Spouse and COA Forum

[mr. wednesday]

Don't make a decision on where you are going to school based on $2000 a semester. You can make that just being an RA, and hopefully your wife is willing to at least work part time minimum wage while job searching.

[AT9]

I wouldn't pick a school based on that alone, but when we're talking such a low living allowance for two people, $4,000 in our pocket is a nice incentive (if it doesn't count against the loan limit). And she is willing to work some junk job if needed, but even that isn't guaranteed in a crappy economy.

We've managed to get a ways off topic, but I've learned a lot already. Any additional advice is welcome!

[rinkrat19]

I wouldn't pick a school based on that alone, but when we're talking such a low living allowance for two people, $4,000 in our pocket is a nice incentive (if it doesn't count against the loan limit). And she is willing to work some junk job if needed, but even that isn't guaranteed in a crappy economy.

We've managed to get a ways off topic, but I've learned a lot already. Any additional advice is welcome!

I would think that a fellowship does count against the loan limit. Work-study definitely does.

[Void]

I wouldn't pick a school based on that alone, but when we're talking such a low living allowance for two people, $4,000 in our pocket is a nice incentive (if it doesn't count against the loan limit). And she is willing to work some junk job if needed, but even that isn't guaranteed in a crappy economy.

We've managed to get a ways off topic, but I've learned a lot already. Any additional advice is welcome!

She'd better be willing to work some junk job, because that's basically all that will be available to her if she only has a bachelor's and "her undergrad institution has basically 0 name recognition in the city of almost every law school I'm considering, her degree isn't super marketable, and she has little work experience."

Not trying to be a dick, but she should prepare to be waitstaff.

[AT9]

Guess I'll have to check on the fellowship details.

Are students in part time programs allowed to take out loans for COL, or are they not because it's assumed the person is working anyway?

I ask because there's a possibility my current employer would allow me to work remotely and part time, in which case our COL debt would be low or non-existent if i were in a PT program. And if my wife found a decent job after a while, we could get to a point where we could pay back some tuition loans. Just thought about this today, so no idea if it'd work. Just worth exploring the possibility.