Friday, July 20, 2007

Fee Hike Absolute

Blah Blah Blah fee hikes. After three years, I just can't feign interest. Honestly, can DS bump the Lionel Hutz thread?

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posted by Armen Adzhemyan at 9:32 AM

4 Comments:

Blogger Tom Fletcher said...

From the article, quoting Dean Edley:

"The goal is to ensure that we have the resources to be a top-10 law school. Aspiring to mediocrity is anathema to us. My students, faculty and alumni want a great law school, not an average one, provided there is financial aid and loan forgiveness to ensure our access and freedom of career choice."

So, essentially school will cost two staggeringly different rates depending on whether you choose work that qualifies for LRAP (the "most generous" in the country). If you do, school will be cheap (free?). If you do not, school will costs $130,000 in fees, plus (conservatively) another $20,000 in living. Plus interest.

Result: Berkeley no longer is cheaper for students interested in private sector work, who will then choose to go to cheaper schools.

2d result: As the stream of privately-employed students dwindles, fees must keep going up to subsidize loan forgiveness programs.

Steady-state of vicious cycle: school bankrupted because no one who can repay will come and there will be no budget for loan forgiveness.

Just a theory, a possible future of fee hikes that "match" our peer institutions. But I perhaps impolitically suggest that ever-increasing fees necessitating ever-increasing loan forgiveness will create a "two schools" problem in Boalt. I can't imagine that's healthy. Nor do I imagine the faculty all feel equally on this point.

Admittedly, while the amount I care diminishes as I near exit like Armen, I'd still rather not see Boalt fall apart. I've liked it here.

7/20/2007 11:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

students interested in the private sector will still come, especially if it's the top school they got into.

all schools cost a ridiculous amount. i don't know what cheaper schools you are talking about. you may be able to get grants from other lower-ranked schools, but many people will continue to go to boalt and pay full price rather than take financial aid grants and go to a lower-ranked school, where the guarantee of biglaw employment is not nearly as high.

so i don't think your doomsday situation quite pans out, although I could see a circumstance where the quality of Boalt student goes down, which will have a similar troubling effect. Someone who gets into Columbia, UPenn, etc. no longer have an incentive to come to Boalt for the better in-state price. Might as well go to the higher-ranked private school if it's going to cost the same. Thus #s for students coming to Boalt will fall, and our US News rank will go down anyway.

So I don't think people will stop paying for school in the same ratios (tho i don't know how sustainable or fair the LRAP program is to those paying full price), but what I can see is the quality of student falling, the #s falling, and our US News rank falling. All of which defeat some of the purpose of the fee increase.

How little do you have to make to get LRAP, and are your loans totally forgiven? I will agree that going too far with LRAP may create a two-schools issue, though I think that is already pretty evident at Boalt in the divide between public interest people and the rest.

7/20/2007 11:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It will really depend on where the private school tuitions go. If Boalt goes above them, it will be very harmful. If Boalt ties them, it will be somewhat harmful. If Boalt stays at a small but not insignificant amount less, then it shouldn't hurt anything. I suspect that private school tuitions for top schools will track biglaw lawfirm salaries.

7/20/2007 2:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Incoming 1L here. Forget private institutions, how does what Boalt's facing compare with other public institutions, like UVA and Michigan?

7/21/2007 12:32 PM  

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