Financing Your Legal Education

Be sure to thoroughly evaluate all available options and carefully review the terms and conditions before submitting your application.

• University of Miami's Preferred Lender List - https://grad-prof.miami.edu/types-of-aid/loan/index.html
• ELMSelect Private Loan Options - https://www.elmselect.com/v4/school/485/program/4/program-detail

Institutional Scholarships (Merit-based Aid)

All merit-based scholarships for incoming students are awarded by the Office of Admissions. Scholarships are highly competitive and granted to admitted students on a rolling basis. The majority of scholarships are awarded between January and April of each admission cycle or until the scholarship funds are exhausted. Applicants who wish to be optimally placed for scholarship consideration should complete their application for admission no later than the JD priority application deadline.

Merit-based scholarships are also available to rising 2L and 3L students. Information about how to apply for these continuing student scholarships will be distributed each spring semester.

External Scholarships (Need-based or Merit-based Aid)

Any scholarship offered from a source other than the University of Miami is referred to as an external scholarship. External scholarship funds will be divided equally between the fall and spring semesters unless otherwise indicated in writing by the donor. Please note that if external scholarship funding is received after you have been packaged with a federal loan, your federal loan will be reduced by the amount of the scholarship to keep your total aid award within your Cost of Attendance.

Miami Law maintains a webpage of external scholarships. AccessLex also maintains a databank of external scholarships.

Florida Bright Futures Scholarship (FBFS)

The Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program establishes lottery-funded scholarships to reward Florida high school graduates for high academic achievement. FBFS recipients who graduate with a bachelor’s degree in the 2010-11 academic year or thereafter, in seven or fewer semesters, or the equivalent, may receive funding for one semester of graduate study, not to exceed 15 credit hours paid at the undergraduate rate through the FBFS Program. Your FBFS award will be part of your financial aid package at the University of Miami. An FBFS award will reduce federal loan eligibility, which will assist in decreasing future loan debt. For more information and to check your FBFS eligibility, please log in to your account on the FBFS website or contact the Florida Department of Education, Office of Student Financial Assistance, at 888-827-2004 or osfa@fldoe.org.

Your parents or another adult might have invested money into an FLPP to fund your college education. Some incoming law students may have remaining FLPP funds and do not realize they may use them toward law school tuition and fees. To have Florida Prepaid Plan funds applied to your account, please review the instructions provided on the Florida Prepaid College Program page. For additional information about the Florida Prepaid Plan, please visit this webpage or call 1-800-552-4723 (option 2).

Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan

All eligible law students are offered this loan as part of their award package. Need and creditworthiness are not requirements.

• This loan is capped at $20,500 each academic year.
• The interest rate is 7.94% for a loan disbursed on or after July 1, 2025, and before July 1, 2026.
• Interest accrues on the loan while you are in school.
• The loan origination fee is 1.057% for a loan disbursed on or after October 1, 2020, and before October 1, 2026. For example, if you borrow $20,500 of this type of loan, $20,284 would be applied to your student account ($10,142 a semester). For assistance in calculating the origination fee, please see the Federal Loan Revision Calculator.
• Completion of the Graduate Loan Entrance Counseling and the Master Promissory Note at studentaid.gov are required.

Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan

All eligible law students are offered this loan as part of their award package. Need is not a requirement, but a credit check is required.

• The Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan is offered up to the Cost of Attendance less any scholarships and $20,500 of the Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan, if eligible.
• The interest rate is 8.94% a loan disbursed on or after July 1, 2025, and before July 1, 2026.
• Interest accrues on the loan while you are in school.
• The loan origination fee is 4.228% for a loan disbursed on or after October 1, 2020, and before October 1, 2026. For example, if you borrow $20,000 of this type of loan, $19,154 would be applied to your student account ($9,577 a semester). For assistance in calculating the origination fee, please see the Federal Loan Revision Calculator.
• Approval for this loan is based on a credit check completed by the Department of Education at the time of origination. To qualify for a Graduate PLUS Loan, you must not have an adverse credit history. Borrowers who are denied the Graduate PLUS Loan, will be asked to meet additional requirements to qualify.
• Please be sure to lift the security freeze on your credit before accepting the Graduate PLUS Loan to avoid any delay in disbursement.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) serves as the application for the federal loan available to Miami Law students. Submit your FAFSA as soon as possible after it is released (October 1) so that your financial aid package is available to review as you make your decision to attend Miami Law.

