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Going all in on biglaw? If you have any interest in doing public interest, you should seriously consider taking out federal loans instead so you can pick up IBR/PSLF.

How old are you?

I'm 25. I'm not sure if I'm all in on Biglaw but likely. Given Harvard's LIPP, would you recommend taking out a private loan in place of the federal loans?

peke wrote:I'm 25. I'm not sure if I'm all in on Biglaw but likely. Given Harvard's LIPP, would you recommend taking out a private loan in place of the federal loans?

Unless there's something I'm not considering, I'd think you'd be better off with federal loans, since they give you more flexibility. If you end up with a low-paying PI job, LIPP will cover some of your federal loan payments. And even if you end up in Big Law, you might decide that PAYE (or similar) is to your advantage, which won't be available on private loans. And even if you don't decide to use any of those programs, you can refinance your federal loans after graduation.

Paying off your interest as you go, so that it doesn't capitalize, seems like a smart move.

Also, I'm in a fairly similar situation in terms of assets, and I was still able to qualify for need-based aid (though I'm old enough that my parents aren't expected to contribute). PM for details if you're interested.

Is LRAP loan forgiveness treated like earnable income from a tax standpoint?

HonestAdvice wrote:Is LRAP loan forgiveness treated like earnable income from a tax standpoint?

http://hls.harvard.edu/dept/sfs/lipp/ta ... y-of-lipp/

HonestAdvice wrote:Is LRAP loan forgiveness treated like earnable income from a tax standpoint?

Depends on the Job that LIPP is covering for. But from my discussions with SFS, it appears that if your job does not qualify for tax-free LIPP, they will gross up the amount to pay the taxes. Best to check with SFS to make sure that's still the case.

4for44 wrote:

HonestAdvice wrote:Is LRAP loan forgiveness treated like earnable income from a tax standpoint?

Depends on the Job that LIPP is covering for. But from my discussions with SFS, it appears that if your job does not qualify for tax-free LIPP, they will gross up the amount to pay the taxes. Best to check with SFS to make sure that's still the case.

And Winter got there first, with better info.

There is basically no way in hell I would take out a private student loan that big. If you're going for LIPP anyway, who cares. But having IBR to fall back on in the very unlikely event you become a Harvard law grad making more than 46k/year is a huge plus.

What's everyone's experience in borrowing against retirement accounts? I realized I have another 40k or so in my 401k which I can tap into for 20k of loans at a reasonable interest rate paid out to myself. Everywhere I've read claims this should be the last source but I feel that seems to apply to people with much more (~300k+) in their accounts. At that level, the opportunity cost of freezing the account is significantly higher.

Edit: read up on this some more. You'll have two months to repay any loans on a 401k when leaving a job so this is not applicable.