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Make no mistake about it: an education in law is expensive. However, there are a number of ways that students can lower their costs and receive financial aid in order to pay for their legal education.
Some students who have worked their way through their undergraduate education often assume that they can do the same in law school. However, this is not the case for most full-time law students. Law school is so intense that law schools assume (and sometimes require) that their students devote all of their time and energy to their legal students. This means that most students must support themselves and pay for their legal education through some other means.
LOANS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Most law students who receive financial aid do so through the federal student loan program. Students may apply for subsidized and unsubsidized student loans through the U. S. Department of Education. And students are often happy to learn that, unlike during their undergraduate years, a student's family income generally does not impact the financial aid decision for graduate and professional education. Of course, student loans must be paid off after one completes their education. But the student loan programs offer an accessible means by which large numbers of students may pay for their education.
Another means by which you may lower your expenses is by applying for law school scholarships. The number of law school scholarships is much less than at the undergraduate level. However, they exist and many law schools offer tuition waivers for students with exceptionally high LSAT scores and GPA's. In the past few years, for instance, UMass Dartmouth has had students who have been accepted into prestigious top-20 law schools. However, these same students also gained acceptance at lower ranked schools which offered them 50% or 100% tuition waivers. It's awfully hard to pass up a free (or half-price) legal education. Students have accepted these offers, saving themselves tens of thousands of dollars.
SHOP AROUND
Another often overlooked way to lower legal education expenses is to attend law schools that have lower tuition and fees. The cost of law school can vary dramatically from school to school. Unfortunately, New England offers few public law schools with lower costs. But other regions of the nation offer high-quality legal education through state universities that can save students lots of money. For example, the University of Texas Law School is one of the top ranked schools in the nation. And its tuition (for in-state residents) is around $12,000 per year--less than half of Boston University's $28,000 cost. (Out of state tution at UT is just over $20,000--still a big savings over BU.) A University of Texas law student can pay for THREE YEARS of law school for less than TWO YEARS at Boston University! The University of Connecticut offers a tution of approximately $13,500 for in-state residents and $20,000 per year to students from Massachusetts. Again, these costs are significantly lower than many private schools in the area.
The bottom line is this: law school costs a lot of money, but you don't have to be rich to become a lawyer. Fortunately, there are ways to pay for law school and/or minimize the expense. But you've got to be a smart consumer.
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