Paying for law/med school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those who are full pay for undergrad, will you make your DC use loans to pay for law or med school or help them out? Both DCs talking about law/med, and we hadn’t planned for this. Because of our income they won’t qualify for aid.

We paid. Better for them to be debt and stress free now than inherit it when they are 40.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those who are full pay for undergrad, will you make your DC use loans to pay for law or med school or help them out? Both DCs talking about law/med, and we hadn’t planned for this. Because of our income they won’t qualify for aid.

Can't they be declared independent for grad school and apply for loans that don't reflect your finances? I think it is increasingly becoming popular to work for a year or two, particularly before law school, which would make this even easier (plus they could save up a little bit, though probably not much).

If they are married, otherwise colleges factor in parental income.

[Anonymous]

You don't owe anything to them after 18 but if you can afford to then why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those who are full pay for undergrad, will you make your DC use loans to pay for law or med school or help them out? Both DCs talking about law/med, and we hadn’t planned for this. Because of our income they won’t qualify for aid.

Can't they be declared independent for grad school and apply for loans that don't reflect your finances? I think it is increasingly becoming popular to work for a year or two, particularly before law school, which would make this even easier (plus they could save up a little bit, though probably not much).

If they are married, otherwise colleges factor in parental income.

if they are married and over 26, otherwise parental income counts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if school policies have changed, but when DH went to ivy law school the financial aid application required parents’ info if student hadn’t been financially independent for at least 7 years. So school expected parents to help pay.

Nope. Not any more. There are scholarships for the brightest of the bright at all law schools these days. They will pay for the right stats no matter what your income.

Yeah, but if they are trying to up the stats by funding merit aide scholarships with the tuition from average students then what happens when the average student can’t take out loans to fund it? If those scholarships are funded via donations the I assume they are fine.

[Anonymous]

Actually kids who aren't great students actually need it more to give them a leg up in life. Ones who have it together, would've more opportunities anyways. Parental ineligibility to qualify financial aid and inability to finance it puts kids in a rough spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually kids who aren't great students actually need it more to give them a leg up in life. Ones who have it together, would've more opportunities anyways. Parental ineligibility to qualify financial aid and inability to finance it puts kids in a rough spot.

How are they getting into graduate schools that will do much of anything for them if they aren't great students?

Actually, those are the kids where more school clearly isn't the answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law/med/any grad school/Phd/MBA

We will pay for all. Not super rich but we have lived a frugal lifestyle to give leg-up to our kids. Education is on us.

Well, good for you and it's your money but it's also stupid. You can give your kids a "leg up" in plenty of other ways. You don't have to pay for every cent of a decades long education to do it.

But if you can afford to do so (or help) why wouldn't you? Some of us value education and have planned to assist our kids

Flip question: If you can afford do support your adult child, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you pay for their housing, clothing, food, etc.? Why would you ever expect your adult child to support himself, if you can afford to support them?

Many folks think it's important for adult children to learn to stand on their own feet. There's different places you can draw the line. One reasonable place is grad school.

And many feel the place to draw the line is after grad school/professional school. It's not like you can just "work PT and pay for med school" it's $200K+. So IMO it's very different than just funding a 30yo who doesn't want to work.

[Anonymous]

Upper middle class families who earns and saves frugally is the most underprivileged in college cost game. They are pushed back with on financial ladder by colleges squeezing full pay out of them while others get aid or families are rich so full pay won't matter enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually kids who aren't great students actually need it more to give them a leg up in life. Ones who have it together, would've more opportunities anyways. Parental ineligibility to qualify financial aid and inability to finance it puts kids in a rough spot.

How are they getting into graduate schools that will do much of anything for them if they aren't great students?

Actually, those are the kids where more school clearly isn't the answer.

I've seem many who did really well after a grad degree so its totally worth it if student tries but not very disciplined or a high performer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually kids who aren't great students actually need it more to give them a leg up in life. Ones who have it together, would've more opportunities anyways. Parental ineligibility to qualify financial aid and inability to finance it puts kids in a rough spot.

How are they getting into graduate schools that will do much of anything for them if they aren't great students?

Actually, those are the kids where more school clearly isn't the answer.

I've seem many who did really well after a grad degree so its totally worth it if student tries but not very disciplined or a high performer.

Sure you have...another DCUM person claiming to know "many" people. I mean, it makes no sense that you take a middling student and send them to a crap grad program (which isn't Medical School BTW...because they aren't getting into any med school) and now magically life works out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law/med/any grad school/Phd/MBA

We will pay for all. Not super rich but we have lived a frugal lifestyle to give leg-up to our kids. Education is on us.

Well, good for you and it's your money but it's also stupid. You can give your kids a "leg up" in plenty of other ways. You don't have to pay for every cent of a decades long education to do it.

But if you can afford to do so (or help) why wouldn't you? Some of us value education and have planned to assist our kids

Flip question: If you can afford do support your adult child, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you pay for their housing, clothing, food, etc.? Why would you ever expect your adult child to support himself, if you can afford to support them?

Many folks think it's important for adult children to learn to stand on their own feet. There's different places you can draw the line. One reasonable place is grad school.

And many feel the place to draw the line is after grad school/professional school. It's not like you can just "work PT and pay for med school" it's $200K+. So IMO it's very different than just funding a 30yo who doesn't want to work.

Med School is very different than law/MBA/PhD. It's unfair to encourage your kid to major in say Biology, but then not support Med School because Biology grads have some of the worst job outcomes if they don't go onto Med School or a PhD (which would be fully funded). Med School also has fairly certain outcomes, though specific specialties will pay more than others.

[Anonymous]

We paid for IS flagship for undergrad which allowed us to full pay for grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We paid for IS flagship for undergrad which allowed us to full pay for grad school.

This is what we did too - highly recommend. Our kids are so thankful to not have debt. Funding med or law school though loans puts you in crushing debt for decades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if school policies have changed, but when DH went to ivy law school the financial aid application required parents’ info if student hadn’t been financially independent for at least 7 years. So school expected parents to help pay.

Nope. Not any more. There are scholarships for the brightest of the bright at all law schools these days. They will pay for the right stats no matter what your income.

Yeah, but if they are trying to up the stats by funding merit aide scholarships with the tuition from average students then what happens when the average student can’t take out loans to fund it? If those scholarships are funded via donations the I assume they are fine.

Incorrect. It’s a Seller’s market today for law schools. For example, Harvard, where I attended and DD just started, doesn’t offer any merit aid. https://hls.harvard.edu/sfs/prospective-and-admitted-students/prospective-and-admitted-need-based-aid-philosophy/. DD applied to 8 law schools and was not offered any merit aid notwithstanding top GPA, LSAT and a D.Phil from Oxbridge. When merit IS offered, it is to lure a URM away from attending another top Law school. Now, if you want to drop
Down to T40 schools you might get half-tuition or full tuition but only if the applicant has something that that law school wants.