Scholarships and funding an $$$ LLM
Thereās no doubt about it - pursuing an LLM is expensive.Ā
The good news is that there is a lot of financial aid and scholarships out there if you know where to look!
I have tried to categorize the types of scholarships and financial assistance available below, noting that some of these donāt fit neatly into one category!
Ā These might be offered by:Ā
the law school you are applying to as a fee waiver, or fee waiver and stipend - the most generous of these include the Hauser Global Scholarship and Vanderbilt Scholarships at NYU. Usually no separate application is needed for these (you will be automatically considered upon applying for admission), but the Hauser does have a separate mini-essay component.
an association or committee associated with the law school, such as the Knox Scholarship at Harvard for Commonwealth countries, or others associated with your home country.
an external association or body (national or international), such as Rotary, Fulbright, or scholarships offered by your government or other institutions your home country. In Australia, these include the Menzies Scholarship, the John Monash Scholarship and the Lionel Murphy Scholarship). These can be very big ticket items, and are very prestigious - and hard to secure (no luck for me :( ). But well worth applying for!Ā
Many law schools also offer specific merit scholarships for certain interest areas or nationalities, and you might be lucky enough to fit into the (sometimes very narrow) category - so keep an eye out! A couple of random examples are:
UPenn: KĆ¼bler Scholarship ($40-50,000 USD) - for students who have received, or will be receiving, their first stateās examination grade following their studies in law at Goethe-UniversitƤt Frankfurt am Main.
The Imasogie and Duke Scholarships at UPenn also provide financial support to students at the Law School who grew up in Africa or who is a citizen of an African country.
NYU: Grunin Center Impact Scholarship ($10,000 USD) (upon invitation after being accepted to the LLM program): for an incoming LLM with a demonstrated interest and/or achievement in creating innovative solutions in emerging markets, with a focus on the field of natural resources.
Columbia:Ā the Jagdish Bhagwati Fellowship (partial to full funding for up to three fellows per academic year) is underwritten by the Indian government, and is for LLMs specializing in international trade, trade law, public interest, and human rights.
Columbia also offers the CPRL Lemann Scholar Award (up to $30,000). For students who wish to make a legally enforceable commitment to work in Brazil for three of their first five years after graduation in a full-time government or nonprofit job connected to the P-12 education sector.
Note: the UCLA website contains a useful list of some external organizations offering financial aid/scholarships to international students, which I highly recommend. This contains country-specific scholarships as well š
2. Need-based scholarships
Certain law schools, such as Columbia and Harvard, offer need-based scholarships on the basis of demonstrated financial need rather than merit scholarships.Ā
There are plenty of other types of scholarships and financial aid if you get creative! For example, people in Australia enter into legal essay competitions hosted by the various law societies and associations with prize money in the thousands - such as those offered by the Law Council of Australia (the Gaire Blunt Scholarship, the Forsyth Scholarship and the Santow Scholarship).
My advice is to look far and wide for scholarships. Some of the other options may be funds offered by your old university/law school (and perhaps even high school) for alumni pursuing postgraduate study and research overseas.
I know many LLMs are also funded by their governments or their employers (usually if they have agreed to return to their previous jobs for a fixed number of years).
What I did to fund my studies
Firstly... a lot of saving up, including living at home with my parents for a time!
Otherwise, my funds came from a few key sources:
A fee waiver (merit-based scholarship), namely the Deanās Graduate Award at NYU. Fee waivers are reasonably generous at US law schools ā I received offers of between $25-40,000 from the schools I applied to). I would note that Berkeley does not seem to be as generous in its ADP Scholarships, Stanford doesnāt offer any LLM scholarships, and Columbia and Harvard are need-based rather than merit-based.
My fee waiver/scholarship at NYU was increased by an extra $2,000 USD in July or August 2020 as well as part of NYUās COVID-19 response ($1,000 that went to every student as a Technology Grant due to COVID, and an extra $1,000 for scholarship recipients).Ā
A scholarship from my alma mater in Australia for students who are pursuing postgraduate studies/research overseas.
A tax refund from my Government as my studies related to my job back home.
I have also just applied for a scholarship for about $3,500 USD from my old high school, which offers one scholarship each year for an alumnus pursuing further study or research. I have not heard back from this yet!
I did not seek any funding from my employer law firm back home, but I did get an unexpected back payment of money due to a review, which was very nice!
I am continuing to remotely tutor law students back home for a little boost each week, and will make a little bit through this blogging freelance job!
Once you are over in the US, you may also be able to secure a paid Teaching Assistant or Research Assistant job, pending visa conditions.Ā
As you can see, it takes creativity, but you can get there!
