Tangerine Gleam wrote:From what I remember from my visit, these were some of the features which made Boalt's LRAP particularly generous. Some of these traits may be shared with other schools, but I think the fact that Berkeley boasts them all makes its LRAP one of the best around.
- The income cap is much higher than other schools. I think it's $58,000 -- so if you make less than that in a public interest/non-profit job, Boalt will pay 100% of your loan for each year that you're there. I know many other T14 schools have much lower caps -- as low as $35k or thereabouts.
- Even if you exceed the income cap in a public interest/non-profit capacity, they will still help. They don't just cut you off...they start to vary the percentage they'll cover by how much above the cap you make.
- I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure that the Admissions rep told me that if you work in public interest for 10 full years after law school, they will automatically clear ALL remaining debt after 10 years. I specifically remember hearing this, but it's not anywhere on the LRAP site that I can find, so I'm not positive.
- You can leave the LRAP and come back. You're still eligible even if you don't take a PI job straight out of school. You could work in a firm for 6 years and then take a government job and the LRAP would still kick in at that time.
Any current Boalt students (or all-around Boalt knowledgeables) please correct me or chime in!
Tangerine, what an informative and helpful post! THANK YOU!! I remember reading somewhere though that the income cap was $100,000. I know that sounds insane but that's what I saw on their site a few weeks ago unless I read it wrong or it was about something else. I had a tough time believing it also and made sure I read it a million times but that's what my memory recalls.
Either way thanks for your post and I hope someone else can add to it!