Additional Considerations from Step 2

Financial aid is more than just grant assistance. Education loans are a large percentage of the total financial aid available (and needed) to finance the cost of graduate/professional education. Financial aid comes from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Government, private education loan funds, HLS institutional funds, Harvard University funds, and outside awards & scholarships sources. Here are some of the major categories of funding available through our office:

U.S. Federal Loan Programs

• All U.S. citizens and eligible non-citizens are able to borrow from the Federal Direct Unsubsidized loan program regardless of credit worthiness. If you complete the FAFSA, your Federal Direct Unsubsidized loan amount will automatically be offered to you.
• U.S. citizens and eligible non-citizens who are legacy federal borrowers can borrow up to the remainder of the cost of attendance from the Federal Grad PLUS Loan Program, which does have a credit worthiness component.
• Note that effective July 1, 2026, there have been changes to federal student loans. Be sure to review the latest information on the availability of federal loan options.

Private Education Loans

• All students (U.S. citizens and international) have the option of borrowing funding from any number of private education loan sources to cover up to the full cost of attendance. The private loan programs covered in HLS’s Student Loans webpage may offer a substantially lower total repayment cost than Federal loans. Before applying for any loan, you’ll want to review our “How Do I Choose A Loan Program?” page which will help you evaluate your loan options

Institutional Funds

• HLS distributes need-based grant assistance to all students that qualify based on our institutional need analysis guidelines. In addition to grants, HLS also distributes a more limited amount of its own need-based loans to students who meet this same criteria.

Outside Awards & Scholarships Sources

• Students can receive funding from a wide variety of outside sources. You can learn more about outside scholarships by visiting the Outside Scholarships section of our website. Students who secure outside awards and scholarships are required to report them to our office so that we can add them to the student’s financial aid eligibility; however, these awards are used to reduce borrowing and do not ordinarily reduce any HLS Grant eligibility.

Students are eligible for Harvard Law School Grant and Loan assistance solely on the basis of demonstrated financial need. The School does not offer “merit” or “full-ride” scholarships (which typically are not need-based,) because these would necessarily reduce the resources available for need-based aid and increase the debt burden of every financially needy student. For students whose demonstrated financial need does not reach the threshold for Law School Grant eligibility, Federal loans and private education loans are available to meet education expenses.

Need-based aid, by definition, assumes that the student and their family have primary responsibility for financing the cost of education. The role of institutional financial aid is to close the gap between the cost of education and the potential level of contribution from the family resources as determined through a uniform and consistent system of need analysis.

Unlike merit aid programs, need-based aid applies a consistent, equitable set of awarding policies to every aid applicant. What truly distinguishes Harvard Law School’s financial aid program from most merit aid programs, however, is that it measures financial need not just over the three years of law school, but potentially over the decade or more that graduates are repaying loans. Many graduates who do not qualify for need-based HLS Grant assistance do qualify for substantial grant assistance from the Low Income Protection Plan (LIPP), Harvard Law School’s loan repayment assistance program. In this way, Harvard Law School helps make education accessible to every student through need-based financial aid, and preserves a broad range of career choice options for graduates through need-based LIPP assistance.

Financial need is the difference between the total cost of attendance (the student budget) and the student and parent resources calculated by Student Financial Services. There are two standardized formulas used to determine family resources. The first is called Federal Methodology. HLS is required by law to use this formula, established by the U.S. Congress, to determine a student’s eligibility for federal financial aid (for graduate students, this means eligibility for federal loan assistance). Federal Methodology is limited in scope, ignores some key forms of income, and eliminates some substantial types of assets from the need consideration. The data used to complete this analysis is collected via the FAFSA. Graduate students are always treated as independent for the purposes of determining eligibility for federal aid and do not need to submit any parental information on the FAFSA.

The second formula is known as Institutional Methodology. This formula is nationally accepted, developed by the College Board, and governed by a committee of advisors made up of representatives from colleges and universities. Most institutions that have a substantial amount of their own institutional aid dollars, like Harvard Law School, use this formula, or a variation of this formula, to determine a student’s eligibility for institutional need-based grants and loans. Institutional Methodology is more robust, incorporates a more extensive array of data points, and therefore more accurately and equitably reflects a family’s financial strength. The data used to complete this analysis is collected via our Parent Application forms (found on the SFS Self-Service Portal) and from required Federal tax form data. Parent financial resources are always considered by HLS when applying for need-based grants and loans, unless a student reaches the age of 29 on or before September 1st of the academic year for which they are seeking financial assistance. All students who will not reach age 29 by September 1st of the academic year in question should be sure to provide all detailed financial data for all of their  parents (including any step-parents if their parents are divorced and remarried). See the Consideration of Parent Resources section of our website for more information about our policies on the consideration of parental resources.

In order to be eligible for need-based grant assistance, a student must have demonstrated financial need. For more information about how this works, please refer to the section of our web site that details our financial aid packaging procedures.

If you do not qualify for Grant assistance in your first year because of our calculation of your parent’s resources, you may wish to apply under “Loan Only” status in subsequent years. The application process is simplified for loan-only applicants, because only student information is collected to receive loans. However, even if you do not qualify for Grant assistance in your first year, we encourage you to apply again in the future if your family circumstances change. Such changes could be additional siblings in college, a reduction in parent income and/or change in employment, or your eligibility to have our calculation of your parent’s resources reduced as a result of your age. We can answer any questions you have about your particular eligibility or our analysis of your family’s resources, and the Financial Aid Committee considers appeals for aid recalculations in response to changed circumstances at any time during the academic year.

