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Related Discussions
NYU Law at Sticker Price
chess4life
Alum Member
Hi,
I was admitted to NYU Law early decision. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I did not receive any institutional aid. I am now confronted with taking out 300k and am admittedly more nervous about this than I thought I would be.
On the bright side, I do not have any undergrad debt but I also have very limited savings (20k in bank and 20k in 401-k). My biggest fear is failing to excel in law school and struggling to make debt payments after graduating. From what I have read, 300k would be between 3-4k a month in loan payments. Even with biglaw pay, I think I would lose all my money to debt/rent (in NYC). I just need a listening ear and some advice from those who may have been in a similar situation.
Thanks for the help.
Comments
First and foremost, congratulations!! This sounds like a really tough decision. If there is any way to negotiate with the school, I would try to do that. 300K is a lot of money and honestly you don't know what's going to happen in the future or what unexpected expenses you may have. So being in that much debt plus having to account for unexpected expenses is a lot. With that being said, if I were in your position, I would negotiate with the school to see if there is anything that they could do. If not, if you feel comfortable with taking a loan for that amount then go for it! Otherwise, maybe wait a year, work to save some money, and then re-apply. Overall, I think this is a tough decision but it depends on a lot of things like what you're comfortable with doing. If you have never lived in NYC before, also be aware that there will be other expenses such as subways transit fees (which may or may not be a lot but it can easily add up for students). Good luck!!
Hey! Congratulations! As you know, graduation from NYU will undoubtedly open many doors for you! However it's almost as if the old adage "...in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." ought to be amended to include student debt. I understand the weight of this question, and its certainly daunting to consider signing on for such a debt. Did you receive scholarship offers to other top choice schools?
Look at the big picture as a whole! You will pay off law school eventually and you will be ok! I vacillate between taking the best scholarship offer and attending the most competitive school myself. Please keep us informed as to which you choose to do!
.
Hi! I'm in the middle of scholarship negotiations and while most schools declined to negotiate, one literally doubled my scholarship. This is why I urge you to definitely ASK NYU!!!!
You will not get money if you don't ask. Consider saying you are worried about matriculating without aid. You don't have another school's offer to leverage since you applied ED but you can always say you may not attend NYU this cycle at all. Given this economic climate, I think that is very fair.
Lastly, congrats on NYU!!
That is an amazing achievement!
For me, if you get into a top 10 school, and you're sure you want to be a lawyer, you go to the top 10 school.
My fiance went to Berkeley at sticker price. While she carries a lot of debt, she's also never had difficulty finding a good job. She started out at a BigLaw firm but now she's in public service where, after 10 years her loans will be forgiven. Also, the firm she was at was in San Francisco: where cost-of-living is astronomical. Even with all the expense, she still made a decent money right out of law school.
It's scary, but I would do it without thinking twice.
good luck, and congrats
Hey! I've recently been trying to make up my mind before deposit deadlines, and definitely agree that through all of my time on 7Sage studying for the exam to now, I never really thought so much about the debt (it was such a remote bridge I'd cross when I got there). Though you may have already thought through it thoroughly, it becomes a lot more complicated when you realize there's more to it than the 300k (various loans with different interest rates, the money you could apply from your 2L summer job, gradual tuition increases, refinancing down the line, etc.).
Thankfully NYU is more recession-proof than other schools, but you also have to ask yourself if you'd want to work in big law for X number of years (depending on how quickly you want to pay it back). This post (among other resources on Reddit) was pretty sobering: https://www.reddit.com/r/lawschooladmissions/comments/fkquc1/big_law_associate_who_paid_off_sticker_debt_in_3/
But in any case, congratulations on your acceptance, and feel free to PM if you'd like to discuss further!
If you are going to go, one of your best options (that I myself would do) would be to pay the interest that accrues every month on your loan with your savings. See how far you can get. They way, the interest won't keep accruing, and you will be stuck with the loan amount, rather than compounded interest on top of the loan (this is an offensive way of tackling it). I haven't done this part yet - so I cannot tell you off the top of my head, but look for a student loan amortization calculator. Add in your information or a guess. if you need to guess on the loan percentage put 3.00%. the best thing to you is to be aware of all avenues. if you can pay that interest you can save up to 50-100K of interest over the life of the loan (that figure is 100% a guess) You still want to go to law school, and NYU will pay for itself in the end, but if you can keep that debt down to the principal balance you will thank yourself 1000x over in the long run.
I have about the same as you, slightly more in the 401K. you want to let that grow and hopefully never touch it (not to mention it will be 40K minus taxes owed and the 10% early withdrawal penalty).
My sister paid off her house in 7 years by being super aggressive and budgeting everything to a penny. that is how I am looking at my loans. you are stressed now, which is a good sign. you won't waste extra loan money. Good luck!
I agree with @LindseyDC if you are going to take out a loan, that is going to be the smartest way to mitigate the amount of time it will take you to pay it off. If you are able to stay on top of your interest payments all throughout school and then land a biglaw gig, you'll only have the principal to deal with, which should not be hard to get rid of in a few years with a big law salary. But yeah, definitely beware of the compounding interest that's what does most of the damage and makes it near impossible for so many people (particularly those who are unaware of it) to pay off their loans.
I haven't crunched the numbers, but given that grad plus loans have an origination fee and a high interest rate, I don't see how your proposal is the best alternative. My intuition is that you save the most by minimizing reliance on grad plus loans.
First, thanks all for the helpful comments.
Grad+ origination is brutal. Only reason I want to do Grad+ is because it has income-based repayment which gives me comfort if all fails in course of pursuing biglaw -- it's like an insurance policy with that origination fee (granted, IBR has some negative tax aspects down the road, but it makes the massive debt size less scary to me). Thoughts, 10000019?
If you're stuck paying sticker (and don't have outside funding), then you're stuck taking out grad plus loans.
If I was set on the private sector, I wouldn't pay sticker at any schools except Stanford and Yale. If you go to NYU, you won't struggle to get into BL. But getting into BL is easy. It's working in BL that is tough.
If you're set on PI, then take out whatever you want you aren't going to be paying it back anyways.