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How do you plan on paying for Law School?
tringo335
Alum Member ⭐
Unless your hope is a full-ride (do they give those anywhere?), how do you plan on paying for law school? Outside of taking a cue from Kim K's surrogate and getting paid $100K to grow a celebrity's baby in my stomach, I'm not sure how else to afford this other than dreaded loans. :-(
Comments
That's a good question
loans and whatever a top school gives me in merit or need based aid
but yes, full rides are given in law school
Post 9/11 G.I. Bill
I don't know why I didn't think about it before deciding to go...
http://gif-finder.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Michaelscottfacepalm1.gif
Yes, they give full rides at many law schools if you're a candidate with incredible stats.
I plan on paying with a full ride scholarship and then using loans for any COL expenses. If that doesn't work out, I'll probably just wait and reapply until I am able to secure a full ride or great scholarship to a school I want to attend. I've become increasingly debt averse since I've graduated college and see how student loans can have such a big effect on my monthly expenses, lol.
HYS would be exceptions here. If accepted I suppose I'd attend with any need based aid they would provide.
Student loan. If I get into a good school, I don't care about going into debt.
I've been concerned about the financial burden of law school as well. I'm crossing my fingers for a merit-based scholarship. We'll see how that goes. After studying for the LSAT I plan on working my ass off and saving as much as possible. Even then, I'll barley make a dent in tuition.
There's the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program which will forgive your loans after 120 qualifying monthly payments, if you work for a nonprofit or public sector -type job. However, there's a lot of uncertainty about how long this program will actually be around. You'd also be limiting yourself to government or nonprofit kinda jobs.
If you plan to just chip away at your loans old school Dave Ramsey style, then you may want to consider consolidating with a company like SoFi. They seem to be very selective as to who they'll work with, but you can get your interest rates down significantly.
There's also hanging out at your local hospital and hooking up with a dermatologist with the hopes of future matrimony.
Heads to Hospital w/ flowers
With the amount of studying I've been doing at this point, I'm focused on getting a good score to obtain some sort of scholarship and the rest student loans. I'm fortunate enough to have my significant other support me while I study full-time for the LSAT, and then turn around go to school full-time. Student loans will be dreadful, but sometimes it's the sacrifice you have to make in order to make your dreams come true, one way or another. I've waited 10 years to finally make this giant leap and I've always known student loans would be in the books. Luckily for me, I have no debt (i.e. undergrad loans or even a car loan), so it makes it more tolerable.
I think I'm going to end up being in the same boat as you. Hoping hubs gets a job paying double than what he makes now (#hope) so at least we can live solely off his wages and then probably use loans and whatever I can save to pay for the rest outside of merit scholarships.
...or like @Ignatius said find a second hubby dermatologist to front my law school bills lol.
I was like this as well. Then hubs finished school and our monthly student loan bill doubled (silently weeps) Now I'm really, really, really hoping to take out as few loans as possible.
@"Alex Divine" I may take a cue from you and not settle for anything less than a full ride? On that note .. let me go study lol.
Someone from University of Michigan was telling me that his tuition was practically paid for by student teaching. Not sure how much his tuition was or how much he was making (or if the university just deducts).
For me pretty much like undergrad.
I'm hoping to get a full tuition scholarship with a high LSAT score. That's why I am retaking my 172. I intend to pay for cost of living through savings.
Unless I go somewhere where cost of living is high, I think living frugally should get me through cost of living on savings I have.
But, if I have to pay for any of my law school I will need loans. Since I want to go into public interest law I would use an LRAP to pay those back. If I got in to Harvard, Yale, or Stanford I would take out federal graduate student loans whose limit is really high and use the school's LRAP. Otherwise I'm hoping to come out close to debt free.
Edit:
I definitely would have considered the celebrity baby thing if I wasn't a guy and didn't hate the idea of the rich being able to buy their way out of things ordinary people have to go through.
I guess what I'm saying is $100,000 is a lot of money. If a high LSAT score from a few months more studying, carrying a baby, or any other opportunity to save or obtain it comes up I try to take notice.
Yeah I was this way probably as recently as last year. Once I had been out of UG for 6 months and they started sending me student loan bills I quickly changed my attitude. I may put off law school all together until I can save up some substantial amount of money. Might mean starting law school in my late 20s, but if it means I'll be better off financially, then so be it...
