U.S. News Ranks Law Schools for Tuition Support

The cost of law school is a serious component in the school selection process. For the 2022-2023 academic year, according to the U.S. News & World Report, the cost of private law school averaged $52,325. Among public universities (out-of-state), the average came in a bit lower at $40,056, or significantly lower (in-state) at $26,917.

While most students take out loans to pay for law school, many schools also offer tuition support in the form of grants. Recently, U.S. News published a list of the top ten law schools for tuition support (below), based on the percentage of 2022-2023 full-time students who received enough funding in grant money to cover at least half of their tuition. 

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Tuition and fees for full-time students (2022-2023): $39,800 per year in-state; $49,800 per year out-of-state

• Percentage of full-time students who received a grant that covered at least half of their tuition (2022-2023): 80%

• Median grant for full-time students (2022-2023): $35,000

Case Western Reserve University

• Tuition and fees for full-time students (2022-2023): $58,808 per year

• Percentage of full-time students who received a grant that covered at least half of their tuition (2022-2023): 80%

• Median grant for full-time students (2022-2023): $40,000

University of Southern California (Gould)

• Tuition and fees for full-time students (2022-2023): $73,998 per year

• Percentage of full-time students who received a grant that covered at least half of their tuition (2022-2023): 72%

• Median grant for full-time students (2022-2023): $40,000

University of Dayton

• Tuition and fees for full-time students (2022-2023): $37,364 per year

• Percentage of full-time students who received a grant that covered at least half of their tuition (2022-2023): 72%

• Median grant for full-time students (2022-2023): $33,000

Gonzaga University

• Tuition and fees for full-time students (2022-2023): $50,235 per year

• Percentage of full-time students who received a grant that covered at least half of their tuition (2022-2023): 66%

• Median grant for full-time students (2022-2023): $24,378

Loyola University Chicago

• Tuition and fees for full-time students (2022-2023): $53,156

• Percentage of full-time students who received a grant that covered at least half of their tuition (2022-2023): 65%

• Median grant for full-time students (2022-2023): $31,000

DePaul University

• Tuition and fees for full-time students (2022-2023): $51,132 per year

• Percentage of full-time students who received a grant that covered at least half of their tuition (2022-2023): 65%

• Median grant for full-time students (2022-2023): $30,000

Washington and Lee University

• Tuition and fees for full-time students (2022-2023): $54,460 per year

• Percentage of full-time students who received a grant that covered at least half of their tuition (2022-2023): 64%

• Median grant for full-time students (2022-2023): $35,000

University of California, Irvine

• Tuition and fees for full-time students (2022-2023): $54,183 per year in-state; $66,298 per year out-of-state

• Percentage of full-time students who received a grant that covered at least half of their tuition (2022-2023): 63%

• Median grant for full-time students (2022-2023): $25,000

William & Mary

• Tuition and fees for full-time students (2022-2023): $38,274 per year in-state; $56,014 per year out-of-state

• Percentage of full-time students who received a grant that covered at least half of their tuition (2022-2023): 61%

• Median grant for full-time students (2022-2023): $25,193

Yale and Harvard Law Schools Will No Longer Participate in the U.S. News Law School Rankings

Yale Law School announced yesterday that it would no longer participate in the U.S. News ranking of law schools. Harvard followed, withdrawing from participation a few hours later. The two schools routinely topped the rankings with Yale holding the number one spot since 1990 and Harvard, most recently, taking the fourth rank. 

In making the announcement, Yale Law Dean, Heather Gerken, called the rankings “profoundly flawed” and criticized the methodology. “Its approach not only fails to advance the legal profession, but stands squarely in the way of progress,” she said. She specifically criticized the methodology’s treatment of students who receive school-funded fellowships to pursue public-interest work, or go on to pursue further graduate-level education. US News classifies them as unemployed. She also noted that the rankings reward schools that provide financial aid to students with high LSAT scores rather than demonstrated financial need, and that the ranking methodology does not incorporate schools’ loan-forgiveness programs, which can help ease the burden of debt.

Harvard Law’s announcement, made by Dean John Manning, noted many of the same methodological concerns as Dean Gerken. He also communicated that the ranking’s inclusion of the student-debt metric may reward not only schools that offer significant financial aid, but also schools that opt to admit wealthier students who do not need to take out loans.  

“Dean Gerken has made some very salient points, and like many, we have long been concerned about the U.S. News law school rankings methodology and will be giving this careful thought,” Stephanie Ashe, Stanford Law’s Director of Media Strategy, told the Wall Street Journal. 

The University of Chicago (ranked third) and Columbia University (tied for fourth rank with Harvard) declined to provide a comment to the WSJ.

Update 11/18/2022: The UC Berkeley School of Law has also announced plans to withdraw from the U.S. News ranking. As have the law schools at Georgetown and Columbia.

Update 11/28/2022: Ten law schools, total, have joined the boycott of the U.S. News Ranking. These include Berkeley, Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Michigan, Northwestern, Stanford, UCLA, and Yale.

