delusional wrote:And if you make $80,000 a year, WUSTL's debt would be manageable.
Yes, but you might not make 80k. But yes, even then its still manageable, esp. of OP lives at home while in law school.
delusional wrote:I'm on the verge of turning down Columbia at about $200K. I just don't see how the cost/benefit is worth it. Few people WANT biglaw for more than a few years, and even after paying $30,000 for four years of starting in biglaw, you'd owe $80,000 and expecting a big pay cut.
You're right that the cost/benefit might not be worth it, but check your math. First, if you pay 30k a year on 200k of debt at 6.8% interest for 4 years, you will still owe 120k.
Next, if you pay sticker, you will graduate with over 250k in debt. You need to put much more than 30k a year on that in order to pay it down quickly. On 250k and 6.8% interest, you owe 17k in INTEREST/yr (at the beginning of repayment). It will take you almost 13 years to pay it off (and this is making the tenuous assumption that you afford to pay 30k a year towards your debt).
Now, if you leave CLS with around 200k of debt when you graduate (somehow- whether its grants, parental help, etc.), and you only pay 30k per year towards this debt, it will take you about 9 years to pay off.
Edit: because I'm a typo machine. oh boy, how am i going to draft contracts? lol