https://www.law.umich.edu/financialaid/Pages/tuitionrates.aspx
Tuition: Michigan residents attending this school on a full-time basis will be charged $56,844 in tuition – for the 2017-2018 academic year. Out-of-state, full-time law students will get slammed with a bill of $60,090. For $ome rea$on, this in$titution lists these costs on a per semester basis. Apparently, the going rate for a “top-rate legal education” in the U.S. is now $60K per year. What a great bargain for the student, right?
By the way, law students here will also face the following fees, listed per term: $80 in registration; $9.19 for central student government; $1.50 in student & college government; $8.50 for student legal services; and $65 for a university unions & recreational sports facility improvement fee. And since law students are so special, they will also be charged a $25 student activities fee. Of note, “The first year there is an additional $20 fee per semester.”
These petty fees add $189.19 to the tab, each semester – for second and third year law students. It is an additional $209.19 for those in their first year. Then again, when you are slapped across the nose with a roughly $60K tuition bill, what is an extra $378.38 or $418.38 in fees? If you need to lay down after reading this section, that is understandable.
https://www.law.umich.edu/financialaid/Documents/budget.pdf
Total Cost of Attendance: The school was nice enough to include a different document labeled “Student Budget Fall-Winter 2017-2018.” They also list tuition and fees on that page as $$57,262 for in-state students and as $60,508 for non-residents. This augu$t in$titution of “higher education” estimates that living expenses will amount to another $19,510. There is one item missing, but it is addressed by the school:
“*Insurance - We feel strongly that all students should have excellent health insurance. Because we know that the majority of our students remain on their parent’s health insurance, we do not automatically build that cost into our budget, but are happy to increase your budget for the academic year with documented insurance costs. We also encourage all students to take out renters insurance.” [Emphasis mine]
What about those students who didn’t attend Andover Academy or summer in the south of France? At any rate, the rodents did not provide this line item. Even without this typically pricey commodity, the Estimated Total Cost of Attendance is listed as $76,772 for Michigan residents and $80,818 for out-of-state law students. By the way, the last law school profiled – the University of Chicago – listed health coverage at $3,972. This seems to be a fair cost, and it is in the same geographic region.
Seeing that real life law students will accumulate expenses for the entire year – and not just during the special time when they are enrolled in class – we will prorate the following areas: rent/utilities/food, as well as personal costs. The school lists them as $14,650 and $3,540, respectively. Books and supplies at $1,100 and loan origination fees of $220 will remain unchanged. After making adjustments for the full 12 months, and adding in insurance, we reach the following, more accurate COA figures: $86,807 for Michigan residents and $90,053 for out-of-state students. Remember, this is for one year of law school.
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings
Ranking: As you can see, the Univer$ity of Michigan Law $chool is rated as the 8th greatest and most amazing law school in the country, by US “News” & World Report. In fact, it only shares this distinct honor with one other in$titution, the University of Virginia School of Law. Truly, this is a tremendous accomplishment - as it is better than nearly 200 other ABA schools.
https://www.law.umich.edu/careers/classstats/Documents/ABASummaryClassof2016.pdf
Employment Placement Statistics: Here is the school’s Employment Summary for 2016 Graduates. There were 327 members of this class. Fully 317 of them landed full-time positions, within ten months of receiving their law degrees. Of course, five of them were in short-term jobs – and 11 were employed in posts funded by the law school or university. That is still a 97% placement rate.
Under Employment Type, you will see that 31 grads from this cohort landed jobs in firms of 251-500 lawyers – and 126 were in offices with more than 500 attorneys. Another 42 reported being in federal court clerkships. This means that 60.9 percent of the 2016 class – from the co-8th best law school in the entire nation – received the best jobs. Imagine your odds if you attend the 61st or 83rd “greatest” ABA-accredited diploma mill.
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/grad-debt-rankings/page+2
Average Law Student Indebtedness:US “News” lists the average law student indebtedness - for those members of the Univer$ity of Michigan Law Class of 2016 who incurred debt for law school - as $146,309. Furthermore, 73% of this school’s 2016 graduating cohort took on such debt. Keep in mind that this amount does not debt from undergrad. It also does not take accrued interest into account, while the student is enrolled. Then again, perhaps it is a bargain. After all, it is co-ranked 8th best law school – and it is rated 30th highest, as it pertains to law student debt.
Despite the prohibitive costs of attending this school, more than 1/4 of the 2016 graduating class did not incur any student debt for law school. Good luck competing against them for the best positions. Their father or uncle can make a few phone calls and get them into the choicest jobs. My guess is that these are the same people who are still on their parent’s Cadillac insurance plan. Worrying about such expenses is for working class men and women.
Conclusion: In a way, reviewing these supposed elite law schools is more illuminating than going over the typical second tier diploma factory. For instance, who in their right mind wouldn’t blink upon seeing these outrageous tuition amounts? We are also noticing a trend, i.e. large segments of these schools’ recent graduating classes are not taking out a single dime in student loans for law school. Guess who has the inside track on the best jobs, even though they don’t really need those positions?