The WiseGeek Law No-Essay Scholarship is a $500 scholarship open to graduate and undergraduate students studying law OR graduating high school seniors who have plans to study law.
Scholarship Award: $500
About the Scholarship
Lawyers play a critical role in our democracy, protecting us in the courts, ensuring contracts are legal and fair to all parties, and defending the rights of every citizen. Graduating from college with a law degree is one of the toughest, and most expensive, educational challenges anyone can take on.
Law school tuition is very high and, even before a law student hits campus, it costs a lot for the tests required to get into law school. Taking the bar adds more expenses at the end of law school. For most aspiring lawyers, that means starting out with a large pile of debt that can limit their choices in terms of the kind of law they practice, where they start their careers, and sometimes even mean delaying the start of their career.
The WiseGeek Law No-Essay Scholarship can help aspiring lawyers lower the cost of earning a law degree and help them launch a promising career.
Scholarship Details
Eligibility Requirements
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Current graduate or undergraduate student in a law program or a high school senior who has plans to study law
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U.S. Citizen or permanent legal resident
How to Apply
You can apply for this scholarship on the Bold.org scholarship platform. Just set up a student profile on Bold.org and submit your application.
Scholarship Frequently Asked Questions
When is the scholarship deadline?
The application deadline is December 1, 2021.
What is the scholarship prize?
The scholarship award is $500.
When will the winner be chosen and notified?
Prior to the announcement date, we may contact finalists with additional questions about their application. Winners will be chosen based on the merit of their application.
How will the scholarship be paid?
We will send the $500 award check to the winner in their name.
How can I contact you with questions?
If you have any questions about the scholarship, you can email scholarships@wisegeek.com
How will my application information be used?
WiseGeek manages this scholarship with the support of the Bold.org scholarship platform. Bold.org takes student confidentiality and privacy incredibly seriously. Please refer to the application page on Bold.org for full details.
About Scholarships for Law Students
Earning a law degree is one of the toughest academic challenges anyone can set for themselves. The rigor of law school coursework and the competition each student faces are intense and reflect the important work law school graduates play in our society. Whether they practice law after graduation or use their skills and work ethic elsewhere in business or government, the work they do is critical to keeping things running.
Protecting legal rights, negotiating and mediating, analyzing and forecasting all add immeasurable value and involve lots of money. And that’s why a law degree is a very expensive document.
To help pay for it, almost every law student needs financial aid of one kind or another, including large loans that can take a decade or more to pay off. Minimizing the amount of money and time you’ll have to dedicate to those payoffs will make a big difference in the choices you can make in the years after graduation.
And that means you should maximize the amount of free money you can get in grants and scholarships. As important as that help is, finding and applying for that law school financial aid takes time and effort you’d like to put into studies or your career.
The good news is that there are many scholarships earmarked specifically for law students, including tightly targeted awards for people of color, LGBTQ indicduals, students with connections to cultural, social, and business associations, and other categories. You should be able to find more than one where you are a great fit for the award, and will be able to explain convincingly why you are the right recipient.
There are also many scholarships aimed at law students that don’t require any sort of personal statement, essay or other extra work. While no-essay law scholarship awards are often for relatively small amounts, they can supplement any other scholarships you win. They can pay for part of the cost of the LSAT, or bar exam, or books – and help you take out lower loan amounts over the course of Law School.
Don’t stop looking once you have your degree, either. Some scholarships are specifically intended to help you repay loans after you’ve graduated and started your career.
We are here to help you find, and apply for, those scholarships.
How to Qualify for Law Scholarships
There is no question that a law degree is a very good investment of your time and worth the high cost. But paying for it is a challenge and you need to find all the help you can. Loans and grants are a big part of that help but loans of course, need to be repaid and grants won’t make up the difference. That makes finding and applying for scholarships a critical piece of all first-year law students' financial aid puzzle.
Just like every type of scholarship program, the organizations that offer law school scholarships are looking for passionate people dedicated to making a career in the law.
Qualifying for any law school scholarship requires matching specific criteria. Beyond making sure you have solid grades, test scores, and recommendation letters, look for awards that are aimed at somebody like you in terms of family background, cultural or sexual identity, income bracket and hundreds of other possible criteria.
Some scholarships for law students are intended for those interested in studying a specific area of law. Most scholarships for graduate law students require that applicants are accepted into or currently attending an accredited law school.
The most important thing you can do is to check and double check the exact requirements and deadlines for every scholarship you think you’ll apply for. If you have any questions, contact the award sponsor or the organization that manages the scholarship on their behalf.
How to Apply for Scholarships for Law Students
Where to Look for Scholarships
Finding scholarships that you are well-qualified for takes effort. If you are a high school junior or senior with ambitions in law, start with the college counseling resources at your school. As part of your college research, even before you are accepted to a pre-law program, check with the financial aid offices of the schools you are interested in. Check with local, state, and national legal professional associations, too. You will get a solid list of potential awards but keep in mind that most of them will require the extra work of putting together a compelling essay.
To expand that list to include scholarships that don’t require any highly targeted requirements and won’t ask for a ton of extra work to apply, check out online services like WiseGeek.com and Bold.org. You’ll find scholarships just for law students but you’ll also be able to search for others that match your experiences, interests, and background. In addition to learning about the amounts available, you’ll also find application deadlines and amounts.
Types of Scholarship Sponsors
There are a wide variety of organizations and endowments that provide law students with financial help that won’t need to be repaid after you graduate. Individual universities and their alumni groups; professional associations and other business groups; and many cultural associations, nonprofits, and individual endowments are all sources of cash awards.
They all share a mission of easing some of the financial and related strains that everyone deals with as they pursue a J.D. degree. The key is identifying those organizations and getting applications in on time and in line with any specific requirements.
