Paying for law/med school

[Anonymous]

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.

No, it is not stupid at all. Especially, if you have raised great kids and given them many "leg ups". It is a waste only if you have raised substandard kids or have created a poor dysfunctional family life for them. Don't have children if you will give them a bad life.

We have given many leg ups to our children - starting from a functional, intact and happy family life, highly educated parents, loving and supportive extended family, extensive and close-knit social network, emphasis on education, healthy lifestyle, adulting skills, trilingual education, exposure to multiple cultures and travel, no abuse/addiction/adultry in family, treating all kids equally, having only two children.

So, selfish parents are quick to have sex and create children but are reluctant to pay for education? Use a condom if you cannot support your children to get the an education for a good career.

K-12 is free education in public schools, so there is zero reasons for parents to not pay for undergrad, grad and post grad education. What else have they paid for their kids? Basic needs are fulfilled by every parent. That is not the end all.

Agree.

Yep will pay if they don't other wise have scholarship. It's my right and duty as a parent. Stupid would be NOT paying for this if you can afford it. What am I going to do with the extra money anyway and what better use for it than my kid's education so they can graduate debt free. Why pay interest to a lender if we as a family don't have to. Would rather keep that interest and build family wealth.

Also so what if kid only wants to go to law school because that's how they can get gainful employment. That is as good a reason as any to go and regardless of reason, I as a parent would pay.

To a different PP - med school is NOT a "rich person profession" where most kids are paying cash. That's just a lie.

I can't understand the families who can affort to pay but don't. Seems rather illogical and a poor financial decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most private medical schools have parents paying. My spouse is on the admissions committee of one and >70% of their matriculants have parents paying cash.
It's a rich person's profession.

Bullshit. Med school AdComs don't know that applicant parents are paying or paying in cash. Why spread lies like this?

Huh? Not bull shit at all. They find out the demographics of the incoming class after the fact. The percentage of kids taking loans is carefully monitored by any medical school as it's a concern of the office.

That is certainly not the case at the medical school
I work for in NY. Most actually take out loans

[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.

I am prepared to pay if they don't get funding. I can afford it and can't think of much better use for the money than education.

[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.

No, it is not stupid at all. Especially, if you have raised great kids and given them many "leg ups". It is a waste only if you have raised substandard kids or have created a poor dysfunctional family life for them. Don't have children if you will give them a bad life.

We have given many leg ups to our children - starting from a functional, intact and happy family life, highly educated parents, loving and supportive extended family, extensive and close-knit social network, emphasis on education, healthy lifestyle, adulting skills, trilingual education, exposure to multiple cultures and travel, no abuse/addiction/adultry in family, treating all kids equally, having only two children.

So, selfish parents are quick to have sex and create children but are reluctant to pay for education? Use a condom if you cannot support your children to get the an education for a good career.

K-12 is free education in public schools, so there is zero reasons for parents to not pay for undergrad, grad and post grad education. What else have they paid for their kids? Basic needs are fulfilled by every parent. That is not the end all.

Agree.

Yep will pay if they don't other wise have scholarship. It's my right and duty as a parent. Stupid would be NOT paying for this if you can afford it. What am I going to do with the extra money anyway and what better use for it than my kid's education so they can graduate debt free. Why pay interest to a lender if we as a family don't have to. Would rather keep that interest and build family wealth.

Also so what if kid only wants to go to law school because that's how they can get gainful employment. That is as good a reason as any to go and regardless of reason, I as a parent would pay.

To a different PP - med school is NOT a "rich person profession" where most kids are paying cash. That's just a lie.

I can't understand the families who can affort to pay but don't. Seems rather illogical and a poor financial decision.

agree one hundred percent

[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.

No, it is not stupid at all. Especially, if you have raised great kids and given them many "leg ups". It is a waste only if you have raised substandard kids or have created a poor dysfunctional family life for them. Don't have children if you will give them a bad life.

We have given many leg ups to our children - starting from a functional, intact and happy family life, highly educated parents, loving and supportive extended family, extensive and close-knit social network, emphasis on education, healthy lifestyle, adulting skills, trilingual education, exposure to multiple cultures and travel, no abuse/addiction/adultry in family, treating all kids equally, having only two children.

So, selfish parents are quick to have sex and create children but are reluctant to pay for education? Use a condom if you cannot support your children to get the an education for a good career.

K-12 is free education in public schools, so there is zero reasons for parents to not pay for undergrad, grad and post grad education. What else have they paid for their kids? Basic needs are fulfilled by every parent. That is not the end all.

Agree.

Yep will pay if they don't other wise have scholarship. It's my right and duty as a parent. Stupid would be NOT paying for this if you can afford it. What am I going to do with the extra money anyway and what better use for it than my kid's education so they can graduate debt free. Why pay interest to a lender if we as a family don't have to. Would rather keep that interest and build family wealth.

Also so what if kid only wants to go to law school because that's how they can get gainful employment. That is as good a reason as any to go and regardless of reason, I as a parent would pay.

To a different PP - med school is NOT a "rich person profession" where most kids are paying cash. That's just a lie.

