4 Best Law School Loans Of June 2024

While the decision to go to law school is a profound step in anyone’s career, it’s also an expensive one. Personal savings, scholarships and federal student loans may only be able to get you so far with covering tuition. If you require additional funding, you may consider private student loan lenders that offer law school loans.

Below, CNBC Select rounded up the best law school student loans. We focused on loan amounts offered, fees, repayment terms and interest rates. (See our methodology for more information on how we made this list.)

Who’s this for? College Ave is ideal if you prefer a longer repayment term as its law school loans offer repayment terms from five to 20 years. A longer repayment term can be appealing because it means smaller monthly payments.

Standout benefits: Payments are not required while the borrower is still in school. However, borrowers who make payments during school can choose from three payment options: the full principal and interest, interest only and a flat $25 monthly payment to reduce your accrued interest.

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Who’s this for? Citizens can be attractive if you don’t want to re-apply for funding every year of school. Thanks to its multi-year approval, you can apply for all years of law school in one go. By comparison, traditional federal student loans require you to reapply for every year you will be attending school and need funding.

Standout benefits: There are no origination fees, application fees, disbursement fees or prepayment penalties. You can get a 0.25% rate reduction for enrolling in auto-pay, plus an additional 0.25% off if you already have an account with the bank. 

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Who’s this for? Ascent is perfect if you don’t want to deal with surprise fees. It doesn’t charge an application fee, origination fee or disbursement fee for its law school loans. There is also no prepayment penalty for paying off your balance earlier than expected.

Standout benefits: Ascent offers a 9-month grace period for borrowers after graduation or after they’ve left their program. It also offers rewards like 1% cash back on principal loan amounts at graduation.

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Who’s this for? Earnest is great for flexibility because you can take advantage of a 9-month grace period after graduating where you won’t be required to make any repayments. Plus, you can skip one student loan payment per year without being penalized, but you must submit a formal request ahead of time to do so.

Standout benefits: Earnest doesn’t charge any late payment fees, origination fees or disbursement fees.

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College Ave stands out for offering competitive interest rates, plus no application, origination or prepayment fees. You can get a 0.25% rate discount by connecting your bank accounts and setting up autopay. The lender also offers hardship protections like deferment, forbearance and grace period options. 

Loan amounts

$1,000 to $150,000

Loan terms

5 to 20 years

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Citizens is a brick-and-mortar bank that offers loans for a variety of advanced education funding, including master’s degrees, MBAs, law school, medical school and dental school. It also offers hardship protections like forbearance, and student loan borrowers can start repaying while still in school.

Loan amounts

$1,000 to $225,000

Loan terms

5 to 15 years

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Ascent offers a long list of graduate school loan options beyond law school loans, including MBA loans, medical school loans, dental school loans, doctorate and master’s loans and health professional loans. It allows students to borrow up to the total cost of their program as long as it doesn’t exceed a $400,000 total funding limit. You can choose between a fixed or a variable rate, and there’s an up to 1% interest rate discount for autopay. There are also deferment and forbearance options available if needed.

Loan amounts

Up to $400,000

Loan terms

5 to 15 years

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Earnest allows applicants with a minimum FICO® Score of 680 to apply and accepts co-signers if needed. It also allows borrowers to receive a 0.25% interest rate discount by enrolling in autopay and offers borrower protections like a 9-month grace period.

Loan amounts

Maximum up to the cost of attendance

Loan terms

5 to 15 years

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At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of student loan products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best graduate school student loans.

To determine the best law school student loans, CNBC Select analyzed and compared private student loan funding from national banks, credit unions and online lenders. We narrowed down our ranking by only considering those that offer competitive student loan rates.

While the companies we chose in this article consistently rank as having some of the market’s lower interest rates, we also compared each company on the following features:

• Broad availability: All of the companies on our list offer undergraduate and graduate private student loans, and they all offer variable and fixed interest rates to choose from
• Flexible loan terms: Each company provides a variety of financing options that borrowers can customize based on their monthly budget and how long they need to pay back their student loan. Each company also allows borrowers to start repaying their student loans while still in school, ultimately saving them money
• No early payoff penalties: The companies on our list do not charge borrowers prepayment penalties for paying off loans early
• Streamlined application process: We made sure companies offered a fast online application process
• Autopay discounts: All of the companies listed offer an autopay interest rate discount
• Private student loan protections: Each company on our list offers some type of financial hardship protection for borrowers
• Loan sizes: The above companies offer private student loans in an array of sizes, all the way up to the cost of college attendance. Each company advertises its respective loan sizes, and completing a preapproval process can give borrowers an idea of what their interest rate and monthly payment would be
• Credit requirements/eligibility: We took into consideration the minimum credit scores and income levels required if this information was available
• Customer support: Every company on our list provides customer service available via telephone, email or secure online messaging. We also opted for lenders with an online resource hub or advice center to help borrowers educate themselves about student loans in general

After reviewing the above features, we sorted our recommendations by best for long repayment terms, best for no fees, best for flexibility and best for multi-year approval.

Note that the rates and fee structures for private student loans are not guaranteed forever; they are subject to change without notice and they often fluctuate in accordance with the Fed rate. Choosing a fixed-rate APR will guarantee that one’s interest rate and monthly payment will remain consistent throughout the entire term of the loan.

A borrower’s interest rate depends on their credit score, income, debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, savings, payment history and overall financial health. To take out private student loans, lenders will conduct a hard credit inquiry and request a full application, which could require proof of income, identity verification, proof of address and more.

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