Today’s post is written by Rebecca Sivitz, graduate of Penn Law School and former proofreader for Law School Expert.
With the current status of the economy and legal hiring market, many applicants are, rightfully, sensitive to the enormous cost of law school tuition. This is obviously even more of an issue for those interested in public interest work, where the paycheck can be less than 1/3 of a biglaw salary. LRAP programs are a great option for people interested in public interest law. If you aren’t familiar, Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP), forgive some (or all!) law school debt and/or can offer lower loan payments for public interest lawyers. I’ve compiled a list of the most helpful sites I could find on LRAP that can hopefully serve as a great resource.
General LRAP Info
For basic info about what an LRAP is and who might qualify, as well as private (non-school) funding sources, check out: http://www.finaid.org/loans/forgiveness.phtml
The ABA also has a nice background on LRAP: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_aid_indigent_defendants/initiatives/loan_repayment_assistance_programs.html
The Equal Justice Works website is a fantastic resource (there is more information on the than this page but it is somewhat hidden so search for LRAP in the site’s search bar): http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/ed-debt/students/loan-repayment-assistance-programs
For Virginia Lawyers: http://www.vsb.org/docs/valawyermagazine/jj01loan.pdf
District of Columbia Bar Foundation: http://www.dcbarfoundation.org/component/content/category/46-lrapfaqs
Individual Law School LRAP Programs (not an all inclusive, but a good start)
This list is fantastic and a great starting point: http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/resources/student-debt-relief/law-school-lraps/list-law-school-lraps
Top Law LRAP
Stanford Law School (LRAP program actually includes a calculator on its site to figure out what your payments would be)
Harvard (Harvard also published this tilted but interesting view of comparing LRAP)
LRAP at Other Great Schools
Washington University School of Law
Great LRAP Options for those with lower LSAT scores
William Mitchell (participates in Minnesota LRAP)
Suffolk
Hofstra (see pages 13 and 14)
2 Responses
This post is AWESOME, thank you so very much. I have some specific questions for certain schools & always prefer not to sound like an idiot… do people pronounce this “L-RAP” or “L-R-A-P” in conversation?
Great question, Caroline! It’s L-Rap!