AccessLex Institute Publishes Findings on Access, Affordability, and Value of Law School

The AccessLex Institute published its 2022 Legal Education Data Deck to showcase the latest trends in the access, affordability, and value of law school. AccessLex, a nonprofit institution with a mission to improve access to legal education and maximize its affordability and value, creates the data deck using publicly available datasets. We have provided key insights from the deck below. 

Applicant Volume

• Between 2017 and 2021 females made up the majority of applicants, and the proportion of male applicants declined each year during this period. Women accounted for 56 percent of applicants and men made up 42 percent in 2021. Correspondingly, women’s admissions rates were lower than men’s. In 2021, however, women’s admissions rate climbed to 70 percent (+2 percentage points from 2020), which was the first year-over-year increase in admissions rate for either men or women since 2014. 

• In 2017, female enrollment surpassed males. Since then, female enrollment has increased annually while male enrollment has declined. 

• In 2021, just under two-thirds of law degrees were awarded to white students (63 percent), while about a quarter went to students who identified as Hispanic/Latino (12 percent), Black/African-American (7 percent), and Asian (6 percent). 

Costs

• In 2021, there was a significant decrease in the average cost of full-time tuition and fees. Using 2021 dollars to compare costs across time, private school expenses decreased to a level not recorded since 2016, public school (resident) costs decreased to 2014 levels, and public school (non-resident) decreased to a level below 2013. 

• Between 2013 and 2020, there was a significant increase in the median grant amount awarded to full-time students. Using 2021 dollars to compare, the median grant amount increased from $15,800 in 2013 to $22,100 in 2020. 

• The share of full-time students receiving grant awards also increased between 2011 and 2019. In 2011, 13 percent of full-time students received a grant worth at least half of tuition, and in 2019, that number had more than doubled to 29 percent. Similarly, in 2011 52 percent of full-time students received a grant (worth any amount) and by 2019 over three-quarters (78 percent) received grant money. 

Value

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlooks projects growth in legal employment between 2019 and 2029. Among positions requiring a graduate or professional degree, lawyers are projected to have the third largest increase in openings (32,300). 

Access the full report here. 

Related blogs: Law School Hiring Rebounds to Pre-Pandemic Levels

Student Loan Forgiveness Receives New Attention Under the Biden Administration

Debt is top of mind for graduate students. A Bloomberg Businessweek survey found that among 2018 graduates of prestigious MBA programs, almost half had borrowed at least $100,000 to finance the degree. The American Medical Association has long advocated for legislative action intended to ease the burden of debt on medical providers, and the American Bar Association released a report in 2020 detailing the negative impact of student debt on young lawyers’ mental health and calling for greater legislative advocacy on students’ behalf.

Late last week, when President Biden signed into law a covid relief package, he also removed a critical impediment to enacting broad-based student debt forgiveness. The bill contains a provision that allows any loan cancellation acquired between December 31, 2020 and January 1, 2026 to be excluded from taxable income. Previously, debt forgiveness (including Public Service Loan Forgiveness) was treated as additional income and taxed as such, with few exceptions. This update ensures that recipients of student debt relief are not left with large tax liabilities and are also not thrust into new tax brackets, with associated implications, due to debt cancellation.  

The counting of debt forgiveness dollars towards taxable income was a primary obstacle to broad student loan forgiveness programs. With the update now signed into law, Congressional Democrats led by Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, as well as 17 state attorneys general and consumer rights advocates are calling on President Biden to take executive action to cancel $50,000 in federal student debt per borrower. Despite this pressure, the President does not support loan forgiveness at this amount for every borrower, which he directly expressed in a CNN Town Hall last month, as it would aid people who attended elite schools or obtained professional graduate degrees and have strong repayment prospects. The Biden Administration has noted that cancelling student loans above $10,000 should be dependent on the type of loan and current income of the recipient. The President does, however, support $10,000 in blanket, federal student loan forgiveness, and he has urged Congress to legislate this action. Legislative action, he argues, will make it harder to undo. Meanwhile, he has ordered a Department of Justice review to clarify if he has the authority to cancel student loan debt via executive action. This review will be done with the White House Domestic Policy Cancel, who will also consider the best way to target loan cancellation.

While the loan forgiveness policies under consideration would not directly benefit borrowers with private or commercially held student loans, those borrowers could still benefit from the tax relief provision included in the covid relief bill. Marketwatch notes that it may help borrowers benefit from current loan relief options provided by public or private lenders as a response to the pandemic.

In an interview on student debt with the AMA, Alex Macielak, who works in student-loan refinancing, urged students to pay attention to the political discourse, “There’s a new administration. Student-loan debt is a hot topic, ... There’s been talk about forgiving loans for some people. However, how much, who would be eligible, and other important details are still in doubt. So, monitor the legislation and debate, because student loans are consistently evolving.”

