Getting
accepted
to
a
T14
law
school
can
brings
lots
of
prestige.
It
can
also
bring
on
a
ton
of
debt.
Student
loans
aren’t
to
be
taken
lightly
—
the
hundreds
of
thousands
of
dollars
prospective
lawyers
take
out
for
school
can
set
back
other
milestone
life
goals
like
owning
a
home,
having
children
and
buying
groceries.
For
years,
relatively
low
interest
loans
from
the
government
were
a
godsend
for
students
that
wanted
the
career
opportunities
law
could
unlock
but
lacked
the
capital
needed
to
fund
their
educations.
Then
everything
changed
when
the
Fire
Nation
attacked;
the
Trump
administration
capped
annual
federal
loan
borrowing
for
professional
schools
to
$50k
a
year.
That
is
enough
if
you’re
attending
a
local
law
school,
but
you’re
headed
for
most
of
the
T14,
you
may
need
to
scrounge
up
the
rest
of
the
cash
elsewhere.
Reuters
has
coverage:
For
tens
of
thousands
of
aspiring
lawyers,
the
math
of
paying
for
a
U.S.
law
degree
changes
on
July
1,
2026,
when
a
new
cap
is
set
to
limit
federal
loans
for
professional
degree
programs
at
$50,000
a
year
and
$200,000
in
total.The
change
could
force
more
students
to
obtain
higher-interest,
non-dischargeable
private
loans
in
the
coming
months,
seven
law
school
administrators
and
education
financing
experts
told
Reuters,
potentially
shutting
out
lower-income
students
and
increasing
the
overall
price
tag
of
a
law
degree.
…
“We
probably
will
have
better
answers
come
July
1,
but
there’s
still
a
lot
of
variables
we
don’t
know,”
said
Joseph
Lindsay,
assistant
dean
of
admissions
and
financial
aid
at
the
University
of
California,
Berkeley
School
of
Law,
where
current
tuition
and
living
costs
total
$104,145
and
students
borrowed
an
average
of
$64,087
in
federal
funds
last
year.
For
the
students
willing
to
take
on
debt
from
private
lenders,
the
cap
acts
as
a
subsidy
for
those
lenders.
For
those
who
aren’t,
it
may
mean
giving
up
on
their
dream
school.
The
practical
thing
may
be
to
look
past
the
prestige
or
personal
preference
held
for
your
costly
dream
school
and
see
the
investment
in
your
future
as
an
investment.
How
much
greater,
if
at
all,
would
the
ROI
on
attending
your
dream
school
be
compared
to
an
alternative
that
requires
less
debt?
If
you
make
HYS
(Harvard/Yale/Stanford)you
should
probably
go
to
HYS,
but
is
there
a
regional
option
that
performs
well
in
the
market
you
intend
to
work
in?
That
might
just
mean
picking
SLU
and
their
health
law
program
over
WashU.
There
are
of
course
other
options
—
a
generous
scholarship
from
WashU
may
tip
the
odds
back
in
their
favor.
It
could
also
mean
picking
WashU
over
a
higher
ranked
school
that
would
require
more
debt
to
finish.
A
great
resource
to
consider
in
your
decision
making
is
ATL’s
Interactive
Law
School
Ranking.
Unlike
our
competitors,
we
give
less
weight
to
inputs
(average
LSAT
scores
of
incoming
classes)
then
we
do
to
outcomes
(projected
costs,
were
you
able
to
get
a
damned
job).
Make
the
most
of
your
investment!
And
wherever
you
do
end
up,
ignore
the
impulse
to
not
care
about
Civ
Pro
or
Legal
Writing.
US
Law
Schools,
Students
Fear
Rising
Costs
From
New
Federal
Loan
Cap
[Reuters]
Earlier:
The
Big
Beautiful
Bill
Will
Limit
Federal
Student
Loans,
Hoping
To
Fix
A
Big
Ugly
$1.7T
Mess
The
15
Most
Expensive
Law
Schools
(2024-2025)
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s
.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
is
learning
to
swim, is
interested
in
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected]
and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.