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i'd have a substantial amount in savings: ~10k. Loans+SO working has helped me cover everything, but there have been months where I needed to front the money/spend extra so having the liquid savings was helpful.

401k is a good idea, but you want to make sure your investments are fairly accessible if you need them. After that its just math. If you are hitting >7% on market, then keep it in and take out loans...otherwise, consider spending some savings on CoL and taking out fewer loans

I know I want to go to law school and I want to apply this fall. I graduated from UCLA in 2009 with a 3.2 GPA. I took the LSAT and applied back in fall 2012. I didn't get into any of my law school choices. I've had several jobs over the past 7 years in both the legal and nonprofit fields. As of right now, I'm in a financial mess. I'll be open about it. I had a couple of private student loans that were defaulted back in 2010. CHASE Bank was not willing to work with me. I had trouble finding a good paying job where I could pay my loans on a monthly basis and still have enough for personal expenses (rent, food, gas, etc...) Even after I gained a better paying job, I then had my federal student loans defaulted. My credit has been tarnished. My financial circumstances are mainly what's been preventing me from pursuing a legal education. Any advice on financial aid and law school for me would be greatly appreciated. I am pretty sure my chances on getting any financial aid for law school are very slim.