15-Year Law School Experience Study Shows Changes in Student Demographics and Debt, Consistency in Student Satisfaction with Legal Education

Last week the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) put out a longitudinal study examining the law school experience over the last 15 years. Key findings include some areas of significant change, including increases in student diversity, growing student debt, and improvements in student learning outcomes, but also consistency in topics including job expectations and overall satisfaction with legal education. The survey includes responses from over 70,000 students at 248 law schools who participated in LSSSE surveys in 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019.

Demographics

Between 2004 and 2019 student demographics shifted with proportionately more students of color and fewer White students; the share of White students decreased from 83 percent to 70 percent, while the percentages of Multiracial (+8 percentage points), Black (+2), and Latinx (+3) students increased. The percentage of Asian Americans stayed the same at 6 percent. In 2004, women held a slight majority of the student population at 51 percent, which increased to 56 percent in 2019.

The average age of law students decreased slightly from 29 in 2004 to 27 in 2019. The largest changes were evident in the number of respondents under the age of 23, which made up 1 percent of the population in 2004 and jumped to 9 percent in 2019, as well as in the number of respondents between the ages of 26 to 30, which decreased from 37 percent in 2004 to 28 percent in 2019.

Finally, average LSAT scores and undergraduate GPAs were slightly lower in 2019 compared to 2004. In 2019, fewer students scored above 161 on the LSAT (15 percent in 2019, 21 percent in 2004), slightly fewer scored between 150-160 (51 percent v. 53 percent), and a higher percentage reported scoring below 150 (34 percent v. 26 percent). Similarly, reported undergraduate GPAs were lower amongst the 2019 respondents compared to those in 2004; in 2019, 40 percent reported a 3.50 and above (-2 percentage points from 2004), 38 percent reported a 3.00-3.49 (-4 from 2004), 17 percent reported a 2.50-2.99 (+3), and 5 percent reported a 2.49 or below (+3).

Debt

The population expecting to pay over $100,000 in student debt has risen significantly since 2004, with a spike occurring in 2009. In 2004, 18 percent of students expected to owe more than $100,000 in student debt (5.1 percent for public law schools, 22 percent for private). In 2009 that number more than doubled to 40 percent, and then increased to 43 percent in 2014. In 2019, 39 percent expected to owe more than $100,000 (27 percent in public law schools and 46 percent for private).

While the percentage of students expecting significant debt has increased from 2004 across all races, the number of Black and Latinx facing significant debt has grown more sharply when compared to White or Asian American students over the same time-period. In 2004, 18 percent of White students, 21 percent of Black students, and 22 percent of Latinx students expected to owe over $100,000. In 2019, 35 percent of White students, 56 percent of Black students, and 53 percent of Latinx had the same expectation.

Learning Outcomes

Students in 2019 were more positive about their law school’s contribution to various learning outcomes than in previous years.

• 45 percent responded that law school contributed to their understanding people of other racial/ethnic backgrounds, compared to 23 percent in 2004

• 58 percent responded that law school contributed to developing a personal code of values and ethics, compared to 43 percent in 2004

• 60 percent responded that law school contributed to solving complex real-world problems, compared to 45 percent in 2004

• 54 percent responded that law school contributed to developing clearer career goals, compared to 37 percent in 2004.

Job Expectations

Respondents in 2004 and 2019 responded very similarly in terms of job expectations with differences of only an occasional percentage point for the various job types: Business and Industry, Government Agency, Public Interest Group, Private Firm, and other. However, a notable difference was apparent within the private firm category. In 2004, 17 percent expected to join a small firm with less than 10 attorneys, 19 percent expected to join a mid-size firm with 10-50 attorneys, and 13 percent expected to join a large firm with more than 50 attorneys. In 2019, just 8 percent expected to join a small firm, 15 percent a mid-size firm, and 22 percent a large firm.

Law School Satisfaction

With slight variations, law school students are generally likely to rate their experience as Excellent or Good; responses ranged from 81 percent positive (2019) to 84 percent positive (2009) over the four survey years. Interestingly, while respondents rated their relationships with faculty members relatively consistently over time (78 percent positive in 2004, 76 percent in 2019), students rated their relationships with other students lower in 2019 (81 percent positive in 2004, 76 percent in 2019).

While Black women were the least likely to rate their law school experience positively in both 2004 and 2019, the percent positive did increase from 70 percent in 2004 to 75 percent in 2019. Asian American Women and Black Men saw the largest increases in positive ratings with 6 percentage point increases from 2004 to 2019 (79 percent and 85 percent in 2019, respectively).

Across sub-categories that measured satisfaction with academic advising, career counseling, personal counseling, and job search help, the numbers in each category increased slightly across the four survey years. In 2019, respondents were most positive on academic advising (71 percent positive) and reported the least satisfaction with job search help (66 percent positive). Additionally, students are more likely to take advantage of these offerings than in previous years; over 90 percent of students reported using academic advising and planning, and career counseling services, 84 percent used job search help, and 62 percent used personal counseling.