Law Schools
Harvard Law Will Waive Tuition for 3Ls Planning Public Service
Posted Mar 18, 2008 4:50 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
At Harvard Law School, third-year students can attend the third year of law school for free—a savings of more than $40,000—if they pledge to work for five years with the government or a nonprofit organization.
Law school dean Elena Kagan told the New York Times the new waiver program is aimed at the growing problem of law school debt, which discourages grads from pursuing lower-paying public interest jobs. In 2006, the average debt was $54,509 for law graduates of public schools and $83,181 for those who attended private schools.
“We know that debt is a big issue,” Kagan told the newspaper. “We have tried to address that over the years with a very generous loan forgiveness program, but we started to think that we could do better.”
Grads who participate in the tuition waiver program, estimated to cost Harvard an average of $3 million a year, can also take advantage of loan forgiveness.
The law school will be tracking students’ careers. If grads don’t carry out their five-year public interest commitment, “then we’re going to ask for the money back,” Kagan said.
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Comments
msg
Mar 18, 2008 7:27 AM CST
I think this is a great program. I hope that more law schools follow. However, there are some law jobs in gov’t that pay pretty well. I would like to see a salary cap on those or a % of the tuition forgiveness reduced based on a salary above a certain amount, say $65,000 or so. I think this is especially helpful for public defenders who are paid virtually nothing and also new ADA’s who are also paid virtually nothing!
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Steven Ballard
Mar 18, 2008 8:33 PM CST
This is good, certainly, but the money Harvard wants to spend could probably be spent in a much better way. I like Harvard’s program at the undergraduate level - no tuition for anyone whose parents make $60K or less, and very little ($10K?) for those whose parents make $120K or less. That will truly help needy students to get an education that will not so encumber them with loans that they will feel they have no choice but to make a good income after graduation. This law school plan, however, will probably have the unintended effect of assisting those who don’t need the money, i.e., those who can “afford” to take the low-paying public interest jobs, because this program is too little of a good thing. What good is paying off the last year of law school, if one still has to pay loans on college and the first two years of law school? Many people I know who are in public interest jobs have some wealth in their families, or at least had enough money to pay for college and law school so that they didn’t have a huge loan debt to pay when they got out of school. I would think the program would be better if it were instead a loan forgiveness program and needs based. It should be focused on those who really need the help in order to be encouraged to take this noble path in their careers.
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