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Hey guys, so I've been looking over all the TLS resources for financial aid, but I just wanted to ask all you financial aid wizards for advice. Please remember I am new to this whole process, and have always been bad with finance.

Here are the details:

1) Grandparents are giving me 90k for law school (for which I am EXTREMELY lucky and grateful) - probably in three installments
2) I have been paying off my undergrad debts on time, and there's only about 12k left
3) Got into Penn under ED conditions - in other words, no scholarships

Assuming I'm not going to receive any need-based financial aid, what should I do? Do you guys advise me to take private loans? Or should I just do run-of-the-mill GradPlus loans? Is there anything special or particular about how I should formulate my financial aid package (because of my grandparents' help)?

And whats the best way to ask Penn for scholarship money - even though there is a 99.9999% chance they won't give any?

Thanks in advance!

How old is your undergrad debt? If it's from pre-2007, you should get your grandparents to pay off the balance before you start law school so your federal loans will be PAYE eligible.

Take federal loans over private because there's less risk involved. Use the money from your grandparents to minimize the amount of usurious GradPLUS you need to take.

Nelson wrote:How old is your undergrad debt? If it's from pre-2007, you should get your grandparents to pay off the balance before you start law school so your federal loans will be PAYE eligible.

Take federal loans over private because there's less risk involved. Use the money from your grandparents to minimize the amount of usurious GradPLUS you need to take.

Thanks Nelson - that was exactly the type of sage TLS wisdom I was looking for.

Actually though, I started college in 2007, and that's when I took out my loans for undergrad. How does that affect PAYE eligibility?

0heL wrote:

Nelson wrote:How old is your undergrad debt? If it's from pre-2007, you should get your grandparents to pay off the balance before you start law school so your federal loans will be PAYE eligible.

Take federal loans over private because there's less risk involved. Use the money from your grandparents to minimize the amount of usurious GradPLUS you need to take.

Thanks Nelson - that was exactly the type of sage TLS wisdom I was looking for.

Actually though, I started college in 2007, and that's when I took out my loans for undergrad. How does that affect PAYE eligibility?

Department of Education wrote:You also must be a new borrower as of Oct. 1, 2007, and must have received a disbursement of a Direct Loan on or after Oct. 1, 2011. You are a new borrower if you had no outstanding balance on a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan as of Oct. 1, 2007, or had no outstanding balance on a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan when you received a new loan on or after Oct. 1, 2007.

http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/un ... ible-loans

You should probably pay off your old loans with your grandparents' money rather than applying it to your first year's tuition. You should read the PAYE stuff carefully and make sure you are eligible because it's a much, much better program than the old IBR system.