Repayment Assistance & Debt Relief
Repayment assistance and debt relief programs provide financial aid to graduates who have educational debt and take low-paying jobs, often doing public interest law or working in the government sector.
Our alumni can obtain substantial debt relief by combining the federal government’s loan forgiveness program with USF’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP).
With these two programs, JD graduates can pursue public interest or low-paying work and experience significantly reduced monthly payments and, ultimately, loan forgiveness. We encourage you to explore each of these programs, and how they relate to each other, below. Please contact our Financial Aid Administrator at lawfinaid@usfca.edu for more information.
Federal Income-Based Repayment Program
We strongly encourage all low-income graduates concerned about loan repayment to review and consider enrolling in the federal income-driven repayment programs, e.g., Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), or Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE formerly known as the REPAYE) plan. By limiting repayment amounts based on salary and family size, these programs could substantially reduce monthly loan payments. In addition, graduates should consider the Federal Loan Forgiveness Program, which can lead to complete loan forgiveness (after 10 years of public service, or 20-25 years of low-income work). Graduates do not have to work in public service to be eligible for the income driven repayment, or the long-term loan forgiveness programs.
USF Keta Taylor Colby Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP)
The School of Law offers additional loan repayment assistance to graduates pursuing public interest work. The Keta Taylor Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) is designed to enable students with significant loan burdens to pursue careers in public interest law.
Eligibility for Program participation is based on six factors:
- date of Juris Doctor degree
- employment in a qualifying public interest and law-related position
- total projected annual income
- monthly repayment schedule of outstanding educational debt
- length of time in the Program
- available Program funds
The income threshold and the formula for the recipient's expected contribution to repayment appear below. The full details of the program are explained in the LRAP Guidelines.
(1) Eligibility threshold:
- $75,000 annual income
(2) Applicant’s expected contribution toward loan repayment:
- Applicants earning less than $65,000: may cover the full reimbursement of income-driven repayment, e.g., ICR, IBR, PAYE, SAVE monthly payments.
- Applicants earning $65,000-$70,000: graduate pays 35% of income over $65,000 toward income-driven plan payments; School of Law pays the remainder.
- Private loans: Income Driven Repayment applies to federal loans only, not private loans. The School of Law may assist private loan repayment with the participant’s loan burden which exceeds 10% of his/her/their annual gross income and in accordance with the Guidelines.
Guidelines - USF Keta Taylor Colby Public Interest Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) for 2025
The purpose of the LRAP program is to assist recent University of San Francisco (USF) School of Law graduates with their educational loan repayment to encourage their pursuit of law careers in the public interest to serve in occupations or areas with unmet needs. The program offers two options to qualifying participants who meet all the requirements of the program: short-term, forgivable loans for public interest employees or taxable grants for private public interest employees.
LRAP Guidelines and Terms for 2025 Funding
Guidelines, terms and application information for the 2025 LRAP funding are available now.