Scholarship Application Strategy
Many law scholarships are highly competitive, so get started early. For scholarships that require an essay or other personal statement, find out all you can about the programs available. Research why they were created and how well your reasons for chasing your degree match with each one’s mission. That will give you plenty of material to get started with your targeted essays and give you ideas that you can re-use for more than one application.
Get started as soon as you can and make a calendar of when each program will accept your application. Applications that get in early have a better chance of winning you an award.
You’ve taken an important step by finding Bold.org and checking out how we can help. We’ll provide the information you need to fill out your list of targets and to prepare and submit applications for easy-apply awards that will make law school life a little easier and cut back the amount of college loan debt you’ll be dealing with after you graduate.
Other Scholarships for Law Students
Here’s a sample of scholarships aspiring and current law students need to check out:
- The Advocates and Allies in Law Scholarship: Given each year to an aspiring undergrad or graduate student pursuing a law-related degree including pre-law, political science, or other related major. Applicants are asked to explain why they want to pursue a degree in law and how they see their career helping society. Successful past applicants to this $500 award include underrepresented minorities, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, first-gen-college students, individuals who’ve experienced financial hardship, and individuals with non-profit/volunteering experience. The deadline is July 1 each year.
- Hispanic Empowerment No-Essay Scholarship: Aspiring lawyers with hispanic family backgrounds can apply for WiseGeek’s Hispanic Empowerment No-Essay Scholarship. This $750 scholarship is open to undergraduates and high school senior students. The award is aimed at increasing diversity at U.S. colleges, including law schools. Application deadline is August 1 each year and winners are chosen based on merit and how well they fit the criteria.
- Bold Hope for the Future Scholarship: During trying time like those so many are experiencing, we need individuals who can find and share hope with their families, friends, and communities. Tell the sponsors about where and why you see hope for the future, including the work you plan to do after law school, and you might bring home the $500 Bold Hope for the Future Scholarship. The application deadline for this scholarship is Jan. 31, 2020 and the award will be announced on Feb. 28, 2022.
- Louise Speller Cooper Memorial Scholarship: Many young black women have been raised by strong and supportive women, many of whom overcome real hardships to support their goals and dreams of attending college. This scholarship is funded each year in memory of the sponsors’ mother. It provides an ambitious black woman with an award of $1,029 to help offset the cost of pursuing a degree in the field of their choice, including law. The deadline is Oct. 1, 2021 1nd the winner will be announced Oct. 31, 2021.
Commonly Asked Questions About Scholarships for Law Students
What is the average student loan debt for a lawyer?
Law school debt reported by nearly 1,000 new lawyers in a recent survey was $160,000. That includes loans taken out to pay for graduate law and undergraduate studies plus other expenses, such as the LSAT or the bar exam.
How do you finance a law degree?
Law students turn to loans, grants and scholarships to pay for law school. To help control the amount of debt after graduation, use federal student loans before private loans to pay for law school and find and apply for as much free financial aid as possible to help cover your costs.
Can you get outside scholarships for law school?
There are a lot of organizations that offer targeted awards to help you pay for law school. In addition to general scholarship funds you might qualify for, scholarships and grants are available from many larger law firms, some smaller firms and even individual practices. Some are focused on helping students pursuing legal specialties but most are available to anyone pursuing a JD who qualifies.
Can I get a scholarship for being a Law Student?
Yes. Scholarships for law students range from a few hundred dollars to full rides at some of the top-ranked colleges and law schools in the country. And any help that will lower your debt payments after graduation will help you make the choices that are best for your career. It is worth your time to find and apply to as many private law school scholarships and other awards that you think you qualify for.
When should I start applying for scholarships?
Start your hunt for scholarships as early as you can. You want to have a strong list of both detailed and easy-to-apply-for opportunities to give the best chance of winning more than one award and whittling away at the amount you’ll need in loans. Some scholarship programs will accept applications as much as a year before you plan to start school and others are available after graduation to help you pay off some of those loans.
Regardless of the deadline, always try to get your app in as soon as the organization will accept it. Anecdotal evidence makes it pretty clear that early apps have a better chance of winning the prize!
What types of scholarships are available for Law Students?
Scholarships for law students provide awards ranging from a couple hundred dollars to full-rides that cover essentially all of the lucky (and very hard working) winners’ full education and even living expenses. Most are not the huge money awards but every bit helps when paying for law school.
Apply for as many general or targeted non-law scholarships as you think you are a good match for, whether those are awards for African-American, Latinx, Asian-American and Pacific Islander or other target groups. Do you volunteer in your community? There are scholarships out there for you. Find out if your parents’ employers offer scholarships or if they are members of professional associations or other interest groups. Be realistic, but throw a wide net.
What to consider when applying for scholarships?
The most important considerations are whether you meet the requirements laid out by the law school scholarships' sponsors, when your application and any supporting documents are due, and any deadlines for accepting or saying no thanks to any awards you are offered.
How do I make my application stand out?
Many scholarship organizations want detailed information about you and want to hear from you in your own words before they decide you are the right recipient of their generosity. Even if you are applying for some of the many scholarships that don’t ask for an essay, always find out if you can include a short statement, letter of recommendation, or work sample that helps show why you are a great fit for their mission of supporting students chasing an expensive degree.
How can I increase my chances of getting scholarships?
Number one, find and apply for as many as you reasonably can. It takes a lot of work at a very busy time in a student’s life, but the effort is worth it. You’ll have an easier time focusing on your studies while you are in school and have a healthier financial picture after you graduate if you can lock in free money now. Shoot high for the biggest programs out there, but be on the lookout for any other law school scholarships you can use to pay for books, fees and other items while you are in school. And apply as soon as you can after you find them.
