Costs & Scholarships

Registration

$2,500

Entrance fee for 14 Attendees.

Your entrance fee includes everything listed below for a team of 14.

    • License to use original Empire case for the competition season (license expires after your Empire competition concludes)

    • Access to our Trial Guide, which includes procedure for entering exhibits into evidence and tendering experts

    • Participation in four trials (you cannot be eliminated)

    • Tickets for Opening Ceremony

    • Tickets for Closing Ceremony

    • Awards for outstanding teams, attorneys, and witnesses

    • Dinner after Opening Ceremony

    • Saturday lunch (Chicago + Philly only)

    • Sunday lunch (Chicago + Philly only)

    • Breakfast (Atlanta only)

  • Covering a variety of topics, ranging from how to prep the Guest Witness to what to pack for Empire! Past webinars have included:

    • Character Evidence

    • Case Breakdown

    • Preparing the Guest Witness

    • T-shirts featuring your competition logo on the front and your school’s name on the back

    • Pens

    • Lanyards

    • City specific give away (e.g. Garrett's popcorn in Chicago)

    • Online access to professional trial photos of your team

Other Costs

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Is your group larger than 14? It’s okay.
We’re here to help.

LARGE GROUPS

At Empire, we welcome additional students, friends and family members with open arms! We try to make our pricing for extra attendees (over 14) as manageable as possible, allowing you to select which amenities you’d like to purchase. When planning for your trip, please consider the costs below:

  • Meals - $10/person
  • T-shirts – $15 / person
  • Opening Ceremony ticket – $5 / person
  • Closing Ceremony ticket – $5 / person
  • Architecture Boat Cruise (Chicago) – $35/person
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In heart of vibrant cities, you’ll have easy access to local attractions.

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HOTEL

Please take note of the following!

  • Non-commuting teams are required to stay at the Empire hotel.
  • The prices below are listed on a per room per night basis and are inclusive of applicable occupancy taxes.
  • Double bed and king bed rooms are the same price.
  • A double bed room can hold up to 4 students.
  • Reservations must be made through Empire’s online reservation system, and not the hotel’s website.
  • Scrimmage rooms will be available for teams at the hotel for an additional cost. Pricing will be announced at a later date.


Empire Chicago
Hilton Chicago
720 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605
$270 / room / night

Empire Philadelphia
Sonesta Rittenhouse Square
1800 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
$270 / room / night

Empire Atlanta
Embassy Suites Centennial Park
267 Marietta St NW, Atlanta, GA 30313
$270 / room / night

Social events and sightseeing are Empire staples.

Empire Experience Additions

  • Architecture Boat Cruise – $35/person
  • City Bus Tour Philly – $35/person
  • Other Expierence Events TBD

    • Scholarships

    Empire presents a unique high school experience for students. Most travel to a new city for the first time, stay at a top-notch hotel, attend ceremonies in a beautiful ballroom, sightsee, engage with their peers in city-specific social events, and participate in four mock trials in a courthouse or convention center. 

    With such a robust program comes a cost that can be financially prohibitive for some schools, as much as we wish that wasn’t the case.

    To increase access to our programs, Empire launched a scholarship program in 2016. The program began small, with the organization offering three teams free entry to our competitions; selected teams would enjoy four trials, four meals, t-shirts, photographs and souvenirs. Over the years, the program has slowly expanded, with more and more financial aid becoming available. Now, those same three scholarships we mentioned include free housing for students at the competition hotel. 

    This year, we are offering two types of financial aid: need-based funding for economically disadvantaged schools, and local funding for schools within driving distance of an Empire competition. All teams that are interested in being considered for aid are required to complete a scholarship application.

    Keep reading to find out if your school might qualify for financial aid from Empire.

    Need-Based Scholarships

    Given that our resources are finite, we direct funding to schools that are experiencing significant financial hardship.

    There is no perfect way to make this determination. Because we will not ask a school to disclose financial information for individual students, our scholarship questions focus on the socioeconomic status of an applicant’s school district and whether there is funding available to the applicant’s mock trial team.

    • Each Need-Based Scholarship covers a school’s full entrance fee and hotel reservation at the competition hotel, subject to the following guidelines:

      • The entrance fee provides access to all competition events for a team of up to 14 people. Should a team wish to bring more than 14 people, they will need to purchase additional meals, t-shirts, and ceremony tickets. See Costs here.

      • A team is given 12 complimentary hotel room nights, which they may use however they see fit; for example, a team could reserve 3 rooms for 4 nights, or vice versa. A team will be required to pay for any additional room nights that exceed 12.

    • We are offering the equivalent of at least three full scholarships per year. We also offer discretionary funding (e.g. partial scholarship of $1,000), if resources become available.  

    • The last day to apply for a scholarship is June 21; however, we are awarding aid on a rolling basis.

