Financial Planning Calculator
Cost of Attendance
Boston University School of Law determines a Cost of Attendance or Student Budget for each academic year that includes tuition, fees, and an allowance for living expenses. The Cost of Attendance is the maximum amount of financial aid that a student may receive including scholarship aid, grants, and loans. You should assume that the Cost of Attendance will increase each year. The calculation below defaults to an increase of 3% but can be modified as you choose.
This calculator is provided as a service to prospective students and provides only an estimate of costs and repayment options based on information provided by the prospective student. The cost of attendance, availability of federal student loans, terms and cost of private educational loans, and repayment options may change over time. The estimate does not represent a determination or actual award of financial assistance. The School of Law does not guarantee that any student will qualify for federal or private loans.
Additional financial planning tools and resources can be found on our Financial Planning page.
Federal Loan Repayment Options
Knowing how much you may need to borrow for law school is only part of the equation. Federal loans have a number of repayment options that offer you choices to help accommodate a variety of circumstances.
The Department of Education has a Loan Simulator on their website that provides a way to explore the different repayment options that are available.
You can use the estimated Total Debt at Repayment calculated above in the Loan Simulator to see what your monthly payments would look like under different repayment options that are available. Add the loans to the Loan Simulator as indicated below:
- For the Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan enter the three-year total and select the Direct Unsubsidized Loan with an interest rate of 8.08%
- For the Direct Graduate PLUS Loan enter the three-year total and select the Direct PLUS Loan for Graduate/Professional Students with an interest rate of 9.08%.
These interest rates are an average of the interest rates for the federal loans. Interest rates for the federal loans change each year.
The Loan Simulator will ask questions to determine which repayment options may be best and will ask for information about your Adjusted Gross Income, Family Size, and State of Residence. This information is used to calculate a monthly payment for the Income Driven Repayment Plans.
The Income Driven Repayment Plans calculate a monthly payment that will change as your income changes. You can use one of these repayment options regardless of the type of employment that you have. They can be particularly helpful if you intend to pursue public interest employment – especially if you hope to benefit from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.