What The “One Big Beautiful Bill” Means For Law Students (And Other Potential Grad Students)
In the recent weeks, the US Senate voted to pass President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” which is a massive spending bill that includes tax cuts, and cuts on government spending. So how does this affect law students and other grad and professional students? Well, the bill includes caps on federal graduate loans, changes the ways that we are able to pay back our loans, and eliminates certain deferment and forgiveness programs. This will affect how students pay for their schooling in the future. In the article I will detail what this means for the future of professionals.
Caps on Federal Graduate and Professional Loans
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” eliminates programs such as the Grad PLUS loan program which will cease to exist after July 1, 2026. This also means that there will be a limit to how much one can borrow for law school and other pre-professional schools. For professional degrees, one can borrow up to $50,000 a year and $200,000 in their lifetime. This can be troubling for law students as the average costs of law school is $217k which is over the borrowing limit. The question begs what will come of this? I can see this going one of two ways. The first being that law schools may lower tuition. I say this because this might be a necessity in order for law schools to not have a shortage on law students. On the other hand, law schools may remain stingy and not change the prices which could make it so that only the rich will be able to go to law school. So how can a future law student prepare for this. First off it is important that you get good grades and a good LSAT score as this will determine how much scholarship money you get. The more scholarship money that you get the less that you will have to pay back. This will really help lighten the load. Also be careful with borrowing private loans as they can have predatory interest rates. Whatever you do, don’t give up and continue to pursue your dream career.
Elimination of Certain Deferments
The last thing I want to talk about regarding the “One Big Beautiful Bill” is that there will now only be two types of repayment plans which are the Standard fixed plan which is a 10-25 year payment plan and the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) which is a repayment plan that takes a payment that is 1-10% of discretionary income and forgiveness only after 30 years. There will be no other loan forgiveness plans and other deferment plans. This may make it so that it’s harder for some law students to pay off their debt. In order to get through this, it is important that you try to borrow as little as possible and go into a legal career that will allow you to pay off the debt. The future of paying for law school has change and it is time to adapt.
Conclusion
Despite these changes there is still hope for future law students. Things have changed but this just means that we need to adapt. It is now more important than ever that you as a future law student try your best to get good grades and a good LSAT score so that you can lessen the burden and the need to borrow money. The future of law school will change but the spirit of law students will not!!!!
