Question about financial aid for law school

[Anonymous]

When I was a kid, it was most common for kids to go to law school straight out of UG. But most of my dd's friends are planning at least one year as a gap year--trying to get well paying jobs (consulting, etc) or else in a law related field (public defender's office) to save for Law School. I don't know the details, but I think this also has the effect of making them independent from parents for financial aid purposes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law school need based aid is intended only for students coming from real poverty. Merit aid is available if you are willing to go to a lower ranked school.

I was in my 30s and had been married for several years when I went to law school. They still wanted my parents' financial information on order for me to apply for loans. It was beyond ridiculous and my parents didn't want to give me their private information, and I can't blame them. Parent info shouldn't be required if you aren't seeking need based aid.

Not true to the best of my knowledge.

The most elite law schools (Harvard, Yale, & Stanford) offer only need-based aid for which many students qualify & receive.

OP: You need to research which law schools offer need-based aid as I believe that it is not common.

This is misleading. The truly elite law schools (Harvard, Yale, and Stanford) do not offer any merit aid, but the need-based aid is also limited almost entirely to loans. The baseline expectation for law school is that students will be responsible for it themselves--whether through loans or scholarships. I paid for law school with a full tuition scholarship and loans to cover living expesnses. My husband paid for law school (at Harvard, Yale, or Stanford) with loans--which he paid off within the decade through a combination of aggressive repayment and loan forgiveness. Most of my colleagues took out loans for law school. Some do have parents pay, but that certainly was not that baseline expectation.

[Anonymous]

Your kid needs to pay for his own law school like the rest of us, end of story. You don’t take money from your 71 year old dad to pay for law school. It’s nice that you would like to be more generous but this is the reality you signed up for when you had a kid in your 50s. Maybe he’ll inherit something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't remember parental income being considered at all when I applied back in the late 90s. Am I remembering this incorrectly? My parents did not pay any of the tuition.

When I went in the 90s my parents' income was considered - I didn't get financial aid. I did get offered merit scholarships at some great T20 schools and like a total idiot decided to take out full loans to go to Columbia instead. My parents didn't pay any of my law school loans; they had covered college.

How long did it take you to repay your student loans ?

20 years but that's because I pursued a very unusual and extremely poorly paid career path. If I'd done the normal Columbia thing it'd only have been 4 or 5 years.

Oh hi fellow non-traditional CLS grad …

[Anonymous]

OP, if your DC doesn’t want to take in a huge amount of debt, they should consider working FT and attending law school in the evenings. I have a few friends and colleagues who did that, some of whom were paralegals and offered associate positions at their firm upon graduation. Several law schools in the DMV have evening law school including Georgetown. Law school debt can be debilitating.

[Anonymous]

My kid's friend got a merit scholarship from his religious community, from place he interned at and from his undergrad school. He still had to take some loans but at least half of the tuition was covered, also got many grants and paid internships during law school.

[Anonymous]

*will do clerkship at low pay for a year but law firm will give joining bonus and good salary which should help pay off debt in two years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're an older couple who have saved diligently and worked past many people's target retirement age in order to pay for our children's college.

Our youngest child is leaving for college in 2 years just as my husband turns 71.

Our oldest will graduate college and after a gap year wants to attend law school. We've told him that he'll have to pay for any grad school himself through loans. He'll have a pretty small income in his gap year, and will be applying as an independent but fairly broke 23 year old young man.

Is it true that our assets and income would be factored into the older one's application for need-based financial aid to law school?

That's what it looks like from my looking over the admissions pages of his law school wish list. Which seems pretty unfair. Even though we'll have a lifetime of savings stored up to get us through retirement, 4% of our net worth isn't going to afford us a lavish retirement. We can't dilute it to pay for another round of expensive education. And would rather not sell our home.

Thanks for advice!

Do NOT pay for law school with loans !!! This could haunt him for decades after finishing law school.

Don't most people pay for law school with loans? I did. I went to a lower ranked school because they gave me partial scholarship money and took out loans for the rest.

OP, with your son's scores (if those are real), he will get into a highly ranked law school and can go to work in Biglaw for a handful of years to repay any loans, if he's focused on getting them paid off right away.

Also, someone said the law school loans accrue interest right away, but I don't think that's correct. Mine didn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't remember parental income being considered at all when I applied back in the late 90s. Am I remembering this incorrectly? My parents did not pay any of the tuition.

When I went in the 90s my parents' income was considered - I didn't get financial aid. I did get offered merit scholarships at some great T20 schools and like a total idiot decided to take out full loans to go to Columbia instead. My parents didn't pay any of my law school loans; they had covered college.

How long did it take you to repay your student loans ?

20 years but that's because I pursued a very unusual and extremely poorly paid career path. If I'd done the normal Columbia thing it'd only have been 4 or 5 years.

Same situation for me but different school. Full loans and a career in government service that somehow always managed to escape loan forgiveness because my Stafford loans weren’t direct from government. Arg. My friends with parents from lower col areas got grants and then went to law firms and made serious bank. It’s a weird assumption that anyone’s parents are going to pay for law school unless they’re really wealthy. I didn’t get a dime. My parents were also public servants but in a higher cost of living area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're an older couple who have saved diligently and worked past many people's target retirement age in order to pay for our children's college.

