Paying for All Expenses with Student Loans Forum

[fourwinds]

Right now I am still in college as an undergraduate. I will be in law school in two years. Right now I'm receiving enough Pell Grants, institutional grants, scholarships, etc to completely pay for my undergraduate education. Although my tuition/room/board is paid for, I still work part-time to make payments on a car I have, pay my car insurance, pay cell phone bill, food, etc.

One of my professors that went to law school said that it's practically impossible to work part-time in law school, just due to the workload. He told me most people finance everything into their student loans, including rent/food/living expenses/etc. I was just wondering the restrictions on this. I know that at the undergraduate level, my financial aid office caps the amount of loans that I can take out if I wanted to. For example, if they say the total "cost of attendance" is $20,000, and I receive grants, scholarships, etc totaling $18,000, the maximum amount of loans that I can take out is $2,000, even if the "cap" set by the federal government is higher than that.

Is there a limit to how much of your living expenses you can finance into your law school student loans? At my school, I just get a refund check for any amount that goes over the amount needed to cover tuition. Does law school work the same way? I'm trying to figure this out because I will likely need to finance my car payments, rent, food, and other expenses into my law school loans.

[A. Nony Mouse]

You can get loans up to the estimated cost of attendance, which is determined by the school. Cost of attendance includes living expenses, but not car payments (it's supposed to be for educational expenses), and it varies depending on the school (COA for Columbia isn't going to be the same as COA for UIUC). Generally speaking schools' estimates for COA are pretty reasonable - you're not going to live extravagantly, but it covers your basic rent and food and so on. For people who have exceptional circumstances (like single parenting 4 kids or something) you can get the cost of attendance adjusted.

I'm pretty sure the same kind of cap you describe happens with law schools, too - if you get $X in scholarship from the school, you can take out loans for COA minus X. But again, the idea is that it covers your living expenses. I don't think most people run into problems with having enough money to live off of (again, at your basic student level, at least).

[Budfox55]

I received full financial aid from my undergrad and from looking at law school cost of attendance budgets, it appears like law schools are way more generous in their cost of living calculations. I would expect a larger budget from loans than what you're currently receiving in grants from your undergrad.

[lymenheimer]

I would expect a larger budget from loans than what you're currently receiving in grants from your undergrad.

I understand what you meant but I wanted to discourage people from "expecting" larger budget adjustments (particularly because they are so variable). You can go to each school's website and see how much their estimated COA is and how they break it down. No need to expect when you can calculate it.

[RareExports]

You can receive, in loans, up to the cost of attendance minus your scholarship amount. For many schools, this amount is hugely inflated, and you will not require anywhere near this much.

Also it is entirely possible to work part-time in law school, at least for 1L. 1L requires far less time than many undergraduate degrees, in my opinion at least.

[jlk411]

I have an existing personal loan that I will be bringing with me to law school, so I am trying to save in the other allotted areas of the budget. Does anyone have success stories in re to that? I am thinking that the personal expenses and the food budget can be saved upon-- also I was wondering if folks experience with used books is good? I think I will go that route to save money as well.

[mornincounselor]

You can receive, in loans, up to the cost of attendance minus your scholarship amount. For many schools, this amount is hugely inflated, and you will not require anywhere near this much.

Also it is entirely possible to work part-time in law school, at least for 1L. 1L requires far less time than many undergraduate degrees, in my opinion at least.

This runs counter to nearly everything I've read about 1L.

[RareExports]

You can receive, in loans, up to the cost of attendance minus your scholarship amount. For many schools, this amount is hugely inflated, and you will not require anywhere near this much.

Also it is entirely possible to work part-time in law school, at least for 1L. 1L requires far less time than many undergraduate degrees, in my opinion at least.

This runs counter to nearly everything I've read about 1L.

It's what my experience is. I worked part-time in 1L and I know many others who did. I didn't think it required nearly as much time as undergrad.

[somethingElse]

I mean obviously it depends on what you majored in, how much effort you put in then vs now, etc.