Skip to main content

Student Loans May Get Capped, and That's a Good Thing

By William Vogeler, Esq. on December 04, 2017 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Did you ever think the road-less-traveled might just be a dead end?

Not to rain on anybody's pond, but maybe the signs pointing away from law school are a warning. Maybe the law school financial crisis, job scarcity in the profession, and the future of legal tech are pointing to, well, the future.

And now the federal government may cut back student loans?! No worries, this is actually a good thing.

Road Less Traveled

Venturing into law school -- and especially student debt -- is scarier than a walk in the woods. So if the government cuts back your road to more debt, that's good news.

Limiting loans is not enough of a reason to forget a legal education; you can do that after you pass the bar. Seriously, not going into debt is actually the better path to law school.

If you haven't thought about scholarships, transfers, deferred admissions, and other financial strategies, it's time.

Other Paths to Law School

The real problem is law schools are in a financial crisis, a trickle down effect from economic pressures that have made law jobs harder to get. Add to that a shift in the profession from law practice to law technology, and yeah.

These changes should factor into every prospective law student's calculus, even if they don't do math. Actually, this is why law school enrollments are down. Many students have done the math, and law school debt doesn't add up.

It's also why the federal government is thinking about cutting back student loans and loan forgiveness. They don't want to lose more money on loan defaults.

But in case you still follow the student debt path, Michael Simkovic, professor of law and accounting at USC, says the government's pending tax plan may free up more money from private lenders and reduce regulation of for-profit colleges.

Copied to clipboard