How much in savings do you need to attend law school in CA Forum

[kprempeh89]

Hello all,

How much would you say is needed in savings to attend law school in CA? I will most likely be attending law school in the fall but I only have around 20k in savings and will probably not be getting assistance from parents. I am not sure I will land any summer associate programs and don't want to bank on it. How much money in savings do you think is needed for a 25 y/o to attend law school full-time (won't be working during school)? Thank you.

[03152016]

it depends on the size of your scholarship, the school-estimated cost of attendance, and how much you're willing to borrow

[thatsnotmyname]

You don't have to have any savings. You can get loans from the federal government that cover the complete cost of attendance at any accredited legal institution to which you are admitted. Your question should be: How much debt is too much for law school? This question is frequently discussed on this forum. It's actually probably the most discussed topic along with employment prospects that law schools offer, which makes sense as the amount of debt most people are willing to incur for law school depends on the likelihood of them getting a high-paying job that will allow them to service a high debt burden.

The general advice that you would find on this forum is that the only school in CA for which you should be willing to fully debt-finance at the sticker price is Stanford. Some would argue against this even, especially depending on your career goals, but that would be the general wisdom. Most people on this forum would say that no other school in CA would be worth attending at the sticker price and would necessitate some sort of scholarship to bring the cost of attendance down to an amount more in line with the career prospects that it offers. So generally speaking, people may say Berkeley Law on a half-tuition scholarship is reasonable for the employment prospects that it offers, while UCLA/USC may necessitate a two-thirds or more scholarship for some to feel that it is reasonable. Once you get past Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, and USC, many people on this forum will likely tell you not to attend law school if you can't get a full scholarship (or just not attend law school). How much of a scholarship one would require to attend the CA schools outside of Stanford is largely a matter of how risk adverse they are and is a personal decision but the general advice that you'll receive is what I outlined above.

Anyways, it's kind of pointless to go further into this without knowing what your GPA/LSAT score is and what schools you are targeting for admission. Knowing this information will help a lot in providing useful information to you.

[kprempeh89]

You don't have to have any savings. You can get loans from the federal government that cover the complete cost of attendance at any accredited legal institution to which you are admitted. Your question should be: How much debt is too much for law school? This question is frequently discussed on this forum. It's actually probably the most discussed topic along with employment prospects that law schools offer, which makes sense as the amount of debt most people are willing to incur for law school depends on the likelihood of them getting a high-paying job that will allow them to service a high debt burden.

The general advice that you would find on this forum is that the only school in CA for which you should be willing to fully debt-finance at the sticker price is Stanford. Some would argue against this even, especially depending on your career goals, but that would be the general wisdom. Most people on this forum would say that no other school in CA would be worth attending at the sticker price and would necessitate some sort of scholarship to bring the cost of attendance down to an amount more in line with the career prospects that it offers. So generally speaking, people may say Berkeley Law on a half-tuition scholarship is reasonable for the employment prospects that it offers, while UCLA/USC may necessitate a two-thirds or more scholarship for some to feel that it is reasonable. Once you get past Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, and USC, many people on this forum will likely tell you not to attend law school if you can't get a full scholarship (or just not attend law school). How much of a scholarship one would require to attend the CA schools outside of Stanford is largely a matter of how risk adverse they are and is a personal decision but the general advice that you'll receive is what I outlined above.

Anyways, it's kind of pointless to go further into this without knowing what your GPA/LSAT score is and what schools you are targeting for admission. Knowing this information will help a lot in providing useful information to you.

Stats are nothing spectacular. I may be able to do UCLA/USC but it will most likely be sticker if I do.