Estimated Cost of Attendence VS reality Forum

[manbearwig]

I think it's worth spending a little more to live with less people so I could relax more at home. Plus, I think it is worth spending extra money to live in a safe neighbor, so you don't have to worry about getting jumped coming home from the library late at night. Sure, most of the time you will be okay, but I think it's just not worth it to save a few thousand. It's all subjective worth though.

+1

I'm at Temple Law, and the one thing I wouldn't compromise on was a safe location. Also, I wanted a roommate, but not multiple. Especially in Philly, you want to be in safer areas. Sure, there are some areas that aren't too terrible, but the problem with them is that once you're home for the night, you're basically stuck there unless you take a cab. Philly has an awesome nightlife, but not if you can't get to it.

[GettingReady2010]

All of this fear of not having enough money is news to me. From what I've heard on TLS, it seems as though the estimated COA are way more than enough. I guess it depends on the school.

[dudders]

My school budgets $1,350 per year for "books and supplies."

My non-optional 1L textbooks for fall term totaled $978. You do the math.

As far as ongoing living expenses, the budget is no frills (especially if you stretch it from 9 months to 12 like I plan on doing), but I live in a good house in a decent neighborhood and brought my car to the city. I feel pretty confident I can manage on the $2k or so I'm allotted per month in high-rent DC, where half of that dumps straight into rent and utilities, and still be able to afford bar review every now and then.

It's all possible, though it was critical that I had enough savings to cover moving cross-country and my school start-up costs. Between buying a new laptop, a new mattress (love it!), and the thousands of little things I've needed from hangers to lamps to detergent to backpacks, it all adds up horrendously fast. I could see it being more of a struggle if all those type of expenses were coming out of COL.

[nealric]

however, the part I quoted is bad advice in my mind. If you really want to do well, it's important to get the right edition. You can get it used, but get the right edition. You will waste time reading full cases on lexis/westlaw that were excerpted, and you will miss out on non-case readings (notes, etc.). If you are a 2L or 3L and grades don't really matter for you, then it's not really a problem. For 1L, you want the right edition so you can do your best.

A little bit of common sense is required, of course, but most "new" editions contain only a small handful of new cases. Seriously, it won't kill you to read that one case from last year on lexis- and those non-case readings are rarely revised all that much. If the area of law is so brand new that a 2-3 year old casebook is completely wrong on the issue, the prof is going to talk extensively about the recent cases. A few areas of law can be exceptions, but none of the common 1L subjects change much over the years (crimpro being the only exception in schools that make it a 1L class).

In any event, I made it through law school just fine buying old editions- and I never did any better or worse in the odd class where I was forced to buy the most recent edition. IMO, most 1Ls go waayyy to far with the "I need every little advantage I can get" mentality. Things like old casebooks and an extra roommate won't wont make or break you- your intelligence and study habits will. Oh, and grades matter plenty after 1L year even if you go into biglaw- laterals will be asked for grades years out of law school, and things like clerkships demand top 2L/3L grades.

[worldtraveler]

My school budgets $1,350 per year for "books and supplies."

My non-optional 1L textbooks for fall term totaled $978. You do the math.

As far as ongoing living expenses, the budget is no frills (especially if you stretch it from 9 months to 12 like I plan on doing), but I live in a good house in a decent neighborhood and brought my car to the city. I feel pretty confident I can manage on the $2k or so I'm allotted per month in high-rent DC, where half of that dumps straight into rent and utilities, and still be able to afford bar review every now and then.

It's all possible, though it was critical that I had enough savings to cover moving cross-country and my school start-up costs. Between buying a new laptop, a new mattress (love it!), and the thousands of little things I've needed from hangers to lamps to detergent to backpacks, it all adds up horrendously fast. I could see it being more of a struggle if all those type of expenses were coming out of COL.

This is why you sell your books when you're done with them.

[leobowski]

I ate soup/chili a lot last year, budgeted monthly, had 4 room-mates, bought used old editions of casebooks, and still went $4k into my savings. A deposit on an apartment, a $500 laptop, work-suitable clothes, travel, E&Es, that stuff just adds up quick. I honestly don't see how people make it without savings or some sort of safety cushion.

The best advice I could give is to work out a monthly budget and stick to it, but even then squirrel away some cash if you can.

[jkay]

My school budgets $1,350 per year for "books and supplies."

My non-optional 1L textbooks for fall term totaled $978. You do the math.

1L here, but I was just looking at this today. It seems likely that we will generally use many of the same books for classes next semester...or I could completely wrong. Can anyone chime in here?

I also ask because I have been looking at some of the book rental websites...but I don't want to get them for a semester if we will need them in the spring, as well.

[RickyMack]

scour the library. they might not have all newest editions on stock, but i picked up 3 required books (worth $180), and a good amount of supplements and commercial outlines probably $200+ worth, all from looking at what was in the reserves. not only that, I won't even have to renew til the end of Nov (which I plotted on my calendar). the savings in cost is worth the two trips to renew and return respectively.

sometimes you can pick up older editions, one of my profs even said: i don't care if you have the green books (the older one) or the red book (the more expensive one in the bookstore), there were only minor changes. which to me was a green light to pick up the older one for $15 bucks (with shipping) on half.com over the $50 dollar one in the bookstore. i guess the caveat would be, ask your professor if it would be okay to pick up the older one. i'm pretty sure they'd prolly be okay with it, unless your edition is from 1988 or something.

[Thomas Jefferson]

scour the library. they might not have all newest editions on stock, but i picked up 3 required books (worth $180), and a good amount of supplements and commercial outlines probably $200+ worth, all from looking at what was in the reserves. not only that, I won't even have to renew til the end of Nov (which I plotted on my calendar). the savings in cost is worth the two trips to renew and return respectively.

Hogging book reserves for yourself all semester seems pretty dick to me. Frankly, I'm surprised your library let you take them out that long. I thought the point of reserves was that they're always at the lib and you can only take them out for a couple hours.

[RickyMack]

Hogging book reserves for yourself all semester seems pretty dick to me. Frankly, I'm surprised your library let you take them out that long. I thought the point of reserves was that they're always at the lib and you can only take them out for a couple hours.

actually yeah it's a pretty dickish move, i'll definitely reconsider in regards to the required books of the three only 1 was the sole copy. in terms of the commercial stuff i think it's free game they had practically every different commercial outline and multiple copies of multiple editions, so i guess i'm half or at least 75% dick still. as for taking books out for a couple hours, yes there were certain texts that were only library use and not to be removed.