Law School for Free, Via Student Loans Forum

[PolySuyGuy]

I am going to run this logic by financial savy people. If someone could give me some feedback on where I am wrong and/or right, I would appreciate that.

I finished an undergraduate degree in five years at a private school. I took out loans at about $70K a year. For a total of $350K. I did a three year Masters degree at another private school with loans totaling about $80K a year, with a three year total of $240K. I am now headed to law school where tuition should be around $60K a year and I expect to take out loans for $90K a year for $270K. So my 11 year total for loans will be $860K. Include interest etc and we shall say $1 million when I graduate.
With the Obama student loan plan, I should never have to pay more than 10% of my salary and I should be limited to paying student loans for 20 years.
So let us suppose I make $150K a year (generous I know). I should only be paying $15K/year for 20 years. Which means I will only have to pay $300K of my 1 million in loans. Which really means that I will never have to pay back my law school loans and I will be going to law school for free.


http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/ ... BRCalc.jsp

[minnbills]

[ToTransferOrNot]

I.. what is this I don't... jesus effing christ.

[bruss]

Hmmm to be able to take out that much you have to be rich right? Please tell me you are rich op. Please be a Saudi prince.

[cinephile]

Good luck with that.

[PolySuyGuy]

Hmmm to be able to take out that much you have to be rich right? Please tell me you are rich op. Please be a Saudi prince.

Maybe the Prince of Thieves, if I don't have to pay it back.

[bmore]

This is the best personal statement I have read in a long time. Please send it to all schools on your list.

[20121109]

I.. what is this I don't... jesus effing christ.

Good luck with that.

All of this

[superjohnnnn]

at least one problem...
"Unfortunately, the proposal is limited to "new borrowers," who are defined as borrowers who took out their first loans in 2008 or later and who will take out at least one loan in 2012 or later. As a result, borrowers with loans from 2007 and earlier, students who graduated in 2011 or earlier, and borrowers already in repayment will not be able to benefit from these changes to IBR."

but honestly - a lot of your points remain unanswered. i don't know enough about this program. i want to know. lol.

EDIT: that's according to US News

[03121202698008]

There was a guy denied admission to the bar because of like $400K...think it was New York. You realize that the plan could go away at any minute without recourse? You'd not have even been covering the interest and could suddenly face a ~1.5M debt. Under the current IBR, all of that forgiven would be taxable income that year as well.

Edit:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/ohio-sup ... d=12632984
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/colleg ... the_ba.php
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ ... _tries_aga

[PolySuyGuy]

Please send it to all schools on your list.

I contacted the Cornell and the UC Davis Financial Aid offices and they said I was basically correct. I hope you won't mind bailing me out the $700K. Make sure you don't have any debt so that you can pay off mine.

[rinkrat19]

Assuming all your loans qualify and assuming that IBR stays around for 20+ years, you'd still owe income tax on the forgiven amount.

[ToTransferOrNot]

If OP goes the public interest route, he could single-handedly get PILF repealed. He might single-handedly get 25-year (you won't be eligible for 20-year for the vast majority of your incredibly absurd debt load) IBR deb discharge forgiven, too. Congrats, OP!

[rinkrat19]

If OP goes the public interest route, he could single-handedly get PILF repealed.

Does OP sounds like he's ever done anything in the public interest in his life?

[ToTransferOrNot]

If OP goes the public interest route, he could single-handedly get PILF repealed.

Does OP sounds like he's ever done anything in the public interest in his life?

He sounds like he should have spent some time in a soup kitchen or two, but not in the PI sense of spending time in a soup kitchen.

[minnbills]

Oh, I see, it's not just a flame but a conservative flame. Yay.

[bigeast03]

Err, 99.5% sure that OP is trolling with this post. His 30 post history makes it pretty apparent that he's deciding between ASU and a large scholly at UNLV. Neither of which puts him anywhere near the quoted 90k CoA.

[albusdumbledore]

There is so much NO in this thread. I hope you aren't a real person. But I'll bite and assume you are: 1 million bucks ballons to 2.019 million after twenty years at 7% and taking out your estimated IBR payment of 1670 per month based on the IBR calculator.

Then you'll be forgiven the outstanding debt of 2.019 million dollars. Based on current tax brackets, and, assuming you're still make $150k (let's assume you suck at life and never got a raise--bold assumption? Probably not.), you're gonna be paying almost all of that at 35%:

24.4k @ 28% = $6.8k
204.75k@ 33% = $67.5k
1,640k@ 35% = $573.9k

Total tax bill is approximately $648k. Add that to 20 years of $1670/month IBR payments and you've paid about 1.028 million dollars in total, spent most of your life debt, and racked up a lot of worthless degrees to do so.

[bk1]

I bet there's at least one person out there who is $1 million in debt from school loans.

[PolySuyGuy]

There is so much NO in this thread. I hope you aren't a real person. But I'll bite and assume you are: 1 million bucks ballons to 2.019 million after twenty years at 7% and taking out your estimated IBR payment of 1670 per month based on the IBR calculator.

Then you'll be forgiven the outstanding debt of 2.019 million dollars. Based on current tax brackets, and, assuming you're still make $150k (let's assume you suck at life and never got a raise--bold assumption? Probably not.), you're gonna be paying almost all of that at 35%:

24.4k @ 28% = $6.8k
204.75k@ 33% = $67.5k
1,640k@ 35% = $573.9k

Total tax bill is approximately $648k. Add that to 20 years of $1670/month IBR payments and you've paid about 1.028 million dollars in total, spent most of your life debt, and racked up a lot of worthless degrees to do so.

In spite of the snide comments, I appreciate the analysis.

[20130312]

In spite of the snide comments, I appreciate the analysis.

And we appreciate you posting obvious political commentary in an on topic board.

[PolySuyGuy]

at least one problem...
"Unfortunately, the proposal is limited to "new borrowers," who are defined as borrowers who took out their first loans in 2008 or later and who will take out at least one loan in 2012 or later. As a result, borrowers with loans from 2007 and earlier, students who graduated in 2011 or earlier, and borrowers already in repayment will not be able to benefit from these changes to IBR."

but honestly - a lot of your points remain unanswered. i don't know enough about this program. i want to know. lol.

EDIT: that's according to US News

That might be the information I needed. Thanks.

Most of the rest of you can flame off.

[PolySuyGuy]

Here is a good calculator for those who want to figure out their repayment under the Obama IBR plan.

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/ ... BRCalc.jsp

[zanzbar]

This post originally made me laugh, but it really got under my skin so I went and punched a hippie at the local occupy camp. It actually kind of helped.

[MormonChristian]

. Which means I will only have to pay $300K of my 1 million in loans. Which really means that I will never have to pay back my law school loans and I will be going to law school for free.

Any chance you are Greek?

In all seriousness though. I think this is going to be the norm, Law and Medical Students graduating with near a million dollars in debt and the government paying it off.