I can't understand the families who can affort to pay but don't. Seems rather illogical and a poor financial decision.

Because they may go through three years of law school and still can't get particularly gainful employment.

If you had basically no standards for your kid's undergrad, what makes you think things will improve with law school?

[Anonymous]

We paid for all of undergrad, law and grad school for two kids. Between the two kids they received $230,000 in merit scholarships). (60K oos Undergrad, 120K top 5 Law school, 70 K ivy grad scholarship). Could not have done it without the scholarships. Still ended up paying about 450 K towards all of the degrees/studies abroad etc. Only one of the institutions was private.

[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.

No, it is not stupid at all. Especially, if you have raised great kids and given them many "leg ups". It is a waste only if you have raised substandard kids or have created a poor dysfunctional family life for them. Don't have children if you will give them a bad life.

We have given many leg ups to our children - starting from a functional, intact and happy family life, highly educated parents, loving and supportive extended family, extensive and close-knit social network, emphasis on education, healthy lifestyle, adulting skills, trilingual education, exposure to multiple cultures and travel, no abuse/addiction/adultry in family, treating all kids equally, having only two children.

So, selfish parents are quick to have sex and create children but are reluctant to pay for education? Use a condom if you cannot support your children to get the an education for a good career.

K-12 is free education in public schools, so there is zero reasons for parents to not pay for undergrad, grad and post grad education. What else have they paid for their kids? Basic needs are fulfilled by every parent. That is not the end all.

Agree.

Yep will pay if they don't other wise have scholarship. It's my right and duty as a parent. Stupid would be NOT paying for this if you can afford it. What am I going to do with the extra money anyway and what better use for it than my kid's education so they can graduate debt free. Why pay interest to a lender if we as a family don't have to. Would rather keep that interest and build family wealth.

Also so what if kid only wants to go to law school because that's how they can get gainful employment. That is as good a reason as any to go and regardless of reason, I as a parent would pay.

To a different PP - med school is NOT a "rich person profession" where most kids are paying cash. That's just a lie.

I can't understand the families who can affort to pay but don't. Seems rather illogical and a poor financial decision.

Totally agree. Education is my number one priority for my kids. We debated how many kids we would have because we knew from day one that we wanted to be able to fund the best education possible for our children and didn't want to have more than we afford. I can never understand people who have 3+ kids and then whine about how expensive it is, how they couldn't provide for the kids, etc. Shouldn't have had all those kids.

To this note, we make sacrifices to provide for our kids educations. I'm not talking about living in a hut and eating ramen noodles three meals a day. But I am willing to cut back on some things to help my kids out. That is what my parents did for me. I know that many people are not in this position and it is a high class problem to have. But I cringe when I hear a colleague talk about how he told his daughter she couldn't go to her dream school and she was heartbroken because he didn't want to help pay for it while he drives a very fancy car, takes multiple fancy vacations a year, etc.

And again, the situation I am describing relates to those who very clearly can afford it but don't. And this is for kids who will truly take advantages of the resources of the program being paid for, not so Junior can go to a super expensive school to party and get a 2.1 in basket weaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most private medical schools have parents paying. My spouse is on the admissions committee of one and >70% of their matriculants have parents paying cash.
It's a rich person's profession.

Bullshit. Med school AdComs don't know that applicant parents are paying or paying in cash. Why spread lies like this?

Huh? Not bull shit at all. They find out the demographics of the incoming class after the fact. The percentage of kids taking loans is carefully monitored by any medical school as it's a concern of the office.

That is certainly not the case at the medical school
I work for in NY. Most actually take out loans

Federal unsubsidized loans are capped at $50K a year, $267K total inclulding undergrad. Most lending institutions will not add on to that debt load because the student has no collateral.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It wouldn't matter that you "qualified for aid." That's an undergrad thing. They don't give financial aid to law students. It's merit aid or student loans.

False. Financial aid exists for law school. Once again you fill out the FAFSA.

Yea, loans.

Some law schools (not Harvard) offer merit for students they want - usually URM. Scalia Law offers full tuition scholarships for students with extremely high GPAs and LSATs, etc. The further you go down in rank, the more money you might find if your student is a strong applicant. Remember, these schools have to report test scores and GPAs. While some of the top schools claim they no longer cooperate with USNWR, they still report the scores to the ABA, and the ABA gives it to USNWR, so nothing has really changed.

[Anonymous]

I am a successful lawyer and I don't recommend parents pay for law school for a few reasons. First, there is a lot of merit aid in law school for applicants with good stats. Second, there are lucrative law jobs for successful law grads. Third, many people who go to law school end up miserable--it turns out that they hate being a lawyer.

Given all that, I think it's important for people interested in law school to think carefully about what they are doing, whether they are suited to it, and whether it's something they actually want to do with their lives. Having "skin in the game" is important. And I also think the ability to get into a good law school, get merit aid, and the ability to decide how much prestige you are willing to pay for are all obstacles that somebody who wants to be a lawyer should be able to overcome. If you can't get into a good law school, pay for it with loans or scholarships, or figure out how much risk you are willing to take on, I'm not sure law is really the right career for you.

