To attract the best students no matter where they are, we must provide them with the support they need to attend Yale Law School and reach their full potential. Outstanding students inspire faculty and classmates alike, and the ability to attract the very best candidates ensures the ongoing vitality of intellectual life at Yale Law School. However, with federal student loan programs covering a smaller proportion of student need, and the number of financial-aid-eligible students increasing, this is a time of crisis for many students. Already, approximately seventy-five percent of Yale Law students receive financial aid. Bolstering our aid packages will help us remain competitive, attract the finest candidates, and ensure that the next great legal visionary does not walk away from Yale for lack of financial support.

We seek to be able to encourage even more Yale Law graduates to choose careers based on personal preference rather than income potential. By strengthening our Career Options Assistance Program (COAP)—a loan repayment assistance program—we will provide the support to enable more graduates to follow their hearts, even if that means taking risks. Since the establishment of COAP in 1988, more than 1,170 Yale Law graduates have received more than $23 million in benefits, and many cite the program as a deciding factor in their choice to attend Yale Law School.

“Everything that I have done since graduating from law school was made possible by COAP,” says Amanda Moore ’00. “Because of COAP, I was able to return to my home state of Kentucky and clerk for the Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit. After that, I was able to accept a fellowship for my dream job—helping to create the Appalachian Citizens Law Center, an organization providing free legal services on health, safety, and environmental issues pertaining to coal mining. Our entire organization’s starting budget was about the same as my law school debt. Without COAP, I simply could not have done this work.”

In a similar vein, support for our Summer Public Interest Fellowship Program (SPIF) will make it possible for more students to spend their summers in service at public interest, government, or nonprofit organizations. Through SPIF, students with financial need are able to accept summer positions in these sectors across the country—and around the world.

“I came to the Law School hoping to use my law degree for some sort of government work, perhaps as a prosecutor,” says Karen Dunn ’06. “My first summer job was at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York. With SPIF funding I was able to live in New York City and work closely with an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the counterterrorism unit there. Many of my friends from the Law School worked in New York and in other cities, using their SPIF funds to help the homeless, assist public defenders, and litigate for nonprofits.”

Today’s Law School graduate typically departs with an average of $85,000 in debt—a staggering figure regardless of one’s starting salary, and a devastating obligation for our many students who pursue careers in the nonprofit or social service sectors. We must reduce their debt load and increase their options, encouraging even greater commitment among
Yale Law graduates to working toward the greater good.