Law Schools

Some Law Schools Are Struggling Thanks To Their Tuition Cuts

Tuition increases are probably coming back to law schools -- soon.

By  
on

For years now, law schools have been criticized for their high tuition rates, which in turn have contributed to — if not outright caused — law school graduates’ enslavement to their student loan debts. Once the recession hit and joblessness ran rampant among new entrants to the legal profession, prospective students figured out that a law degree was no longer a golden ticket, and many law schools were left with empty seats. In search of a way to fill them, they decided to slash their exorbitant tuition rates in order to attract new students and compete with other law schools for strong(er) applicants.

Now, those tuition discounts are coming back to bite some law schools in the ass.

According to a recent study of 36 private law schools sponsored by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the AccessLex Institute, more than half of respondents said that their tuition discounts were unsustainable for the long term. (Survey questions were sent to 113 private law schools, but only 36 responded.) As noted by Law.com, these schools increased tuition discounts between 2015 and 2016, and a decline in net tuition revenue followed.

This is the list of law schools that participated in this study:

Ave Maria School of Law
Albany Law School of Union University
Baylor University
California Western School of Law
Campbell University
Capital University
Case Western Reserve University
Creighton University
Drake University
Elon University
Fordham University
Georgetown University
Howard University
Lincoln Memorial
Loyola University – New Orleans
Michigan State University College of Law
Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Pepperdine University
Quinnipiac University
Regent University
Roger Williams University
St. Mary’s University
Samford University
Seattle University
Seton Hall University
St. John’s University
Stetson University
Suffolk University
Syracuse University
Thomas M. Cooley Law School
University of La Verne
University of San Francisco
Vanderbilt University
Vermont Law School
Wake Forest University
Washington and Lee University

Researchers for the study divided the participating law schools into two groups: those with high tuition ($49,000 to $50,000) and those with low tuition (about $37,000). Which law schools felt that their tuition cuts would be sustainable? From the study:

[T]he survey asked schools about their perceptions of sustainability—whether their institutions’ tuition discounting practices are sustainable in the short term (over the next year), in the long term (over more than one year), or not sustainable at all. The majority of respondents perceived their schools’ practices to be sustainable to some extent. On average, 47 percent believed tuition discounting would be sustainable in the short term, while the same proportion thought it was sustainable over the long term. About 11 percent of schools in the high tuition group felt their practices were not sustainable, however.

Sponsored

That… doesn’t seem like it works out very well for students. In the back of our minds, we all knew that tuition cuts wouldn’t last forever, but we didn’t know that some law schools were struggling with them such that they thought they would only sustainable for another year. We didn’t know that other law schools thought their tuition cuts were completely unsustainable. This is scary, for law students and law schools.

In the very near future, some law schools will be forced to raise their tuition costs. Some law schools will be forced to close. Could this happen to your law school? Please email us or text us (646-820-8477) with any information you might have. Thank you!

Tuition Discounting Study of Private Law Schools 2016 [AccessLex Institute]
AccessLex Institute and NACUBO Release Law School Tuition Discounting Study [AccessLex Institute]
Law Schools Say Tuition Discounts Not Sustainable: Survey [Law.com]

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.

Sponsored

Topics

, , , , ,