For any school you consider attending, the total cost of attendance and how you’ll pay those costs will factor into your decision. LawHub’s Plan Your Budget tool can help you make an informed decision about where to attend and can help you develop a sound financial plan heading into law school.
Plan Your Budget helps you track your estimated costs for room and board, books and supplies, transportation, and personal expenses for any law school. The tool fills in tuition and fees based on recent data for each institution, and you can enter estimated annual increases for both tuition and living costs.
From these starting figures, the tool calculates your total cost of attendance and provides a cost-by-cost breakdown for each year you plan to attend that school.
Keep in mind that the default tuition suggestions are for full-time tuition. If you plan to attend part time and the law school offers a part-time program, you can toggle the tool’s “part time” option to unlock an additional two years of cost tracking. Be sure to get the most recent part-time tuition information from the school’s website.
You can also tailor the results to your financial circumstances—for example, you can input yearly estimates for scholarships and grants, as well as any personal and family contributions. Scholarships can be from a specific institution or from a private source. These figures add up to your projected contribution toward your cost of attendance.
Based on your projected contribution, we calculate what you’ll need to borrow to make up the difference. The tool will calculate and include origination fees for federal direct loans and federal direct PLUS loans, the two most common student loan financing options. From the amount you’ll need to borrow to cover the cost of attendance, we calculate your projected debt, including the interest that accumulates during law school. (Remember, all graduate school student loans accumulate interest immediately, and you may borrow only $20,500 in federal direct loans per academic year.)
The final projected debt is how much we estimate you’ll owe six months after graduation, when your first payment will be due.
The tool even gives you a picture of what repaying that debt would look like. It calculates monthly payment amounts based on 10-, 20-, and 25-year payment plans, along with the total amount that will be owed once interest has been factored in.
The Plan Your Budget tool also saves your calculations for each institution. When you return, it will display your total debt and estimated monthly payment, giving you an easy comparison between schools. You’ll also see figures for debt service, which is the percentage of the school’s median salary that it would take to pay off your loans, and target salary.
Use the Plan Your Budget tool as you gather information about the institutions you’re interested in attending and the financial support you can secure. The tool’s comparisons between schools and its ability to customize inputs based on your financial circumstances will empower you to make the best decision for your future.
Paying for law school is a significant commitment, but the Plan Your Budget tool sets you up for success by showing you how much you can expect to pay for your law school options. You’ll enter law school with a clearer picture of what you will spend and what salary you need to work toward to repay your loans and achieve your financial goals. Get started today by accessing the Plan Your Budget tool from the Law School Transparency page of LawHub.