The perks of being FA.
Being single is definitely cheaper, haha!
I guess it's too late to turn back now> @danielznelson said:
Good to know!
Smart plan. There is definitely a plus side to going into public interest with school that have repayment programs.
That's not a bad idea ... I'm 30 hoping to go to school around 32 so late twenties won't be bad at all.
If all goes to plan, I'll be headed to school at 33.
As far as how to pay: Post 9/11 GI Bill, Yellow Ribbon Program to cover the rest of tuition, and then living off of a mix of GI Bill housing allowance and military disability payments (I should be able to hit at least 50% service connected). Using the current numbers (based off of where I want to go to school), I would have about as much money coming in per month between housing allowance and disability as I do now at my current duty station.
My goal is to not take out any student loans for law school.
Perfect plan!
It's daunting for sure and I'm not sure in the end if I'll be able to pull the trigger. I'm hoping for as much merit aid as possible, and anything else would have to be loans. I'm 33, would be 34 by time of attending and still owe for my undergrad. So it's not a great financial situation, but delaying probably won't improve the situation any either. So, doing the best I can and am willing to take on loans but have decided that I won't take on anything over $100k including cost of living. Trying to crush the LSAT and pray to the heavens for significant merit offers. I'm also leaning toward public interest so will be reading up on LRAPs to see what the best option might be.
I plan on only applying to CUNY law since its the cheapest. Student loans and what ever I can afford to pay myself. I plan to work FT and go to school PT.
Depends where I get in but I will probably end up taking the offer with the most money and loans for everything else. If I get into Temple I will probably end up going part time and working full time.
I am working full time right now and trying to save at least half from each of my paychecks to save for law school. I know this won't cover all of it, but I know it will help me take on less debt hopefully.
I am hoping to score decently on the LSAT to get some sort of money at the schools I apply for though.
Texas Hazzlewood act. I have 155 credits left on it. The only thing is I'm required to go to a public school in the state of Texas. Im shooting for A&M or UT Austin.
What about the post 9/11? Did you use it all on undergrad?
yea, used it all on my undergrad.
ahhh! Well at least Texas will help pay for part of your schooling still.
well... if i get into Uconn law, they have a tuition waiver program for Veteran's .. so thanks to President Bush who started a war i now get free law school
I'm currently paying off my student loans using the Dave Ramsey plan. I work two jobs and study for the lsat so it's a bit stressful. I am scheduled to have my student loans paid off by next summer. Then I'm going to continue working for two years and save up for law school. I'm trying for $50,000 in my savings. A merit scholarship and my savings should cover most of tuition since I am trying to go to a state law school. Tuition is about $27,000 a year. My boyfriend of two years also just landed a really good job so we're planning on cash flowing whatever is left through him. If it somehow doesn't work out, then I guess I'll take out loans but I feel pretty good about my plan. I'll be going to law school at 26, but Obama went to law school when he was 27, so I guess I'll be okay.
Anyone accepted early decision to Wash. U in St. Louis gets a guaranteed full ride for all three years. From their website: "Early Decision applicants are either admitted with full scholarship or transferred to Regular Decision for further review. Qualified applicants may be offered an alternative Early Decision with scholarship." http://apply.law.wustl.edu/requirements-and-timeline
If I don't get a substantial scholarship at any of my top choices this cycle, I am considering applying ED at WUSTL the next go around. This seems like a great option for those of us who don't want to take on a huge amount of debt! Not a bad deal for the #18 ranked school...
Ideally with a merit-based scholarship. I'm comfortable taking loans for COL but i'm fortunate enough that I have a family member willing to help with certain aspects of Law School. In particular, books (which is easily over a $1000 a semester) and paying for Bar fees and expenses. It's not a ton, but it makes it so I really just need to focus on Tuition and COL.
Good info!
We did Dave Ramsey to pay off all our debt last year ... it wasn't fun but it was worth it! All we have left is that annoying student loan payment lol.
I feel the need to chime in on this.
My perspective is - If I don't get a scholarship I'm not going, and I advise anyone to do the same.
