The Law School acts as a financial aid liaison to the University Office of Student Financial
Services for prospective and current students. While the
Law School assists you with the process of obtaining need-based
financial aid and administers merit-based scholarships, the
University Office of Student Financial Services is responsible for
creating financial aid packages and assisting students with
financial planning and debt management.
Tuition
Tuition for students enrolled at St. John's University School of
Law for the 2011-2012 academic year is $46,450 for the full-time
program and $34,840 for the part-time program. Tuition rates
for the 2012-2013 academic year are TBD. For budgeting
purposes, please refer to
this presentation, which outlines the
estimated annual Cost of Attendance ("COA") as a law
student in the 2011-2012 academic year. COA is a figure
that incluces tuition plus fees, books, supplies,
living expenses, personal expenses, and transportation.
When a prospective law student makes all required deposits to
become an incoming student at the Law School, their
invoice for the Fall semester will be available online on their UIS
account; the University no longer mails paper
bills. Information regarding the acceptable methods of
payments may be found
here. Tuition and fee payments are due prior to the
start of each semester. Students who are unable to make
payment in full prior to the invoice due date must execute a
tuition deferment agreement or select a law school payment
plan. More information on these options may be found
here.
Students entitled to tuition reimbursement from their
employers must follow the simple steps outlined here. Students
qualifying for Veterans Benefits should visit our Veterans Benefits website
and contact James
Stella for further information.
Merit-Based
Scholarships
As an applicant to St. John's University School of Law, you will be
considered for merit-based scholarship at the time your application
for admission is reviewed. No supplemental application is
required. If you are awarded a merit-based scholarship,
you will be notified of the amount and conditions of your
scholarship in your admission materials.
Most merit-based scholarships have a retention policy. For
scholarships awarded prior to Fall 2011, recipients were required
to rank in the top 50% of the class after each academic year
to retain their scholarship. The retenion statistics for the Fall
2009 and Fall 2010 incoming classes are as follows:
1L Scholarship Renewal Statistics, 2009-2010 Academic
Year:
-
Class rank required: Upper 50%
-
Number of matriculating first-year students: 315
-
Number of students awarded scholarships: 155
-
Number of scholarships renewed after first year: 90
-
Percentage of first-year scholarships renewed: 58.0%
-
GPA cut-off: 3.143 (full-time), 3.100 (part-time)
1L Scholarship Renewal Statistics, 2010-2011 Academic
Year:
-
Class rank required: Upper 50%
-
Number of matriculating first-year students: 341
-
Number of students awarded scholarships: 204
-
Number of scholarships renewed after first year: 114
-
Percentage of first-year scholarships renewed: 56.0%
-
GPA cut-off: 3.096 (full-time), 3.138 (part-time)
Average 1L scholarship retention rate for the last two
academic years: 57.0%
For scholarships awarded in Fall 2011, the scholarship retention
policy changed. Recipients must now rank in the top 40% of the
class after each academic year to retain 100% of their scholarship,
the top 55% of the class after each academic year to retain
75% of their scholarship, or the top 65% of the class after
each academic year to retain 55% of their scholarship. Because
we will not have data regarding scholarship retention with the
new Fall 2011 retention parameters until Summer 2012, the
statistics below are the estimated retention
statistics, as applied to the Fall 2010 incoming class:
Portion of Scholarship Renewed: 100%
-
Class rank required: Upper 40%
-
GPA cut-off: 3.229 (full-time), 3.338 (part-time)
-
Number of scholarships renewed at this percentage after first year:
92
-
Percentage of total first-year scholarships renewed at this
percentage: 45.1%
Portion of Scholarship Renewed: 75%
-
Class rank required: Upper 55%
-
GPA cut-off: 3.050 (full-time), 3.029 (part-time)
-
Number of scholarships renewed after first year: 29
-
Percentage of total first-year scholarships renewed at this
percentage: 14.2%
Portion of Scholarship Renewed: 55%
-
Class rank required: Upper 65%
-
GPA cut-off: 2.893 (full-time), 2.895 (part-time)
-
Number of scholarships renewed after first year: 19
-
Percentage of total first-year scholarships renewed at this
percentage: 9.3%
Portion of Scholarship Renewed: 0%
-
Class rank required: Below 65%
-
GPA cut-off: below 2.893 (full-time), below 2.895 (part-time)
-
Number of scholarships lost in full after first year: 64
-
Percentage of total first-year scholarships lost in full:
31.4%
Total Estimated Scholarship Retention (any
portion): 68.6%
For information about obtaining merit-based scholarships as a
continuing student, please refer to this
website.