You can, at your option, use either Federal or private education loans to bridge the gap between your other aid and the total cost of attendance. Many students use their own resources, such as savings from summer income and assets, to reduce the amount of  additional borrowing required. Some students also receive help from their parents, apply for outside scholarships, or work during the academic year to reduce their borrowing.

Available data indicate that HLS graduates are able to repay their student loans and that student loan defaults are rare. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Education indicate that the cohort default rate for HLS graduates averages 0.29% over the most recent 5 year period. That said, student loans are a significant financial responsibility and loan repayment requires careful and conscientious planning.

Most students, especially those who need to replace parent resources, borrow a significant amount to finance their legal education. The average HLS-related debt for 2025 graduates was $185,953. Although many students graduate with education loan debt above the average, salaries available within the private sector of the legal profession can ordinarily support these debt levels. To explore further, use the Take-Home Pay Estimator to help you estimate the impact of loan debt on your take-home pay after law school. It is also worth remembering that the increased income potential provided by a JD remains in effect for the remainder of one’s career.

For graduates in lower-paying public service and law-related private sector jobs, the Low Income Protection Plan (LIPP) can reduce the debt repayment to a manageable level. You can also contact the LIPP Staff to learn more about LIPP.

While education borrowing is likely to be a wise investment in your own future earning potential, it is also wise to borrow only what is necessary to meet the basic education expenses covered in the financial aid budget, in combination with your own resources, your available family resources, and any alternate funding sources such as term-time employment or outside scholarships. Even though LIPP assistance can help lower-income graduates repay loans, you should always think of education borrowing as loans you will repay, since you as the borrower are ultimately responsible for their repayment. Many graduates choose a different career path than the one they expected to pursue upon entering law school. Because it is difficult to know with certainty what kind of work you will want to do after law school, it is sensible to make borrowing decisions carefully and develop a realistic plan for repaying your student loans.

Your Student Budget Maximum

While your student budget establishes the annual limit on the amount of financial aid (grants, loans, outside scholarships, etc.  from all sources) available to you, some students choose to live under the budget and borrow less while others use a combination of resources that add up to the maximum amount of their student budget.

Keep in mind that if you are borrowing from a loan program that deducts fees prior to disbursement (such as a federal loan,) you may increase your loan request by the amount of the fees and we will increase your student budget for this expense.

Your LIPP Eligible Borrowing Amount

If you are interested in LIPP, pay attention to your maximum LIPP eligible borrowing amount and try not to borrow more than that amount.

Your maximum LIPP eligible borrowing amount is listed in the Budget & Award section towards the bottom of the page and labeled LIPP: Borrowing Eligibility and Formula. Your LIPP eligible borrowing amount may be a lower figure than the maximum amount that you can borrow under the standard student budget.

You can still borrow over your LIPP eligible amount up to the standard student budget maximum; however, the excess amount will not qualify for LIPP assistance after you graduate. Under LIPP, students are responsible for the entire monthly loan payment amount that exceeds their LIPP eligibility.

Number of Loan Disbursements Per Academic Year

Once you know the amount you’d like to borrow, be sure to apply for one loan, per individual loan program, for the entire academic year’s amount.  All loans will disburse directly to your student account in two equal installments; one per semester.

Interest accrues from the date of disbursement on each unsubsidized loan.  Almost all loans at the graduate level are unsubsidized with the exception of the HLS loan given only to HLS grant recipients . Since your loans are disbursed in two equal installments, interest only accrues on the fall portion of your loan until the spring semester when we disburse the spring portion of the loan on the first day of spring term.

Some lenders may give you the option of applying for a fall only or spring only loan. This option does not save you time or money and it will require you to submit a second application for the spring semester or the next time you need funds.  Applying multiple times throughout the year will increase your monthly loan payment amount since each loan has a minimum monthly payment amount. Therefore, if you apply for three $1000 loans throughout the year, each one will have a $50 minimum monthly payment for a total of $150, while a loan of $3000 has a monthly minimum payment amount of $50. You should check with your lender regarding their minimum monthly payment policy.

When you receive your loan disclosure letter from your lender, you will see a disbursement date that is after the first day of school.  This is because we do not disburse loans until we know that you are enrolled and have met all of our disbursement requirements. Until your loan is actually disbursed, we will list it as an anticipated credit to your student account. The disbursement date has no effect on your ability to receive any excess money on your student account.

Notes:

• Bear in mind that these are general examples to give you an idea of how anticipated financial aid credits and your fall charges interact on your student account.
• The anticipated aid numbers do not account for any potential fees deducted from your loans before disbursement, if you chose to borrow a federal loan; the net proceeds from federal loans are lower than the gross borrowing amount due to an origination fee.
• The student receiving a grant (Example 1) and the student who is a full budget borrower (Example 2) have elected to apply for the maximum student loan amount possible to bring their total aid to the maximum amount of their student budget of $126,650 and demonstrate a student’s eligibility for a fall cash advance which are used to cover any non-billed expenses, such as off-campus rent.
• In all these examples housing/rent was not addressed. If you will be residing in a dormitory, your room will appear on your student account as a semester charge both in July and December. If you will be residing in Harvard Real Estate Services’ housing (HU Housing), your monthly rent will be billed to your student account. You must pay your rent charges on your student account each month. If you will be living off-campus in housing not affiliated with Harvard University, you should expect to use your own personal resources and/or cash advance, if eligible, to pay off-campus rent.