Law Schools

Legal Education Cost Is Even Higher than First Estimated, Transparency Group Says

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Law School Transparency is revising its estimate of the cost of financing a law school education—its new numbers are even higher for those paying full, out-of-state tuition prices.

The group initially said the average cost of borrowing money for law school will be about $195,000 for students who start school this year, and about $200,000 for students beginning law school next year. The group’s new figures put the numbers at $210,796 and $216,406 respectively, the National Law Journal reports.

The group says it discovered that some schools had underreported cost-of-living expenses to U.S. News & World Report, and that affected the calculations. Law School Transparency also discovered mistakes in its own handling of some of the data. In particular, the group says its figures for the City University of New York were too low.

The figures are based on the assumption that students will borrow the full tuition amount and, if they attend public schools, that they will pay out-of-state tuition levels. The estimates include interest, tuition increases and inflation.

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