UC Davis law school offers interest-free loans to some students

DAVIS
September 28, 2009 11:09am

A program to ease the debt burden of graduates whose passion for public interest law leads them to lower-paying jobs is being expanded by the University of California, Davis, School of Law.

The law school's Loan Repayment Assistance Program provides annual interest-free loans to UC Davis graduates who take a qualifying job with a nonprofit or government agency.

The loans must be used to help pay off law school, undergraduate or graduate school debt. The law school then forgives all or a portion of the loans, depending how much the participant earns.

Beginning January 2010, graduates who take qualifying jobs that pay $60,000 a year or less will be eligible for a loan, up from the previous salary cap of $53,000. Each loan will be forgiven at the end of the year, assuming the participant remains in a qualifying job, down from a five-year wait for loan forgiveness eligibility.

Participants who continue to work in a qualifying job may reapply for the program for up to 10 years, the usual term for education loans -- meaning that participants who spend a decade in public interest law could erase all of their student loan debt, the university says.

Those who earn $40,000 or less are eligible for full annual loan forgiveness. Those who make $40,000 to $60,000 are eligible for partial loan forgiveness.

"Our law school has been in the lead in California in encouraging students to pursue careers in the public interest," says Kevin Johnson, dean of the law school. "This expansion comes at a critical time as low-income people struggle for access to justice. We hope that it will encourage more students to pursue their dreams of a public-interest career."

UC Davis law students currently pay $33,948 a year in student fees, up 19 percent from last year. The average UC Davis law graduate leaves school with $66,620 in debt.