Law Schools

Are Law School Tuition Freezes Going To Be Making A Comeback?

It looks like at least one law school is on board with the idea.

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When news of the unbearable weight of student loan obligations for law school graduates were making headlines and their employment rates were looking even less palatable, tuition cuts and freezes were once all the rage at law schools across the country. After all, prospective students needed to be wrangled into law schools’ otherwise empty seats somehow. Today, thanks to smaller law school class sizes, while the overall employment picture is looking brighter (even if artificially), law graduates are still burdened by incredibly heavy debt loads.

Will law school tuition freezes be making a comeback? It looks like at least one law school is on board with the idea.

Aside from going to law school in paradise, there’s now one more reason to consider the University of Hawaii William R. Richardson School Law: thanks to a new tuition freeze, the price to go to Hawaii Law will remain the same until 2023.

“This is a tremendous benefit for anyone beginning to think seriously of applying to our rigorous yet uniquely supportive Law School,” said Dean Avi Soifer. “It is also greatly beneficial for students who are already enrolled, and those planning to apply for this fall before the July 1 application deadline.”

The current tuition for Hawaii Law students is $22,392 for residents and $45,816 for non-residents. Is a tuition freeze really going to help graduates of this law school?

It depends.

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Hawaii residents will be happy, but it’s another story entirely for out-of-state students attending the school. According to the Hawaii’s employment statistics for the class of 2018, 64.2 percent are employed in full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage is required, but next to none of them are employed in law firm jobs with salaries large enough to reliably service a six-figure debt load. At least Hawaii Law is trying to do something to handle this problem, though, unlike other law schools.

Will other law schools step up decrease or freeze tuition in an effort to assist their graduates with their future loan payments? We certainly hope so, but in the meantime, time is ticking and interest on current students’ loans is already piling up. The time to make a decision is now. Help your future graduates as much as you can.

Freeze Means UH Law School Tuition Stays The Same For Five Years – through 2022-23 [Hawaii Law]
Hawaii Law to freeze tuition for four years [National Jurist]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked 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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