Enhancing Columbia's LRAP
Dean Abebe shares a message announcing adjustments to Columbia's LRAP, which are designed to simplify the benefit calculation and give students and alumni greater flexibility to determine the post-graduate financial position that maximizes their career aspirations and best reflects their personal circumstances and family status.
Dear members of the Columbia Law School community,
At Columbia Law School, we pride ourselves on offering one of the most generous programs of support for students and graduates pursuing careers in the public interest. A cornerstone of our commitment in this area is the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), which helps reduce the burden of student loan debt for Law School graduates working in public interest and public service organizations.
Over the past several years, the Law School has worked diligently—often informed by feedback and input from students and program participants—to enhance LRAP. The income threshold under which loan repayment is fully offset was raised multiple times and new benefits, such as the Public Service Bridge Loan, have been introduced. As part of our ongoing efforts to optimize LRAP, I am pleased to announce the following adjustments to the LRAP benefit calculation beginning August 1, 2025:
Treatment of Spousal Income: For married participants, the LRAP benefit calculation will be determined by the tax filing status on the federal income tax return (i.e., married filing separately or married filing jointly).
Married Filing Separately: When a married couple files federal income taxes separately, spousal income will not be used in the LRAP benefit calculation. (Please note: Spousal educational loan debt is not taken into consideration when filing separately. Dependent allowances will be considered in the calculation only if the dependent is claimed on the participant’s federal tax return.)
Married Filing Jointly: When a married couple files federal income taxes jointly, the income figure used for calculations will be either the participant’s income or one-half of the calculated joint income, whichever is higher. Joint married couples will continue to be eligible for spousal debt and dependent allowances.
Treatment of Untaxed Income: The LRAP benefits calculation will no longer add untaxed income items (e.g., untaxed housing or health care allowances) to a participant’s Adjusted Gross Income (AGI).
These items were recommended by the Public Interest/Public Service Lawyering (PIPSL) Committee after receiving feedback from students and program participants. The Committee issued its ultimate recommendations after conducting extensive research and convening multiple discussions with faculty, students, and senior administrators. These recommendations are designed to simplify the benefit calculation and give students and alumni greater flexibility to determine the post-graduate financial position that maximizes their career aspirations and best reflects their personal circumstances and family status. I am grateful to the members of the PIPSL Committee—which includes faculty, students, and administrators—for their diligent efforts.
Finally, as you may know, Columbia LRAP eligibility is not dependent on enrollment in the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. Columbia’s LRAP continues to be funded by the Law School, but we nonetheless recognize the ongoing uncertainty regarding the PSLF Program and will continue to monitor any developments at the federal level.
The Office of Financial Aid will be in touch with LRAP participants to provide further guidance and more detailed information about these changes. As always, we encourage you to contact team members in the Office of Financial Aid and/or the PI/PS Office with questions.
Sincerely,
Daniel Abebe
Dean and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law