I have almost 100k in loans from undergrad and my son is almost 2y old. I pay around 800/month for students loans and I have to choose between that and my credit not tanking vs him having toys, nice things, music class etc. It's awful and that is real life.
A top tier school MAY be worth it at sticker if you are ambitious, but if it's not a top tier school and you graduate and start a family with over 100k in debt or close to it and can't send your kid to a nice school then you really feel the weight of your decision.
I agree student loans is the least ideal situation but if that's what you have to do follow your dreams do it -- with caution. Don't get into it blindly. Understand what your monthly payments will be and compare them to your anticipated income.
It depends largely on your career goals, whether or not it makes sense to finance law school via loans.
As @kkrystyna said, having a family/children definitely complicates things. Some people might be able to live off ramen and beans for 3 years while scrapping by in LS, but obviously this isn't a possibility if you have other mouths to feed.
And, if you have interest in big law, it's probably slightly more acceptable to finance your schooling through loans versus wanting to do public interest. PI comes with a pretty measly salary, whereas biglaw would allow you to cover your cost of living and chunk your student loans down pretty quick.
https://www.law.umich.edu/financialaid/debtwizard/Pages/Debt-Wizard-Calculator.aspx
agreed.
God bless you. This is amazing!
I've decided I will auction off my kidney. The going rate in the US is around $250k on the black market. That should cover the bulk of the law school expenses I will incur.
yup. this idea wins all the ideas.
Honestly, you have 3ish options.
1) get someone else to pay for it.
Basically this is the best way. Get a rich family member to help you. not so fortunate? then join the struggle bus. Study your ass off and get a 175 on your LSAT. pretty much guaranteed a full ride somewhere. Maybe not a top 15. but if you are will ing to work hard enough, get a 175, and write like 60 essays for private external scholarships... you should be able to go debt free possibly with stipend.
2) work and pay for it before hand.
I honestly recommend this this strategy combined with strategy one. use your degree and work for 2 years hoarding all your money and studying for the lsat in your evenings. Assuming you can live on 1600 a month and get paid 45k a year, you should have about 30K saved after 2 years and you should be an LSAT GOD after taking every test timed and blind review/ drilling for 2 years. you apply, look awesome with real work experience, have stellar LOR because you planned that shit for 2 years, and you basically get swag points for being a BEAST. Get your 175, collect your scholarship, and wear a smug look on your face every year in law school.
3)work and pay for it afterwards. Avoid this tactic if you have any of the following: Undergrad debt >20K, A terrible LSAT or GPA, Kids, not competitive for a top 50 law school. Basically if you already have debt you'd be foolish to stack 3 more years of living expenses and tuition on top of that gambling that you are going to be in the upper 25% of your class. If you have terrible stats. seriously rethink law school or at least reflect on why you have bad stats. If it's because of laziness or poor decisions, fix those those first, get your LSAT way up and if you have the discipline to get that far, you might stand a chance at getting hired right out and paying back your debt. DO NOT go in to debt unless it is absolutely necessary. Under De-vos they restructured student loans and payment options making them less lenient. The last thing you need is financial trouble while in law school or right afterwards.
In any situation. I recommend being patient. I deliberately chose to work for 2 years prior to law school and aim for scholarships. Debt is the last card I'll play. Be smart about it. No one cares how old you are when you attend or graduate, but that debt and the decisions you make will stay with you all your life.
Largely going to cry...and pray.
No but really. Options are going to go to Michigan and living with significant other as he has a great job, go with a law school nearby home so I can save the COL expenses (Pepperdine/UCLA/USC), or go with a great scholly to a great school elsewhere. I mean we will see. I'm a firm believer of making it happen regardless. I have debt already from undergrad, but I'm okay with that. Sure some may think this isn't wise, but I've accepted it and I'll tackle the obstacles as they come.
Pretty much in the same boat as you.
Pretty much in the same boat as you.
I am going to a local law school. But I live in Washington, D.C. so I don't think that means anything LOL
How cool to meet DR fans. I am also paying my loans on the plan (on BS2). You have a great plan.
about 60k of my loans or so is private leaving PSLF as not an option. I plan on working for big law and living of my fiance's income and paying off the loans before going into the public sector but who knows.