Cost of law school drives where students enroll, new LSAC study shows
Anticipating substantial loans to finance their education, the vast majority—84%—of first-year law students in 2024 said cost was a driving factor for choosing a law school, according to a new study by the Law School Admission Council.
The 2024 1L class expects an average of $76,300 in law school debt by graduation—and 17% are preparing to owe $150,000 or more, according to the study, Funding the First Year: How 2024 1Ls Paid for Law School, released Wednesday.
Those numbers are “striking,” says Elizabeth Bodamer, the LSAC’s senior director of research, but they might be low.
“My gut is saying that this is their first year, so they’re probably underestimating,” Bodamer says. “How many are factoring bar prep into the numbers?”
For minorities, the anticipated debt is even higher, with Black/African American 1Ls estimating $108,713 in debt after graduation—or 43% higher than all 1Ls—and 31% preparing for debt of $150,000 or more, according to the study. Additionally, first-generation college graduates are bracing to owe an average of $84,796 for law school expenses, almost 20% higher than those who followed their parents to college.
The LSAC’s 2024 Matriculant Survey, which the new study used to collect data, is the first time that the LSAC has asked new law students how they made financing their law school studies a reality, Bodamer says. These new questions were included in the annual post-LSAT questionnaire emailed each fall to all law school matriculants, she adds, and more than 2,000 responded.
The study underscores the importance of school-specific scholarships and grants, which helped about one in five 1Ls to pay 76% to 100% of their total costs. But racial and ethnic minorities received them at a rate 15% lower than white students, the research shows.
Slightly less than half of 1Ls—46%—took out federal loans to handle some portion of their law school costs, and about a quarter of those students used the loans to pay 76% to 100% of their first-year costs, the study found.
This is particularly true for racial and ethnic minorities, 50% of whom took out federal loans, compared to 44% of their white peers, and they anticipate an average law school debt of $97,197, almost 50% higher than that of nonrecipients, the study shows.
If the Trump administration’s proposed One Big Beautiful Bill Act was approved by Congress, it would eliminate Grad PLUS loans, a primary vehicle for law students to pay for school, and place new annual and lifetime limits on federal student loans.
Other top sources of funds, along with scholarships and federal loans, are personal savings and money from families, the study shows.
“Lack of finances becomes its own gatekeeper, which is obviously not something that is desirable,” says Gisele Joachim, the LSAC’s vice president for law school engagement. “It’s really only the wealthiest of students that would be able to see their way through law school without any loans, scholarships.”
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