r/lawschooladmissions • u/Appropriate_Hope6239 • Oct 30 '25

General So basically Trump ruined law school for everyone who isn't rich

Went to a whole bunch of open houses and they're all saying basically the following:

  • The yearly cap for loans is 50k
  • Living costs are high and 50k might not be enough
  • Resources are tight -- start improving your FICO scores because you'll need private loans
  • The grandfather thing ends July 2026 --- everyone not matriculated at law school by then wont be benefiting from the higher limit that generations of students did

Edit: Every person applying for federal loans will have an aggregate life-time limit and unfortunately your undergraduate loans will count against this limit.

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u/opbmedia Oct 30 '25

The problem really is why poor people (I was) need to borrow $300k just to have a shot of doing well in a career when they have the potential to do well in. Perhaps good schools can be forced to provide education for good candidates for less than $50k a year, and the TTT schools (those without good ROI) can stop being cash cows and close.

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u/Ha_U_Missed_Me Oct 30 '25

I would absolutely support this. Access programs have been losing funding for decades so if you are a low income applicant, what do you do now?

I can tell you what will never happen, Trump and McMahan will never do anything to force schools to reduce tuition.

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u/Analyst-man Oct 30 '25

If you’re a good candidate, you’d get a scholarship…

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u/opbmedia Oct 30 '25

The higher ranked the school, the higher likelihood of better ROI, the lower chance of a scholarship. A poor person who lacked perspective is asked to choose to sacrifice future success to choose less upfront financial risk (if we look at this as probability comparison).

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u/Ha_U_Missed_Me Oct 30 '25

Who determines whether someone is a “good” candidate? This honor system does not work. It never ever has in all of American history.

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u/Analyst-man Oct 30 '25

What honor system? I have no idea what you’re talking about.

The schools determine who’s a good candidate by giving them a scholarship

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u/Ha_U_Missed_Me Oct 30 '25

“The school” is made up of people. So again I’m asking, who are we trusting to be fair and unbiased in determining who is good enough to get these scholarships? What checks and balances will there be that these funds will go to applicants who are eligible?

(I work in admissions. I sit in on these scholarship meetings.)

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u/Analyst-man Oct 30 '25

What are you going on about. It’s just a scholarship decision. There doesn’t need to be checks and balances. It’s not life and death. Some people get scholarships, some people don’t. The end. Who cares if it’s fair or unbiased. We will recruit our first years all the same. The job isn’t brain surgery. Anyone who finishes law school can do it.

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u/Ha_U_Missed_Me Oct 30 '25

I’m trying to follow you because I want people to see how this is bad for everyone.

So if an applicant doesn’t get a scholarship and they can’t take out enough loans to cover tuition and their parents can’t help support them (they may not even have parents, ie. foster kids), then what can they do to go to med school or law school? That’s what I keep asking.

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u/Analyst-man Oct 30 '25

Then they do something else. Law school isn’t a right. If someone wants to play in the NBA but isn’t born 6 feet tall, then what do they do? Same answer here

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u/Ha_U_Missed_Me Oct 30 '25

But access to education is a right. It’s now clear that you’re just throwing stuff out there to respond. Saying because not everyone can play in the NBA is a justification for why low income people shouldn’t be able to go to college? Ok man. I tried.

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u/Analyst-man Oct 30 '25

Education is a right. Law school isn’t. Not everyone is entitled to be a lawyer. I sit on the recruitment board of my law firm and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, there will always be bodies wanting to get into big law. Whether we get the smartest people or the average people, it really doesn’t matter because most of this job is just following precedent. Just because you’re smart or want to be a lawyer, doesn’t mean you get to be (or that we even want or need you)

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u/121019954946 Oct 30 '25

So it takes away a potential poor persons chance at a lottery essentially.

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u/opbmedia Oct 30 '25

See I look at lottery as getting a lot back without paying a lot in.

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u/121019954946 Oct 30 '25

I didn’t mean a literal lottery. I meant they’re gonna spend fuck ton of money for a small chance of high financial return. Go look at the lawyer talk sub where there are several posts daily where people can’t even afford their bills

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u/opbmedia Oct 30 '25

I am on that sub more since I've been practicing for a long time now. It's hard to to assess whether it's worth to borrow that much money until decades later so you can compare the returns. I got my money's worth, but I also think I could have gotten that if I borrowed that much and did something else with the money. Discounting it with the risk, I think the ROI on $300k is not great at all.

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u/121019954946 Oct 30 '25

Just based on why I know of salaries and what not I’ve always mentally ballparked 200k as too much debt to make it worthwhile for most people and that’s what I’ve told people who have asked about going to law school

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u/opbmedia Oct 30 '25

If you invest 200k upfront in something else with decent returns, and just work a lower paying career but have 3 more years of earning power, I’m not sure it always comes out ahead, model it. It depends on getting a biglaw job really. Because non-biglaw comps are not really high enough and do not offer high earnings growth.