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Basically, the situation I am in now is that I will be graduating with about $40K in law school debt (entering 2L). I have about $15K in the bank and don't really have expenses because I live with my aunt and uncle. Fees are due for my fall semester soon, so I was wondering if it would make sense to pay off $10K for fall, or if I should save my money until I graduate and start making payments after I secure a job.

Sidebar: I had a full-tuition scholarship my first year of law school, so I have not taken out any law school loans yet. I extended my tax deadline for the fall, so my FAFSA is not technically completed yet, but I heard that taking out a private loan may be cheaper if you get a co-signer. Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks!

The issue with private loans is that most come with variable interest rates that almost always get bumped up after 6 months or so.

As for paying it off, I'd say definitely. Makes no sense to have to your loans accrue interest when you can pay them off.

Taking out a private loan with a co-signer is often cheaper than taking out a private loan without a co-signer, so long as the co-signer has good credit I would imagine. Whether its cheaper than a federal fixed loan is debatable since the interest rate is variant and can change at any time I think. It's a gamble. Most suggest taking as much as you can from federal before you go about private loans. I believe they offer more beneficial repayment programming as well.

As for your main question, save yourself the accruing interest and pay that off.