Top Law Schools

Hypothetically, how much in loans would you be willing to take out for a low Tier 1 school (Wake Forest, George Mason, Tulane, SMU, Florida, and the like)? I am talking about total over 3 years including cost of living, tuition, books and everything.

ZERO...loans suck.

i would take out 70ish for cost of living. i would not pay tuition at any of those schools.

twert wrote:i would take out 70ish for cost of living. i would not pay tuition at any of those schools.

I did not mean to imply that any one of these schools was necessary what I was referring to specifically, just that that was the range of schools I was curious about and they were some of the first to come to mind.

marshalltucker wrote:

twert wrote:i would take out 70ish for cost of living. i would not pay tuition at any of those schools.

I did not mean to imply that any one of these schools was necessary what I was referring to specifically, just that that was the range of schools I was curious about and they were some of the first to come to mind.

i would not pay full tuition for anything outside of the T6, and i don't say that as an elitist, i'll be going to chapman next year

i came close to accepting a full ride at a low T1. then i realized there is nothing in the world worth limiting myself to that region for likely the rest of my life.

You could support 90k worth of loans with a job that pays around 70k.

mec30 wrote:You could support 90k worth of loans with a job that pays around 70k.

More likely from these schools you'd be competing for a lot of jobs paying $30k-$50k (FL comes to mind).

Depends on the school, but barely any at all. $70k max.

Aqualibrium wrote:ZERO...loans suck.

THIS.

but I am not sure I would say zero. depends on what you plan on doing with the rest of your life. Tuition, books etc...all falls under the necessary cost where as there are many things that you can tweak in regards to COL choices. The COL stuff is where you can get hung, all my undergrad loans were used for very enjoyable missions bachelor party in vegas, 3 months in south america for internship (vacation) etc...I could justify that then but at this point it would not happen. Again those are at 2.875% locked. All good, now taking out money at 6.8% for the life of the loan...different monster all together. As long as your back ups have back ups you can go as far into the debt pit as you would like. I just feel that without extensive planning and leaving a hefty amount of room for all the variables you can't control (over all state of economy and or legal field upon graduation, random life shit that can cost you 5k-100k that you didn't see coming) just a frisky thing to speculate on.

Florida vs NO vs Winston Salem vs Dallas. could be 8k a year to scrape by or 15k which translates into a chunk over the repayment period. Now cost of tuition vs. placement and career options, that is the BIG CAN O' WORMS I don't open. Leave that to the rest of the TLS ninjas.

Hmmm, I was expecting people to generally vote around the $90k mark. I expect to be taking out around $70k or so for a school a tad above this range next year if I decide to attend where I'm currently looking. Thought that was pretty good til now...

NOTE: Not attending this year, but looking at UGA/Alabama and a few schools in the range I mentioned above (fairly certain I can get in). Also, not necessarily looking for advice so much as curious as to how people view the debt situation at this tier of schools.

marshalltucker wrote: Also, not necessarily looking for advice so much as curious as to how people view the debt situation at this tier of schools.

3 words

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!

10 to 10 to 10 to 11 to 10, wow thats close. (shameless bump)

If you didn't have enough money, I'd recommend taking out enough to pay for everything. It's hard to get things when you don't pay for them.

Cheers,

Ken

I'm taking around 100 to attend a mid t1. I'm terrified that it's the wrong decision, but only time will tell....