When entering the school information, please select Florida under State and type Miami Law under School Name. To verify that you entered the correct school name, you will see that the Federal School Code for the Univ of Miami School of Law is E00532.

If you selected the wrong code (001536), remove it and add the correct one to expedite the awarding process.

As a graduate/professional student, you do not need to provide your parent’s financial information when completing the FAFSA. On the Student Education page under the Student Demographics section of the FAFSA, please be sure to indicate that you will be working on a graduate/professional degree in the upcoming school year.

The preferred FAFSA filing date for Miami Law is February 1, but the final deadline for each academic year varies based on your enrollment.

For more information and instructions on how to complete the FAFSA, please visit studentaid.gov.

The Office of Financial Assistance and Employment will send you an email notification once you have been packaged.

Your financial aid package will be posted on CaneLink. To view/accept your loan, please follow the instructions outlined here. 

Before accepting your loan, we strongly recommend that you develop a budget to determine how much you will need to cover your expenses. Please carefully consider how much money you will actually need to avoid borrowing more than you need. You do not have to accept the full loan amount you are offered and are encouraged not to do so, if possible, in order to minimize your debt. If you choose to borrow less loan funding than you were offered, please fill out and submit the Grad/Law Loan Revision Request Form to indicate the amount you would like to borrow, then accept your loan on CaneLink after the revised loan amounts are reflected. You can learn more about the loan revision process here.

Your institutional scholarship should be visible as part of your aid package. If you are an incoming law student who has been awarded an instiutional scholarship, and it is not part of your aid package, please contact the Office of Admissions for assistance. If you are a current law student with an institutional scholarship, and it is not part of your aid package, please contact Lidiette Esquivel at scholarships@law.miami.edu.

If the Office of Financial Assistance and Employment has requested additional documentation to complete your financial aid package, it should be submitted via the Grad/Law Document Submission Form. Documents may include proof of citizenship, amended tax returns, and other documents required by the Office of Financial Assistance and Employment.

Once you have accepted your loan, the Office of Financial Assistance and Employment electronically submits the certified loan to the Department of Education (DOE).

Once you have accepted the loan, please complete the following required documents at studentaid.gov. You can find more information about this process here.

• Graduate Loan Entrance Counseling
• Master Promissory Note (MPN) for the Direct Unsubsidized Loan
• Annual Student Loan Acknowledgment (recommended, not required)

If you have been awarded any external scholarship awards, please notify the Office of Admissions via email at admissions@law.miami.edu before enrollment.

We recommend signing up for direct deposit, which will allow your loan refund to be deposited into your bank account. You can learn how to sign up for direct deposit here.

Federal Title IV financial aid funds (Direct Unsubsidized Loan) will be automatically applied to any eligible pending charges on a student’s account. Eligible charges include tuition, fees, room/board, and other qualified educational expenses.

After eligible charges have been paid, there may be an excess of federal funds. Excess funds may be used to pay other pending University charges (i.e. health insurance fees, parking fees, library fines, etc.) but students must authorize the University to do so.

To authorize the University to apply your excess federal funds to any outstanding University charges, please follow the instructions outlined here.

Students may choose not to authorize the use of Title IV funds for these additional expenses. However, this may lead to a balance remaining on their account, which they will then be responsible for paying.

For additional information about the Title IV authorization, please click here.

Your tuition bill will be posted on CaneLink several weeks before classes begin. If you have accepted your loan, it should appear as anticipated aid on your bill. For more information on how to view your bill, please click here. If you have additional questions about your bill, please contact Canes Central.

Federal loan disbursement occurs once the above steps are properly completed. Once the federal loan is disbursed, the federal loan funds will be applied to the charges on your student account, including any charges you have authorized the University to pay using federal loan funds (see Complete Title IV Authorization above). Any excess federal loan funds will be refunded so that you may pay for costs not charged through the University, such as housing. If all the steps have been completed in a timely fashion, students can expect their federal loan refunds within the first two weeks of school. Please plan accordingly.

The Grad/Law Loan Revision Request form is used to adjust a federal loan. In addition to the options listed on the form, it can also be used to request an increase if credits have been added, resulting in higher tuition. The form is available here.

For assistance in determining the loan amount you would like to request on the Loan Revision Form, please use the Federal Loan Revision Calculator. You may also refer to this Canes Central knowledge article to learn more about the federal loan revision process.

This form allows a student to submit additional documents such as proof of citizenship, amended tax returns, or other documents requested by the Office of Financial Assistance and Employment. This form is available here.

