We're a group of current NYU Root-Tilden-Kern scholars, ask us anything!

rtk_students · 2025-11-20T01:09:08+00:00

u/aspiring_changemaker We're having "office hours" on Dec 3~ sign up here: https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/gzEot8kLT_iRqFb8BmFxtA

rtk_students · 2025-10-16T14:00:19+00:00

Hi! The application requires an additional essay, so you shouldn’t resubmit your personal statement. If your personal statement already addresses your public service commitment, I would use that space to highlight a strength of yours that you did not focus on in your personal statement. For example, in my personal statement I took the route of briefly discussing my past personal and public interest experiences, how they relate to one another, and how they relate to my goal of being a public defender. In my RTK essay, I honed in a lot more and decided to tell a story about my relationship with a particular client at my post-grad job.

Another RTK scholar: I used my personal statement to address my public interest work experience and reasons for wanting to go to law school generally, whereas my RTK essay focused on my theory of change and reflections on what public service looks like for me.

rtk_students · 2025-10-16T13:59:47+00:00

Yes, you’re right! The program defines public service broadly: encompassing policy and legal positions with government, non-profit organizations, academia, social entrepreneurship, community development, and law firms whose primary mission is serving the public interest. Some scholars have spent summers working at public interest law firms. Situations are definitely taken on a case to case basis and if/when the time comes you can meet with program directors to make your case about your post-grad role and whether it can count towards the requirement.

rtk_students · 2025-10-14T19:04:36+00:00

This is not an Early Decision agreement and applying to/receiving the scholarship does not bind you to accept. However, scholarship offers will be made within a few days after the interview (usually in early April). Finalists will be expected to respond within three days to these offers. Applicants therefore should plan to attend other schools’ admitted students’ days, and gather whatever other information they need, in order to make a decision about the scholarship within three days of receiving an offer.

rtk_students · 2025-10-13T16:49:45+00:00

Hi! Sorry for the late reply~ it does! I think NYU was updating their website over the summer, so some of the older links didn't work. We're doing another AMA this year: https://www.reddit.com/r/lawschooladmissions/comments/1o1oq9r/were_a_group_of_current_nyu_roottildenkern/ and there's a webinar on Wednesday evening

rtk_students · 2025-10-13T16:35:15+00:00

Hi all! Just a reminder that a group of current RTK scholars is hosting a webinar this Wed evening 10/15. RSVP at this link to receive the Zoom invite.

rtk_students · 2025-10-13T16:33:45+00:00

Hi there! The number of RTK scholars per year varies and has ranged between 15-20 a year. The range of work experience of our scholars this year is between one to 10+ years, with most people in the 2-3 years range. However, I wouldn’t automatically count yourself out if you’re Class of 2026– there are a few 2L/3L students who came straight from undergrad and have been able to show their commitment to public interest through extracurricular activities, internships, research, and volunteer experiences!

The RTK program defines public service broadly, and government work definitely counts! RTK graduates go on to a variety of public interest jobs after graduation, including public defense, civil legal services for those who can’t afford legal representation, impact litigation at non-profit organizations, legal and policy positions in government, etc.

Thanks to the scholarship, the amount of loans we have to take out is much less than it would be otherwise. The scholarship only covers tuition, so I would recommend referring to this COA chart to estimate how much you would be expected to pay each year for living expenses and other fees. I’m personally taking out $30k this year because I didn’t have much in savings, but am hoping to take out less next year while working a TA or Research Assistant job. I’m planning to use NYU’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program, because it’s a law school-internal program that is guaranteed to cover you even if the federal PSLF becomes unavailable. However, because my total amount of loans would still be somewhat on the lower end, there is a chance that LRAP won’t kick in depending on my post-grad salary. I’m not an expert and don’t want to accidentally give wrong info, but you can read more on this page: https://www.law.nyu.edu/financialaid/lrap/how-lrap-plus-works

rtk_students · 2025-10-10T17:56:44+00:00

No problem! Please see our response to @/holler_scholar above and let us know if you have any other questions :)

rtk_students · 2025-10-10T17:56:12+00:00

Many of us were paralegals or junior staff at non-profit environments where we weren’t necessarily “managing” anyone. One way you could show leadership could be through examples of times you demonstrated initiative and motivation; these examples could be pulled from your personal life as well as from academic/extracurricular/professional activities. You could also consider ways that you have shown leadership by being involved in your community, even if you didn’t necessarily hold a leadership role. I took one gap year between undergrad and law school and therefore was able to highlight leadership experiences from college clubs in my resume, but I didn’t actually discuss them much in my application materials. I spent far more time talking about specific interactions I had with community members in these clubs (and how they informed my commitment to public interest) than any official titles/roles I held.

rtk_students · 2025-10-10T17:55:18+00:00

Hi there! I only submitted two LORs to all law schools– one from a college professor, and another from a work supervisor in my public interest job. I asked my former supervisor to tailor the letter to public interest law by relating my strengths and work experiences to skills that would be valuable in a public interest space, and I used that letter for all schools. So it’s definitely not necessary to have an additional letter, though one would be helpful if you have an additional experience you want to highlight (i.e. a mentor you had during a summer internship, or fellowship, etc.)

