NYU Law School Cost: What To Do If You’re Stuck With Huge Loan Bills

The New York University School of Law has a great reputation, but it also comes at a high cost. You’ll have a solid chance at a Big Law job coming out of NYU, but the debt burden you face should make you stop and pause. Is it an NYU Juris Doctor (JD) worth $350,000? That’s where the cost of the NYU School of Law is headed.

We’ll show you how the all-in price of the law school of New York University leaves you with more debt than expected, what the cost could be for future JD students, and how to handle your NYU law school debt if you’ve already got it.

How does the cost of the NYU School of Law get so high?

NYU School of Law total cost of attendance is one of the highest in the nation. The school itself charges a hefty price for tuition, but the location in New York City also raises the additional cost of borrowing substantially (e.g. living expenses and personal expenses). It’s a lot more expensive to pay for rent in Manhattan compared to some other comparable law school locations.

NYU’s law school also ranks as one of the best law schools in the country. It’s consistently rated in the five to seven range by most media sites such as U.S. News & World Report. Princeton Review rankings place NYU School of Law as Number 1 for career prospects. It’s long been considered a premier T14 school.

With that value comes a very high price for NYU law school tuition and fees. Here’s the estimated NYU law student budget for 2020-2021 school year:

• Tuition – $68,348
• Health, Registration, Service and Tech Fees – $2,956
• Room and Board – $25,300
• Books and Supplies – $1,500
• Health Insurance (basic) – $3,645
• Miscellaneous – $1,144
• Technology – $1,000
• Loan Fees – $220

This makes the estimated total for one year of attendance $104,113. So, you'd think you'd leave with $312,339 of debt based on this estimate. But that's likely not the case due to hidden fees.

NYU School of Law hidden fees

There are a number of hidden fees that need to be factored in when determining the full cost of attendance at NYU School of Law.

Let's start with loan fees as the official estimate is woefully understated at just $220.

Law students borrowing more than $20,500 per year in federal unsubsidized loans need to take out Grad PLUS loans. This debt type has an origination fee of around 4.25%. For a $104,113 amount borrowed, the loan fee would be about $3,759 (1% of $20,500 and 4.25% of the remainder). So, expect to add on about $3,500 per year in loan fees.

Additionally, you'll need to account for the cost of interest accruing on your loans while you're still in school. This alone will add tens of thousands onto your total debt.

Plus, NYU School of Law’s cost of attendance has jumped by about 4% each year from 2017 to present day, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

For the 2018-2019 school year, the total cost was $96,845. The previous 2017-2018 school year was $92,906. In 2016-2017, the cost was $89,342.

Let’s assume the cost of attendance at NYU law continues to go up by a conservative 3% for future school years.

Here’s a look at the projected debt for students who began their first semester of NYU law school for the 2020-2021 academic year (assuming no scholarships and a normal course load).

Cost	1L	2L	3L
Pre-loan cost	$104,113	$107,236	$110,453
Extra loan fee	$3,340	$3,614	$3,786
Interest growth during school	$19,361	$13,302	$6,854
Total cost	$126,924	$124,153	$121,093

The grand total of NYU law debt would therefore be $372,170 at graduation for the class of 2023. As time goes on, that number will likely increase by 3% to 4% per year based on historical data.

How could NYU law school scholarships decrease this stated cost?

To their credit, the NYU School of Law offers a host of scholarships for law students. Many of these merit-based and need-based scholarships are based on the admissions application and financial aid process. Some of these could conceivably cover a substantial portion of the cost of attendance.

I had a lot of friends who applied to T14 law schools out of undergrad. If they were marginal undergraduate students with an average GPA for the institution, they could expect no scholarships or financial aid assistance. However, if they were in the top 10%, they’d often get a bunch of merit scholarships.

This is a game a lot of law schools play, and I’d imagine NYU does it, too. The top law students have a much better negotiating position than they did during the mid-2000s, even though the stated prices are far higher.

Of course, if you check the average reported law school debt from NYU, only 58% of grads have debt, according to U.S. News & World Report. Those who do have an average of $174,780.

My guess is that NYU engages in aggressive tuition discounting to get top students. It likely utilizes scholarships to lower the stated price and provides different amount of aid depending on the student. Additionally, the program has a lot of students from wealthy families.

If you can go to the NYU School of Law for a low price, that would clearly be a great deal if your goal is to work in the legal profession. But the stated price is what you should be wary of. From my experience, schools play games with statistics to conceal the debt burden of the highest quarter of federal student aid and private student loan borrowers in their law school classes.

How to tackle NYU law school debt at different levels

If you end up with more law school debt than you thought you’d have, you’re not alone. At a high level, you can go for forgiveness or opt to refinance your NYU law school loans.

Refinancing usually makes a lot of sense if you work in Big Law and owe less than 1.5 times your salary. If you work in New York City or California, First Republic Bank usually has the best deals.

If you don’t qualify, you could check with our list of refinancing lenders that all offer huge cashback bonuses in addition to the lower interest rate.

You might consider forgiveness if you owe more than 1.5 times your salary. At a government or nonprofit employer, you’d want to pursue Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). This program forgives your debt tax-free after 10 years of payments based on your income while you work at a qualifying employer full-time.

Assuming you got a non-Big Law private sector job with huge NYU law school debt, you could pursue income-driven repayment loan forgiveness. Select Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) or Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and make payments for 20 to 25 years. At the end, you must pay income tax on the forgiven debt. This form of forgiveness is less generous than PSLF.

An added complication is when you get married, you can choose to exclude your spouse’s income on certain repayment plans.

Getting help with big NYU law school debt

We’ve consulted on over $1.34 billion in student loan debt. NYU law grads have various loan programs and repayment strategies, which is a good thing. You could pay off your debt or go for forgiveness, so your choices are more complex than someone who went to a third-tier school who has no choice but to rely on income-driven repayment.

You can also file married filing jointly or married filing separately. That has big implications for your payments and your taxes as well. And most Certified Public Accountants you talk to about how this tax filing decision affects your student loans will be clueless.

If you already have a degree from the NYU School of Law, you’re in a better situation than most. That said, you could easily waste five or even six figures with an inefficient loan repayment strategy. Hit us up by email to learn how we could help or check our our custom planning service.

Did you know how much the NYU School of Law cost before you signed on? Did the debt surprise you? How are the employment prospects after school? Comment below.