A federal student loan is made by the government, with terms set by law and many benefits (such as fixed interest rates and income-driven repayment plans) not typically offered with a private loan.

In contrast, a private loan is made by private organizations such as banks, credit unions, and state- based or state-affiliated organizations, and have terms and conditions that are set by the lender. For more information, please visit studentaid.gov.

Federal aid can be used to pay towards your Cost of Attendance, which is the estimated cost to attend the University for one academic year, not including the summer semester. It is also the maximum amount of all aid you can receive from any source for the academic year (fall and spring semesters).

Accepting your loan by mid-July will allow ample time for processing and disbursement in a timely manner.

The federal government will send your loan funds each semester to the University of Miami, and the University will apply your loan funds to the balance on your student account. Any loan funds available beyond your account balance will be issued to you as a loan refund. You may receive your loan refund by check in the mail or via direct deposit. You are encouraged to sign up for the direct deposit option on CaneLink, as this is the quickest way to receive your funds. Loan refunds are typically issued within the first two weeks of class each semester. If you have further questions, please contact Canes Central.

A loan origination fee is assessed by your lender (e.g., for a federal loan, the federal government) to help offset the cost of processing your loan. The origination fee is assessed on each loan disbursement. For the Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan, the loan origination fee is 1.057% for a loan disbursed on or after October 1, 2020, and before October 1, 2026. The Loan Origination Fee can be calculated using the Loan Revision Calculator.

If you would like to make changes to your loan amount, you can do so by using the Grad/Law Loan Revision Request Form. The deadline to accept your loan or make changes to your loan is approximately two weeks before the end of the enrollment period, which can be the end of the semester or the end of the year. If you have any questions, please contact Canes Central.

If you are flagged by the Department of Education and need to supplement your financial aid application with additional documents such as proof of citizenship, amended tax return, or other documents requested by the Office of Financial Assistance and Employment, you should upload these items via the Document Submission Form. You may also need to complete and submit the Original Document Affidavit with your requested documents.

You must complete a new FAFSA each year. Next year's FAFSA will be available on October 1. If you have already completed a FAFSA for the current academic year, you do not need to complete a new FAFSA to be offered a loan for the summer.

The scholarship retention policy may be found here.

For students borrowing a federal loan, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program helps make it financially feasible to go into a career in public service. There are also fellowships available through the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center. For additional information on both programs, please click here.

Yes. Miami Law has partnered with BARBRI, the largest bar preparation company in the United States, to create the Miami Pass Program. This program will provide you with a bar preparation course discount and additional study resources during law school. The cost of this course is included as part of your mandatory student fees throughout your time at Miami Law.

If you are interested in a private bar study loan, please research the options available on ELMSelect.

Visit the Veteran Services website to learn about the available resources.

Miami Law has partnered with AccessLex Institute to bring its students a personal finance education program specifically for law students and Miami Law alumni available at no cost. Throughout their time in law school, Miami Law students have access to the following:

- all of AccessLex’s online finance lessons, webinars, and in-person workshops;
- one-on-one financial counseling sessions with any of AccessLex’s MAX Accredited Financial Counselors;
- scholarship incentives to motivate students to engage in the material. AccessLex will award over $110,000 to 1Ls through MAX Scholarship drawings during the academic year! The more modules you complete that are designated as scholarship drawing entries, the better your chances of winning.

Current Miami Law students may register for AccessLex using their UM email address. Incoming Miami Law students will receive registration instructions during the onboarding process.

• AccessLex Student Loan Calculator
• AccessConnex by AccessLex Student Loan Helpline
• AccessLex Law School Scholarship Databank
• The Road to Zero: A Strategic Approach to Student Loan Repayment Guide
• Upcoming Webinars and Events
• Ask EDNA! — The Education Network at AccessLex
• MAX by AccessLex

• Federal Student Loans 101
• Financial Aid Options and How to Apply
• External Scholarships (from Miami Law’s listing)
• Scholarships for Incoming JD Students (from Miami Law's listing)
• TheDream.US Alumni Scholarship
• Dreamers Graduate Loan Program

• Miami Scholars Public Interest Program Scholarships
• HOPE Fellowships
• Public Service: Financial Support and Loan Forgiveness

• MAX by AccessLex personal finance education program via Ask EDNA!
• AccessConnex by AccessLex one-on-one financial counseling
• U.S. Department of Education Exit Counseling for federal loan borrowers
• Federal Loan Repayment Plans
• Federal Student Aid Ombudsman Group