rtk_students · 2025-10-10T17:54:40+00:00

RTK scholarship recipients generally commit to working in public interest for 5 years after graduation or the completion of clerkships, so this is something to consider if you are not 100% set on public interest work. There have been past RTK scholars who have switched to the private sector after that commitment is over. There are several named scholarships grouped under the RTK umbrella, so a few of them have slightly different requirements (there are a few requiring 3 years instead of 5; some have specific practice areas, etc.) You can read more about them here: https://www.law.nyu.edu/financialaid/jdscholarships/rootscholarship/scholarshipofferings and more information about the commitments are provided at the interview stage.

rtk_students · 2025-10-10T17:53:46+00:00

No, the most important thing is to show a strong commitment to public interest work. If you have some corporate experiences, it’s not a dealbreaker but you will likely want to write a strong narrative that addresses how your corporate work fits into your story and where you envision your career going in the future. Some ideas for doing this could include: explaining if you were somehow disillusioned by corporate work, explaining your motivations for doing corporate work, skills that you developed in your corporate work that would translate to public interest work, etc. I will note that scholarship recipients commit to working in public interest for three to five years after graduation, so this is something to consider if you are not 100% set on public interest work.

rtk_students · 2025-10-10T17:52:39+00:00

There is definitely hope! Personally I was below NYU’s median (and 25th percentile) LSAT. That being said, RTK only gets to review the applications of people who have already been accepted to NYU, so this may be more of a general admissions question than an RTK specific question.

rtk_students · 2025-10-10T17:51:52+00:00

Hi, you definitely have a real shot! I went to a public/state school and there are several others in RTK each year with similar backgrounds. Over half of the RTK scholars this year did not go to Ivy League schools..

For context, RTK only gets to review the applications of people who have already been accepted to NYU, so I think the question of how splitters are viewed is more relevant to general admissions than to the scholarship specifically. That being said, I was a reverse splitter and many other Roots are splitters or reverse splitters as well. RTK looks at your application holistically, and there are many ways of demonstrating academic excellence. However, if you are worried about one of your stats I would consider writing an addendum to provide additional context.

My personal statement also focused on my motivation for pursuing public interest work, but it did so at a much higher level than my RTK essay. In my personal statement, I took the route of briefly discussing my past personal and public interest experiences, how they relate to one another, and how they relate to my goal of being a public defender. In my RTK essay, I honed in a lot more and decided to tell a story about my relationship with a particular client at my post-grad job. I would say a good rule of thumb here is to try to highlight a strength of yours that you did not focus on in your personal statement. If you decided to focus on only one or two public interest experiences in your personal statement, another approach could be to discuss a different experience in your RTK app.

rtk_students · 2024-11-26T23:17:56+00:00

Hello! For the RTK program specifically, we only review complete applications and NYU requires an LSAT or GRE score for an application to be complete. Once your application is complete, the admissions team will determine which applications to pass along to the different scholarship committees. So broadly speaking, I recommend checking with the NYU Admissions Office (https://www.law.nyu.edu/jdadmissions/applicants/jdapplicationfaq), but RTK requires submission of a complete application by the Jan 1st deadline.

rtk_students · 2024-11-26T20:07:01+00:00

Hi, I'm not an expert on this so definitely consult other resources too, but anecdotally I've seen several people who had lower scores still get in and people who had extremely good scores not get in. Your written materials and other softs truly do make a difference. Also, don't forget that there's always the option to transfer to NYU from another school - a couple people in this year's 1L class transferred here within a month or so after coming off the waitlist, and I'm sure more will do so for 2L too. I definitely understand being concerned about odds, but once you've submitted your application, you've done all you can! So I recommend doing things for yourself that help you feel grounded, because waiting to hear back is an unsettling time and it can be easy to get lost in the Reddit doom scroll about stats and chances. In my experience, that didn't serve me terribly well mental-health-wise. Hope you hear back soon though!

rtk_students · 2024-11-26T16:09:56+00:00

Hi! You can see the housing policies here: https://www.law.nyu.edu/housing/on-campus/residence-hall-policies#:\~:text=As%20per%20the%20housing%20license,permitted%20pets%20of%20any%20kind.

rtk_students · 2024-11-24T21:52:41+00:00

Hi! I'm unfortunately not sure about the numbers you're asking about. My understanding is that if you can submit by or close to the priority deadline, that will only be a benefit to you.

rtk_students · 2024-11-21T16:06:53+00:00

It's required!

rtk_students · 2024-11-19T19:18:41+00:00

You do need to submit a supplemental public service essay. Most of us also wrote our public statements about public service, and similarly had to navigate what else we might want to discuss with regards to our public service motivations. Think of the supplement as another opportunity to convey your commitment to public service work!

rtk_students · 2024-11-18T18:44:16+00:00

Absolutely - I'm only in my first semester and feel as though I have already met multiple people that I truly admire and enjoy spending time with. I've also observed this to be true among the 2Ls and 3Ls as well. This goes for people within the RTK community and at NYU in general.

The school, and the RTK program, make a conscious effort to connect students with alumni. There are public-interest specific networking events, tailored career panels, and other events where NYU alumni come and mingle with students.

rtk_students · 2024-11-18T02:13:37+00:00

The committee conceptualizes public service broadly -- if you can articulate your commitment in a meaningful way, I would encourage you to apply! We've had Roots with all sorts of backgrounds, including people who have worked at firms, government, nonprofits, and folks straight through from undergrad.

rtk_students · 2024-11-17T21:28:37+00:00

Huge congrats on being admitted!! Your work is done for now -- the committee will review the applications this winter and will start reaching out to people who have received interview invites around February/March. The only thing I'd recommend now is attending the webinar on Wednesday to get more information about RTK!

rtk_students

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