Need-Based Financial
Aid
St. John's University School of Law encourages all applicants and
current students who need financial assistance for law school to
apply for need-based financial aid. There are two types
of need-based financial aid for St. John's law students for the
2012-2013 academic year: Federal Unsubsidized Loans (up to
$20,500) and Graduate PLUS Loans (available up to the COA of
law school, minus your eligibility for Federal Unsubsidized
Loans). Federal Subsidized Loans will no longer be available
incoming law students in Fall 2012, per the recent Budget
Control Act of 2011. The need-based financial aid process is
as follows:
Step 1: File Your FAFSA
The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
This form is used to determine the amount of money you are expected
to contribute to the price of attending law school (also known as
the Estimated Family Contribution) and, thus, the amount of
need-based financial aid St. John's will award you.
As soon as you apply to St. John's University School of Law,
file your FAFSA form online
with the federal government. When prompted, please
enter the St. John's University federal code,
002823. As a St. John's law student, you need not
include your family's financial information when completing the
FAFSA, as the federal government automatically considers you an
independent once you reach law school, regardless of whether your
parents still claim you as a dependent on their tax returns.
Please keep in mind that other law schools may
require you to include parental information, so if you
intend to submit your FAFSA to other law schools, please check
their respective policies.
As a continuing law student, you must file a renewal FAFSA each
year before March 1 to be considered for need-based financial for
the next academic year. Please be sure to remember your FAFSA
website PIN from the previous year so that you may easily log on
and file your renewal FAFSA.
Step 2: Financial Aid Packaging
If you are admitted, and if you have denoted St. John's as a
recipient of your FAFSA information as indicated above, the
St. John's University Office of Student Financial
Services will download your federal eligibility information
from the FAFSA you have submitted and create your financial aid
package. Your package is based on the merit-based
scholarship offered you by St. John's (if applicable), loan
eligibility as determined by the financial information
submitted on your FAFSA, and the Law School's current
COA. The University Office of Student Financial Services
begins packaging students in March and continues
to do so weekly throughout the admissions cycle. If you do
not receive your financial aid package within 2-3 weeks
of your notification of admission, and you have followed all
the appropriate steps with your FAFSA, please contact the
Admissions Office. For those admitted
before mid-spring, please be advised that you will not receive
your financial aid package until the first group of prospective law
students is packaged in March.
Step 3: Viewing Your Financial Aid
Package
You may view your financial aid package online via
your UIS student account. For newly admitted students, please
refer to your admission materials for UIS logon
instructions.
Step 4: Considerations Before Accepting Your
Loans
There has been much said recently about rising law student
debt and what can be done to prevent an undesirable financial
situation for students upon law school graduation and
beyond. Newly admitted and continuing law
students are highly encouraged to review
this presentation. It provides a realistic
look at how much the Law School costs, the average income of recent
Law School graduates in various legal fields, and how much the
loans the average St. John's law student takes out now will
cost in the future. Though it is easy to simply click
"accept" for all of the loans you are offered (see Step 5), please
take the time to be carefully consider the amount of money you
plan to borrow and what the consequences of borrowing that money
may be. You should not borrow more than you
need.
Step 5: Obtaining Your Loans
Please visit the Office of Student Financial Service's website to find tutorials
about how to accept your Federal Unsubsidized and Graduate PLUS
Loans. Any outstanding requirements for obtaining your loans
will be noted on your UIS account. Remember, you must also
officially accept your loans in order to obtain your loan
money by clicking "accept" next to each of your loan amounts on
UIS.
Step 6: Completing the Process
If you are a newly admitted student and have already completed
the financial aid process for another law school, please notify
them in writing that you are declining your seat so that the other
school may release your financial aid to other prospective or
current students there. You must decline all other
financial aid offers from others law schools in order
to accept loan funds from St. John's.
Additionally, it is of the utmost importance that you notify St.
John's in writing (via letter or e-mail) if you decide not to
attend St. John's in the fall. Upon such notice, the
Office of Student Financial Services will release any funds secured
on your behalf to other students in need. You will
not be able to obtain loan funds at another law school unless you
have declined your St. John's offer and financial aid in
writing.
Step 7: Loan Disbursement
Your Federal Unsubsidized and Graduate PLUS
loan funds will be disbursed directly to St. John's to
cover your educational expenses in two installments, one before
each semester. It is imperative that you start the financial
aid process sufficiently early to ensure your funds are available
before tuition is due. If the loans you accept exceed the
amount of tuition and fees due, this money will be credited toward
your St. John's account. If you would like the overpayment
credited to you via direct deposit to your bank account,
please complete and return
this form to the University Office of Student
Financial Services in Bent Hall. Please be advised that loan
reimbursements do not occur until after the semester has
begun.
Step 8: Alternative Sources of Financial
Assistance
Even though you may decide to accept some or all of the loans
offered you, students are encouraged to continue to seek
federal, public, and private scholarship opportunities throughout
their time at St. John's. Many of these can be found through
basic online searches based on criteria such as year in law school,
area of law of interest, geographical region,
etc. Others may be found on our
External Scholarships and Grants-in-Aid
website. Think creatively to reduce your debt!
If you and have further questions about the law student
financial aid process, please contact the Law School Admissions
Office at (718) 990-6474.