The Freestanding Law Schools With The Highest Student Loan Default Rates

Damned to lifetimes of debt, graduates of these law schools have been defaulting on their student loans.

Here at Above the Law, time and time again, we’ve warned both prospective and current law students about the dangers of student loans. According to the most recent data reported to U.S. News, recent graduates of public law schools have an average debt of $90,217, recent graduates of private law schools have an average debt of $130,349, and the average class of 2016 graduate has an average debt of $112,389. With debt loads that large, it is imperative that law school graduates secure employment with salaries high enough to service those loans, lest they risk defaulting on their debts. Given the dismal employment statistics that some law schools have continued to post year after year, it seems obvious that graduates will have issues when it comes to repaying their debts; some graduates will allow their loans to fall into delinquency, and other graduates will default on their loans outright.

The consequences of student loan default are severe, and can range from wage garnishments to Treasury offsets to acceleration of the entire debt owed. This is not a situation that anyone would want to deal with at any time in their lives, but some law school graduates have been forced to endure the disastrous repercussions of default.

Are graduates of your law school at risk of defaulting on their student loans? The latest information from the U.S. Department of Education may provide some guidance. During the tracking period for Fiscal Year 2014 — which includes data from October 1, 2013 to September 30, 2016 — six freestanding law schools (i.e., law schools that aren’t affiliated with any college or university) reported student loan default rates greater than 2 percent. For the sake of comparison, five law schools posted default rates greater than 2 percent for Fiscal Year 2013, and six law schools reported student loan default rates greater than 2 percent for Fiscal Year 2012.

As reported by the ABA Journal, these are the freestanding law schools with the highest student loan default rates for Fiscal Year 2014 (you may recognize a few of from prior coverage here at ATL):

  • Massachusetts School of Law: 4.8 percent
  • Thomas Jefferson School of Law: 3.8 percent
  • Appalachian School of Law: 2.9 percent
  • San Joaquin College of Law: 2.6 percent
  • Thomas M. Cooley School of Law: 2.5 percent
  • Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School: 2.3 percent

UPDATE: We’ve been alerted that at law schools affiliated with undergraduate colleges or universities, student loan default rates are included with their parent schools’ rates. For the sake of accuracy, this list has since been limited to include only those of freestanding law schools. (Gavel bang: Professor Brian Kalt of Michigan State University School of Law.)

If you’re having financial difficulties and you’re afraid that you will default on your student debt obligations, there are things you can do to take control of the situation. If you’re struggling to make your payments, call your loan servicer and figure out how to change your repayment plan. There are several income-based options that may be of considerable help to you. You can also enter into a deferral or a forbearance that will allow you to temporarily stop paying your loans to avoid default (although we must warn you that the interest on those loans will continue to pile up).

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While you may not be able to control your employment opportunities, the federal government has provided loan holders with many opportunities to avoid default. Use them wisely, and you may be able to save your financial futures from further damage.

Which law schools had highest loan default rates for fiscal year 2014? [ABA Journal]


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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