Scholarships are an effective way to help you manage your costs and keep your debt low while you are attending law school. Three main types of scholarships are available: Law School merit scholarships, Indiana University scholarships, and external scholarships.
Law School merit scholarships
First-year law students are notified of their merit scholarship award at the time they are admitted to law school. Scholarships are automatically renewed as long as they maintain good academic standing (2.30 GPA) and have not been sanctioned for academic or professional misconduct.
Your merit scholarship will be loaded into the financial aid system in mid- to late July. Merit scholarships may consist of a fee remission, a named award, or a combination of the two. Recipients will receive an annual scholarship notification via email soon after their award has been loaded into the system. Students who receive named fellowships may be contacted by our Office of Alumni and Development with additional information about the award.
If you enroll in a joint-degree program, your scholarship will be prorated so that you will pay no more tuition than you would have paid for a three-year JD degree. If you receive tuition remission from another source that pays a portion your JD tuition, your Law School scholarship may be adjusted.
Merit awards are only available during the academic year and cannot be applied to summer tuition expenses. The school offers summer public interest scholarships to students working in unpaid public interest positions during the summer.
Indiana University scholarships
Law students are eligible to apply to several university-wide scholarship programs. The University Graduate School (UGS) manages several of these award programs. While reviewing the opportunities offered by UGS, please note that some of them require departmental nomination.
The Indiana University Foundation maintains a number of donor-funded awards. Students interested in applying for them should complete the general scholarship application by March 10 for the upcoming academic year. Details about some additional IU Foundation awards can be found here.
IU’s Office of International Services sponsors a need-based scholarship program for international students. Instructions for applying can be found on their website. Likewise, the Indiana University Alumni Association has several scholarships that law students might be eligible to receive. If you bank with the IU Credit Union, you should also investigate their scholarship program.
External scholarships
An external scholarship is an award that is granted by a third-party organization. Each year, Maurer School of Law students receive thousands of dollars of external scholarship awards. Typically, these awards are not tied to enrollment in a specific institution.
Hundreds of external scholarship opportunities are available to law students. We maintain an external scholarship list on our website and an additional page that focuses on diversity fellowships. You can find additional resources by searching the Internet under “external law school scholarship.”
If you are interested in learning about managing your personal finances, the Law School has partnered with AccessLex to offer its students the MAX personal finance program. One benefit of participating in MAX is that students who complete each program module are entered into a drawing that makes them eligible to receive scholarship funding. You can learn more about their very generous scholarship incentive program here.
If you receive an external scholarship, please be sure to report it to the Law School’s financial aid office as required by FAFSA. In most cases, the donor will mail a check to the university, which is then processed by IU’s Bursar.