, that is.
There are different tiers to the LSAC fee waiver depending on your economic needs. There is one tier that gives you three CAS reports waived and one that gives you six. They also cover one or two LSAT exams.
The second fee is the one that the schools charge to process and read your applications. Fees to apply to law school can cost anywhere from $50 to $100. This is the fee that I mainly want to discuss with you today.
In this blog post, I’ll share the six ways that you can get your law school application fee waived and how fee waivers can be used.
Getting an LSAC Fee Waiver
The first way to get your law school application fees waived is by getting an LSAC fee waiver. You apply for an LSAC fee waiver through your LSAC account.
You will need to upload copies of all documentation supporting your fee waiver application, and they must be uploaded no later than 45 days after submitting your application online. Documentation that’s required does vary based on your citizenship status, so be sure to pay attention to what exactly they instruct you to upload.
It’s really important to note that they will not retroactively apply it, so this should be your first step in the application process. For example, if you already paid to take an LSAT and then apply, they will not refund you for that LSAT.
You will be informed if you were approved or denied for the fee waiver. If you do get denied, I highly suggest that you take that next step to appeal. They give you the opportunity to give them more information on why the fee waiver is essential to you, and that may make them overturn their decision.
How does this cover your law school application fees? Most schools will automatically waive their own application fee if you have an LSAC fee waiver. If it’s not immediately obvious how to request this application fee waiver, reach out to an admissions officer and ask them how your LSAC fee waiver can be applied to their application fee.
Attending LSAC Forums
Another way to get a fee waiver is by attending the LSAC forums. Many schools will have fee waivers available at their booth or table.
If you’re not sure what an LSAC forum is, it is kind of like a college fair. There are some digital and in-person forums where you can learn about and engage with law schools. You can learn more about when they are and how to attend here. And yes, they’re free.
It’s not a guarantee, but a lot of times if you visit a school at one of the forums, you will be able to talk to an admissions officer or a dean and they may give you that fee waiver.
Attending Admissions Events
One of the ways to get an application fee waived without going through LSAC is to go to admissions events that the schools host.
Law schools often host their own admissions info sessions and open houses, whether that’s in person or virtual. If you go to that school’s website, usually on their admissions page they have an option for visits or events.
Sometimes at these events, they do provide students a code or fee waiver that you would put in when you’re checking out and submitting your application. It’s not a guarantee, but sometimes it does happen!
Regardless, there are lots of other reasons why you should be going to these events. You want to get to know admissions and establish those relationships. So, if you’re going anyway, it’s an added bonus that you may get that fee waiver.
Taking the LSAT
You’re already going to take the LSAT, which makes this one of the “easier” methods.
Sometimes if your LSAT score is high enough, you’ll start to get emails and mail asking you to apply to certain schools. They’ll let you know that they’ve waived your fee just because they want you to apply.
There’s nothing else for you to do, they’ll come right to you!
Application for Fee Waivers
Some law schools have additional applications for you to get a fee waiver. This looks different for each school if they have it.
If you look at Yale Law School, for example, they have a J.D. application fee waiver request form. I actually remember submitting one of these myself.
Yale specifically does accept LSAC fee waivers, but if you didn’t qualify for whatever reason, you can still apply. Applying for a fee waiver will not delay or affect the consideration of your application in any way.
Just Ask
Sometimes simple communication is the best way to go about it. Back when I applied to law school, I emailed several schools to ask for law school application fee waivers.
This is what it looked like:
Dear University of Virginia School of Law,
My name is Sydney Montgomery, and I am a senior at Princeton University.
After careful research and review, I believe that applying to UVA School of Law is the right decision for me, and I hope to be able to apply in the next coming weeks. Unfortunately, however, due to family circumstances, my parents are unable to help me pay for law school application fees. As a military dependent and a full time student, I am trying to pay for the law school application fees on my own, and I am finding this financial burden to be more than I can manage.
I am asking for some consideration regarding an application fee waiver. Any help that would be available from your school would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you regarding your decision.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Sydney Montgomery
Princeton University, Department of English
Basically, the very next day, they told me they were happy to waive the fee and gave me a code to use when I applied.
How lovely, how generous, how easy was that? Ask not, receive not; closed mouths do not get fed. That is what I learned during my law school application process. I know that it can be really hard to make yourself vulnerable and to admit when you need help, but sometimes you have to admit when you need help.
Other Ways to Use Fee Waivers
As I said before, applying for an LSAC fee waiver should be the first thing you do. That is because there are so many opportunities available to you as an LSAC fee waiver holder.
For example, we are a non-profit organization, so we have sliding scale pricing for students working with us. If you have an LSAC fee waiver, you get 70-80% off of our services.
Lots of LSAT test prep companies and tutors follow a similar model and give their services away at no cost or highly discounted if you have an LSAC fee waiver.
So, I cannot stress this enough, if finances are a struggle for you, please make this your very first step!
Final Thoughts
There are several ways that you can get your law school application fees waived. The methods we discussed include:
Getting an LSAC fee waiver
Attending LSAC forums
Attending admissions events
Scoring well on the LSAT
Applying for a fee waiver through the school
Reaching out to admissions to ask
And remember, we’re here to help you throughout the process! LSAC fee waiver holders get up to 75% off our services; if you don’t have an LSAC fee waiver, tell us a little about your financial situation and we’ll make adjustments accordingly. All you have to do is submit an application to get started!
The team at Barrier Breakers® Admissions Advising is here to support you through this law school application cycle! Whether it's through discounted advising for BIPOC, first-generation, and LSAC Fee Waiver applicants, our essay review services and courses, or just downloading our free Essential Guide to Applying to Law School, we're here to help make this process easier.
As always, feel free to reach out to us at hello@barrier-breakers.org with any of your questions! You can also submit a question to be answered on our weekly Break Into Law School® Podcast, streaming wherever your favorite podcast service is.