The million dollar law degree (not that one)

I’ll confess I hadn’t been paying much attention to law school finances at the national level over the past few years — only at my school, which happens to be completely broke (we couldn’t even make payroll this current fiscal year without robbing the piggy bank aka “gifts,” but we just got an email about how we’re going to hire three to five more people this year unless somebody stops us; seriously the thing is when you hire faculty who had wedding announcements in the NYT you will never ever have a discussion about how to pay the rent, see if you can figure out why), but a few days ago I started delving into some national stats again, and whoa Nellie as Keith Jackson used to say.

An interesting thing that has definitely happened is that at non-elite schools effective tuition — that is, what students actually pay — has clearly gone down in real terms over the past ten years. Another interesting thing is that this has very much NOT happened at elite schools, which have kept raising their already crazy prices, although somewhat more slowly than in the palmy days before there were internets and scam blogs and irresponsible professors who want to bite that hand so badly.

Yet another thing is that because federal loan rates are tied to interest rates — the ten year treasury specifically — law school loans are now wildly expensive: 8% for the first $20K borrowed in a year, and 9% for everything beyond that. One thing that almost nobody ever discusses when discussing the price of these things is that interest accrues on these loans as soon as they’re disbursed. (BTW these loans will be around for three more years, because these programs are grandfathered for that long for anyone who signs up for them this year. After that the Trump bill limits federal loans to $50K a year, so private loans will have to fill a very large gap at many schools). So let’s take a look at what that means. through the lens of the Columbia Law School, to pick an adorable puppy out of the elite law school litter.

Columbia’s cost of attendance for the incoming 1L class is a bracing $125,416, of which approximately $88K is tuition and mandatory fees. Columbia’s cost of living estimates are really comical if seen from a distance: the good folks in Morningside Heights estimate that a student will pay $2,178 per month for rent and utilities, but that’s only for nine months, so the real amortized rate over 12 months is $1,634. According to the internets the average rent for an apartment in the borough is $5,600, although efficiencies (my college roommate called these “deficiencies”) run at around $3,750.

ANYWAY

42% of Columbia’s students paid sticker in 2023-24, which is the last year for which stats are available, and let’s see here . . . how much debt are you going to end up with if you borrow the full cost of attendance, assuming a 4% annual COL increase over the next three years?

Answer: $520,236, at an average interest rate of about 8.75%, which produces a nifty $47,400 per year IN INTEREST ALONE, once you have to start paying it, six months after graduation. This figure results from about $117,000 in accrued interest, and another $13,500 or so in loan origination fees, all tacked onto the $390K in principal.

Here’s a bit of historical data, to put things in proper perspective.

Columbia Law School Tuition & Fees in 2025 Dollars

1956: $11,500

1996: $48,915

I think that extrapolates out to a figure equal to 17% of US GDP in the year 2525, if man is still alive.