Our youngest child is leaving for college in 2 years just as my husband turns 71.

Our oldest will graduate college and after a gap year wants to attend law school. We've told him that he'll have to pay for any grad school himself through loans. He'll have a pretty small income in his gap year, and will be applying as an independent but fairly broke 23 year old young man.

Is it true that our assets and income would be factored into the older one's application for need-based financial aid to law school?

That's what it looks like from my looking over the admissions pages of his law school wish list. Which seems pretty unfair. Even though we'll have a lifetime of savings stored up to get us through retirement, 4% of our net worth isn't going to afford us a lavish retirement. We can't dilute it to pay for another round of expensive education. And would rather not sell our home.

Thanks for advice!

Do NOT pay for law school with loans !!! This could haunt him for decades after finishing law school.

How else would he pay for law school if he isn't getting money from parents? Are you expecting him to save $300K while taking that gap year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law school need based aid is intended only for students coming from real poverty. Merit aid is available if you are willing to go to a lower ranked school.

I was in my 30s and had been married for several years when I went to law school. They still wanted my parents' financial information on order for me to apply for loans. It was beyond ridiculous and my parents didn't want to give me their private information, and I can't blame them. Parent info shouldn't be required if you aren't seeking need based aid.

Not true to the best of my knowledge.

The most elite law schools (Harvard, Yale, & Stanford) offer only need-based aid for which many students qualify & receive.

OP: You need to research which law schools offer need-based aid as I believe that it is not common.

You will get some need based aid, but there will be a gap. It’s not like undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're an older couple who have saved diligently and worked past many people's target retirement age in order to pay for our children's college.

Our youngest child is leaving for college in 2 years just as my husband turns 71.

Our oldest will graduate college and after a gap year wants to attend law school. We've told him that he'll have to pay for any grad school himself through loans. He'll have a pretty small income in his gap year, and will be applying as an independent but fairly broke 23 year old young man.

Is it true that our assets and income would be factored into the older one's application for need-based financial aid to law school?

That's what it looks like from my looking over the admissions pages of his law school wish list. Which seems pretty unfair. Even though we'll have a lifetime of savings stored up to get us through retirement, 4% of our net worth isn't going to afford us a lavish retirement. We can't dilute it to pay for another round of expensive education. And would rather not sell our home.

Thanks for advice!

Do NOT pay for law school with loans !!! This could haunt him for decades after finishing law school.

How else would he pay for law school if he isn't getting money from parents? Are you expecting him to save $300K while taking that gap year?

Pay via merit scholarships (LSAT score & undergraduate GPA) and/or attend a state public law school with low tuition for residents. Law school loans should be minimized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was a kid, it was most common for kids to go to law school straight out of UG. But most of my dd's friends are planning at least one year as a gap year--trying to get well paying jobs (consulting, etc) or else in a law related field (public defender's office) to save for Law School. I don't know the details, but I think this also has the effect of making them independent from parents for financial aid purposes.

It also has the effect of improving admission odds. Law schools like you to work and mature for a bit so they’re more sure you can handle the stress and really want to be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're an older couple who have saved diligently and worked past many people's target retirement age in order to pay for our children's college.

Our youngest child is leaving for college in 2 years just as my husband turns 71.

Our oldest will graduate college and after a gap year wants to attend law school. We've told him that he'll have to pay for any grad school himself through loans. He'll have a pretty small income in his gap year, and will be applying as an independent but fairly broke 23 year old young man.

Is it true that our assets and income would be factored into the older one's application for need-based financial aid to law school?

That's what it looks like from my looking over the admissions pages of his law school wish list. Which seems pretty unfair. Even though we'll have a lifetime of savings stored up to get us through retirement, 4% of our net worth isn't going to afford us a lavish retirement. We can't dilute it to pay for another round of expensive education. And would rather not sell our home.

Thanks for advice!

Do NOT pay for law school with loans !!! This could haunt him for decades after finishing law school.

Don't most people pay for law school with loans? I did. I went to a lower ranked school because they gave me partial scholarship money and took out loans for the rest.

OP, with your son's scores (if those are real), he will get into a highly ranked law school and can go to work in Biglaw for a handful of years to repay any loans, if he's focused on getting them paid off right away.

Also, someone said the law school loans accrue interest right away, but I don't think that's correct. Mine didn't.

Just want to caution that a 3.9/170 isn’t the ticket it used to be. My kid was higher and waitlisted at all T13 schools. You have to bring something different too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:*will do clerkship at low pay for a year but law firm will give joining bonus and good salary which should help pay off debt in two years.

Not sure what this post is referring to but I highly doubt most brand new lawyers - even those who work at the very top firms - which is in the scheme of things a very small number of attorneys - are able to pay off law school debt in 2 years. I know several good lawyers who attended good law schools and who had good jobs who were still paying off law school debt 10-15 years out of law school at the same time they were also trying to save to buy homes and pay for childcare. Law school debt is not to be taken on lightly.