Let’s make a deal. What do I have to do to get you to enroll in this law school today?

Elie Mystal of Above The Law reports.

Law School Tries To Pressure Students Into Snap Decision With ‘Buy Now’ Sales Tactic

It really bothers me when law schools resort to used car salesmen tactics to try to induce law students to sign up for school. Say what you will about the value of legal education, but it’s not like buying a Sham-Wow. Students can’t be influenced by “special, limited time” offers when trying to decide if and where to invest three years of their time. If nothing else, you’re entering into the lottery to win a legal career, not an iPad Mini.

The law schools that try to exploit “impulse buy” reactions to get people to fill their seats should be truly ashamed of themselves. They are taking advantage of kids — twenty-somethings who don’t have lawyers or accountants or appraisers representing their interests. Law schools are at a huge informational advantage concerning the true value of their services, value that they try to hide at every turn from independent third parties. Law students are trying to cobble together what they can based on word of mouth, Google, and some published rankings. Turning the screws on these prospective students with offers that “expire in 24 hours” is a good business strategy if you are trying to sell them a toaster, but it’s a disgraceful thing to do for a place that claims to be an “institution of higher learning.”

I can only hope that anybody who received this “hard-sell” email from this law school did the smart thing and just walked away…

The email comes from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. Our tipster explains that it went out to people who had received partial scholarship offers from the school, but nonetheless withdrew their applications. WUSTL is now making full scholarship offers, but there’s a catch. Here’s the email:

We are excited to announce that additional scholarship funds have become available. As an outstanding applicant, Washington University School of Law is able to offer you a full tuition scholarship of $48,345 for your first year of law school with the same amount guaranteed for your 2L and 3L years for a total of $145,035 for the three years of law school.

We can only keep this opportunity open for 24 hours because these funds are limited. If you are interested in accepting this offer and matriculating at Washington U Law this year, you will need to let us know by June 13, 5pm CT.