    Local Scholarships

    Over the years, we have been privileged to host mock trial competitions in some incredible cities.

    Our host cities make it possible for us to host enriching educational experiences for hundreds of students. Their attorneys and judges volunteer to evaluate our students; their hotels, courthouses and conference centers open their doors to us; and their local businesses provide terrific food and support for our teams.

    In turn, because these communities support us, we want to do our best to support them. The Local Scholarship is our opportunity to give back by offering a local team an opportunity to attend Empire free of charge. The goal is to help grow mock trials in the host city and empower local students.

    While we will consider a team’s socioeconomic status, financial need is not required to secure a Local Scholarship.

    • Each Local Scholarship covers a school’s full entrance fee, subject to the following guidelines:

      • The entrance fee provides access to all competition events for a team of up to 14 people. Should a team wish to bring more than 14 people, they will need to purchase additional meals, t-shirts, and ceremony tickets. See Costs here.

      • A school must be within a 4-hour drive of the competition site in order to be eligible to apply.

    • We plan to award up to two local scholarships per competition site. However, the number of scholarships we award depends on the number of qualified applications that we receive.

    • The scholarship deadline is June 21; however, we award aid on a rolling basis.

      If there are still resources available after the deadline, then we will consider additional financial aid requests.

    How to Apply

    Schools are required to complete a scholarship application, in addition to the Team Application. Scholarship applications will open soon.

    To learn more about the general application requirements, please review our Apply Now page.

    Click on the buttons below to review the scholarship application questions.

    NEED-BASED SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION QUESTIONS

    School Information

    1. Please introduce us to your school! Where is it located? Is it public or private? How many students attend? Is the surrounding area urban, suburban, or rural? What are its demographics?

    2. What is your teacher to student ratio?

    3. What percentage of your school’s students receive free and reduced price lunch?

    4. Is it classified as a Title I school?

    5. What is the median household income in the city / town where your school is based?

    Mock Trial Team

    1. You described the demographics of the city / town where your school is located above. Is your mock trial team reflective of those demographics? If not, please explain how it differs, and why you believe it does (e.g. is it because cost or recruitment strategy).

    2. What is your team’s annual budget? What are your biggest expenditures? Who makes the budgeting decisions for your team? Is it the school, parents, coach or an advisory board?

    3. What, if any, funding does your mock trial team receive from the school? Please be as specific as possible.

    4. What are your team’s sources of revenue? Please include approximate percentages for self-funding, community support, donations, etc.

    5. Has your school ever attended a private invitational or training seminar before (i.e. an Empire competition, Harvard Seminar or Yale’s Bulldog Invitational)? If so, when? How did you raise the funds to attend?

    Conclusion

    1. While the scholarship will cover the Empire team entrance fee ($2,150) and 12 hotel room nights, there are additional costs that you must cover: travel, some meals, some social events, souvenirs or other incidentals. Depending upon the size of your team and the venue, these costs could be substantial. How do you plan to cover those costs? What are your plans for fundraising or gaining additional sponsors?

    2. Depending upon the number of scholarship applicants, not all who apply will be granted an award. If you are not granted an award, how do you anticipate covering the costs of participation?

    3. Finally, please provide any additional details that will be helpful to our Scholarship Awards Committee in evaluating your application.

    LOCAL SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION QUESTIONS

    1. Please describe your school for us. Where is it located? Is it public or private? How many students attend? Is the area where it is based urban, suburban, or rural?

    2. How long will it take you to drive from your school to the Empire competition site you’re interested in? If you are admitted, do you plan to commute to the competition? Or stay at the competition hotel?

    3. How long has your school had a mock trial team? What, if any, competitions have you competed in previously? (i.e. local competition or Yale Bulldog Invitational) What, if any, success have you had at prior mock trial competitions? If you are a returning team to Empire, talk about your prior experience at an Empire competition.

    4. What is the annual budget for your program?

    5. What is the primary source of revenue? Please include approximate percentages for school/district funding, fundraising, donations, family contributions, etc.

    6. If you don’t receive this scholarship, will you still be able to participate in an Empire competition?

    7. Why do you think that your school is a good fit for our local scholarship?

    FAQ’s

    • Anyone you’d like! A student, coach, parent, or chaperone can all count as an attendee.

    • You can easily purchase registration add-ons through your Team Dashboard.

    • Yes, unless you are a local team. Let us quickly explain why.

      First, we strongly believe staying in the Empire hotel is a crucial part of the Empire experience. Students build camaraderie by interacting with each other at the hotel, where our ceremonies and special events are held.

      Second, we’re able to receive a discounted rate on our rooms and event space because we guarantee the hotel a certain number of rooms. If we don’t meet our quota, the organization will owe the hotel money!