[Anonymous]

We paid for colleges and post college education for our three kids including two to med schools. Yeah it was expensive but we are done. They are all out and working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I can I will help out. And if I can get them through their education with no loans I will do that.

Same.

Yes. As long as they want to study and as long as I can pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a successful lawyer and I don't recommend parents pay for law school for a few reasons. First, there is a lot of merit aid in law school for applicants with good stats. Second, there are lucrative law jobs for successful law grads. Third, many people who go to law school end up miserable--it turns out that they hate being a lawyer.

Given all that, I think it's important for people interested in law school to think carefully about what they are doing, whether they are suited to it, and whether it's something they actually want to do with their lives. Having "skin in the game" is important. And I also think the ability to get into a good law school, get merit aid, and the ability to decide how much prestige you are willing to pay for are all obstacles that somebody who wants to be a lawyer should be able to overcome. If you can't get into a good law school, pay for it with loans or scholarships, or figure out how much risk you are willing to take on, I'm not sure law is really the right career for you.

For context: I paid for T10 law school through a combination of merit aid and loans. I turned down higher ranked law schools to go to a law school where I got a substantial scholarship. My husband, also a lawyer, made a different decision (HYS over scholarship at a T10). I was able to pay off my loans in a few years after graduating, save up money for a down payment by working in big law, and pivot to a career that has been really meaningful to me. My husband took longer to pay off his loans, but he's also doing well now too. We are doing well financially and confident in our ability to take care of ourselves as adults--which is valuable in itself.

I think my parents could have helped pay for my law school tuition, but it honestly never occurred to me to ask them. If I ended up in big financial trouble somehow, I am sure they would have been able to act as a safety net, and that is something I am grateful for. But I'm glad not to have needed that help.

[Anonymous]

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.

I disagree. Law school is one of the great vehicles for upward social and economic mobility. I transitioned from a lower socioeconomic background to an upper socioeconomic status through law school. I paid for it via federal loans, work study, money made while working menial jobs, then summer associate positions, and my parents made up the difference (at a time when law school fees were more reasonable). I entered the law workforce as a strong candidate, a clerkship, and then great pay as an associate. I saved, paid off my student loans at age 37, but had already purchased a home by then and was able to provide for my young children. I will do the same for my son who has gotten into a top law school. He will go from basic research/writing hourly positions to $265K a year incoming associate in NYC. No other professional field in America offers that after only 3 years. B schools used to but that is no longer a popular route.

[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.

No, it is not stupid at all. Especially, if you have raised great kids and given them many "leg ups". It is a waste only if you have raised substandard kids or have created a poor dysfunctional family life for them. Don't have children if you will give them a bad life.

We have given many leg ups to our children - starting from a functional, intact and happy family life, highly educated parents, loving and supportive extended family, extensive and close-knit social network, emphasis on education, healthy lifestyle, adulting skills, trilingual education, exposure to multiple cultures and travel, no abuse/addiction/adultry in family, treating all kids equally, having only two children.

So, selfish parents are quick to have sex and create children but are reluctant to pay for education? Use a condom if you cannot support your children to get the an education for a good career.

K-12 is free education in public schools, so there is zero reasons for parents to not pay for undergrad, grad and post grad education. What else have they paid for their kids? Basic needs are fulfilled by every parent. That is not the end all.

Agree.

Yep will pay if they don't other wise have scholarship. It's my right and duty as a parent. Stupid would be NOT paying for this if you can afford it. What am I going to do with the extra money anyway and what better use for it than my kid's education so they can graduate debt free. Why pay interest to a lender if we as a family don't have to. Would rather keep that interest and build family wealth.

Also so what if kid only wants to go to law school because that's how they can get gainful employment. That is as good a reason as any to go and regardless of reason, I as a parent would pay.

To a different PP - med school is NOT a "rich person profession" where most kids are paying cash. That's just a lie.

I can't understand the families who can affort to pay but don't. Seems rather illogical and a poor financial decision.

Because they may go through three years of law school and still can't get particularly gainful employment.

If you had basically no standards for your kid's undergrad, what makes you think things will improve with law school?

I'm the one you're replying to. I mean they could do anything and not find a good job I suppose. But with law school, they should get some kind of job, right? I actually have no idea about law school. My spouse and I did not do law school and neither of my two kids are interested in law school, so I haven't ever thought about that specifically.

But I raised them to value education and be smart, hard workers and to find joy in their daily lives and daily work. They are not "party-ers" but know how to have fun. They won't squander their education and they are free-loading off me. Because I didn't raise them to be that way. Like others who have posted, I have worked hard myself, made sacrifices, don't buy overly expensive things even if I could. With our paychecks, first chunk goes toward retirement, second chunk is saved for kids' education, and whatever is left is what we can spend from for food, utilities, and wants. My parents paid for my education, I will pay for my kids, and the expectation is that they pay for their kids' education. No reason to send any of our hard earned money to the bank or government as interest.