Law school loan limits for 2026: paying for a JD without Grad PLUS

Classification: professional under the May 2026 final rule, and unchanged by the court stay.

Graduate or professional?

Law (L.L.B. or J.D.) is one of the eleven fields named in 34 CFR 685.102(b), and the Department’s court-stay list keeps it there. New JD students therefore get the professional limits: $50,000 a year in Direct Unsubsidized Loans and $200,000 in total. An LL.M. or other post-JD law degree is not one of the listed degrees, so ask the school how it classifies it; most will treat it as a graduate program with the $20,500 limit. A JD-MBA or other joint degree counts as professional only if more than half of its credit hours count toward the JD (34 CFR 685.203(l)).

Federal loan limits that apply

Every loan is also limited to cost of attendance minus other financial assistance (34 CFR 685.203(j)), loans for less-than-full-time enrollment are reduced in proportion (685.203(m)), and schools may set lower limits for a whole program.

What law school costs

Tuition alone at private law schools averaged $59,759 in 2025, and resident tuition at public law schools averaged $32,051, according to LSAC’s LawHub, which compiles what schools report to the ABA. Those averages do not include fees, housing, food, books or health insurance, which add roughly $30,000 to $45,000 a year at the schools below.

On debt, AccessLex reports that the graduating class of 2023 owed an average of $100,213 in law school loans, citing NALP data. Federal data for 2019–20 show JD completers who borrowed owed an average of $132,740 for graduate school alone, and 64.3% had graduate loans (NCES Digest Table 332.45).

Cost of attendance at 13 law schools, 2026–27

First-year budgets from each law school’s own cost-of-attendance page or ABA disclosure for 2026–27, for a single full-time student.

Cost of attendance as published by each school for the year shown, before grants and scholarships. The gap column subtracts the $49,471 that reaches the school from a $50,000 Unsubsidized Loan after the 1.057% fee, using the first cost column. Budgets differ in what they include (health insurance, summer terms, months covered); see the notes. Schools not listed did not publish a total we could verify.

Worked example

A new 1L enters a private law school in fall 2026 with a cost of attendance of $124,600 a year (Georgetown’s 2026–27 full-time budget) and a $20,000 annual scholarship, with costs held flat.

Federal loans put $148,413 toward the $313,800 need over 3 years after $1,587 in origination fees, leaving $165,387 to cover with scholarships, savings, service programs or private loans. At a public school with a resident budget near $64,000, as at Texas, the same $50,000 loan would leave about $14,400 a year before any scholarship.

Open this example in the graduate loan limits calculator and replace the figures with your own aid offer.

Already enrolled before July 1, 2026?

The old rules continue for you if you were enrolled in this program on June 30, 2026 and a Direct Loan for the program was disbursed before July 1, 2026. Any Direct Loan counts; you did not need a Grad PLUS loan. For your “expected time to credential,” the lesser of three academic years or the part of the program you had left on July 1, 2026, you keep $20,500 a year in Unsubsidized Loans, any higher health-profession Unsubsidized amounts your program had, Grad PLUS up to cost of attendance, and no lifetime limit (34 CFR 685.200(b)(2)(ii) and 685.203(b)(2)(iv)(B), (e)(6), (j)(3)). Withdrawing or leaving the program ends the exception. Afterward the new limits apply, and every loan you borrowed, including legacy Grad PLUS, counts toward the $257,500 lifetime limit.

For a three-year JD, anyone who finished 1L by June 2026 with a Direct Loan for the program has at most two years left, so the exception covers the rest of law school, including Grad PLUS. Part-time JD students in a four-year program who had finished one year have three legacy years and face the new limits in their final year. Part-time students’ loans are also reduced in proportion to their enrollment under 34 CFR 685.203(m).

The legacy checker applies the same enrollment and loan tests, and the graduate calculator models legacy years.

Ways to close the gap

• School aid first. Law schools award most scholarships at admission, and many will reconsider an award when a student shows a competing offer. Negotiate before you deposit, and ask whether the award is renewable and on what conditions. Ask the aid office whether it has changed institutional aid or set its own lower loan limits for your program; schools may now do that under 34 CFR 685.203(m)(2).
• Loan repayment assistance. Many law schools run loan repayment assistance programs (LRAPs) that help graduates in public-interest and government jobs make their loan payments. Ask how the program treats private loans, since some cover only federal debt.
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness. PSLF still forgives the remaining federal Direct Loan balance after 120 qualifying payments while working full time for a government or qualifying nonprofit employer. The final rule lists the new Repayment Assistance Plan as a qualifying repayment plan (34 CFR 685.219). It does not apply to private loans.
• Private student loans, last. Banks, credit unions, online lenders and some state agencies lend to graduate students, usually up to cost of attendance minus other aid. They are credit-based, so rates and fees vary and a cosigner may be needed. Compare APR, whether the rate is fixed or variable, in-school and post-graduation deferment, forbearance, and death and disability discharge. Federal loans keep income-driven repayment (the Repayment Assistance Plan) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness; private loans do not. We do not recommend specific lenders.

Compare other programs on the grad school loan limits hub: Medical school (MD, DO), Dental school (DDS, DMD), Pharmacy school (PharmD).