paying sticker with cold cash? Forum

[yellowjacket2012]

Do you guys anecdotally know of any fellow law school students paying for their law school expenses, tuition, board, etc. with mommy-daddy cash, or personal savings - who have zero scholarship? So basically - the kid would have to be paying 150-200k in cold cash, prolly more than that if you throw in rent, etc. and exclude 1L/2L summer pay.

Working on a summer research assignment for a prof comparing student loans comparison to mortgages, this info would be a useful aside - although I'm pretty sure I can't cite any of this - if you actually have stats from your school's database, (not sure why a school would publish this) - but a public URL relating to that would be pure gold.

Law school rank/etc. irrelevant.

[reverendt]

Yeah...I know someone (probably a few) whose parents are paying for their tuition and and least some of their living expenses with money that they have.

[yellowjacket2012]

does ur school publish what percent of kids are NOT using financial aid, in any communication to you whatsoever?

[reverendt]

Not that I've ever seen.

[evilxs]

Drake Law School awards more than $3.5 million in scholarships annually. Approximately 50% of Drake Law students receive scholarships, and more than 90% receive government-funded loans.

More then 90% is as close to disclosing that number as they get.

http://www.law.drake.edu/admissions/?pageID=costsFinAid

[yellowjacket2012]

apparently 5% of Northwestern students are self-sponsored.
Thanks for the above info.

[xyzbca]

At first I thought part time programs would be your best bet for finding a student paying full cash. However, any person who is currently employed is probably receiving at least something in tuition reimbursement from their employer.

I'm paying 70% of sticker while the other 30% is made up by scholarship and my employer.

Aside from parents that are paying for school, the profile you are looking for is probably going to be a married student whose spouse has a successful career footing the bill.

[Rocky Estoppel]

I microwave my cash before using it.

[anniesaysrelax]

I've got a friend who is paying sticker and his parents are footing the bill entirely. He is going to a state school where he has residency though, so it's not quite as much as it would be at a private school.

[makingwaves]

I know a couple people, myself included, whose parents pay (or will pay) living expenses and have to take out loan $ for tuition. I can't imagine the number of people who totally self-support is very high. I can probably count on one hand the families I know who could foot the bill for law school.

[OperaSoprano]

Around 60% of my classmates are paying sticker, and 20% are not taking out loans. I don't know what percentage of the latter are doing the former, but likely some.

[Patriot1208]

I've got a friend who is paying sticker and his parents are footing the bill entirely. He is going to a state school where he has residency though, so it's not quite as much as it would be at a private school.

My parents agreed to pay if I go to our state school. But tuition there is about half of the t13 schools i'm hoping to go to.

[ohnowtf]

I know just a few. My school has a lot of part timers or 2nd career students, who had savings + a spouse that make it possible to borrow none or very little. There are couple that are fresh from undergraduate whose parents are footing the bill. Obviously, this is rare, and they are incredibly fortunate. It seems, however, that most law students come from a upper-middle-class background, and their parents tend to help out as much as they can (maybe pay phone bill, insurance, etc).

[Oban]

At my undergrad(top 10 private) less than half of the school had loans and/or scholarships. So most kids were having parents pay out of pocket. I imaging there has to be a law school where a lot of kids are paying out of pocket too.

[pkrtbx]

Unless I get some kind of scholly, my parents will be footing the bill for LS cold cash, from their checking acct.

Needless to say, am shooting for a scholly, they're already paying over 50k/yr in cold hard cash for UG and I am truly starting to feel bad.

[tingles]

My parents are covering tuition for me (it's a loan - I have to pay them back when I graduate), but I take out federal loans for my living costs. I don't think it's as rare as you'd imagine - I know of several people that have parents that are footing the bill or considering it as a loan to their kids.

[pjo]

Why would anyone pay cash flat out when they could get a stafford subsidized loan for 8,500/yr, and interest doesn't start to accrue until after you graduate? Maybe I'm missing something but even if I had the money to pay in cash I'd still take out that loan, leave 25,500 in a 36 month CD and then withdraw and pay it off the very day it begins to accrue interest. At least you could have made money on your money for 3 yrs this way. But like I said, maybe I'm missing something bc I'm just starting to learn about loans (didn't have any from UG).

[xyzbca]

Why would anyone pay cash flat out when they could get a stafford subsidized loan for 8,500/yr, and interest doesn't start to accrue until after you graduate? Maybe I'm missing something but even if I had the money to pay in cash I'd still take out that loan, leave 25,500 in a 36 month CD and then withdraw and pay it off the very day it begins to accrue interest. At least you could have made money on your money for 3 yrs this way. But like I said, maybe I'm missing something bc I'm just starting to learn about loans (didn't have any from UG).

1. My guess is that a good portion of the people/parents paying cash are doing it as they go rather than having a lump sum available at the start. We typically have the next semester's tuition payment completely saved up about 3 months before the start of the semester and then immediately begin saving towards the next semester. We've suspended retirement/cash savings and diverted that towards tuition. For me, the loan thing is a personal preference. My wife wanted me to quit work as I was accepted into several FT programs but I prefer to pay as I go and avoid debt. It certainly makes things harder, but I am unwilling to live with the worst case scenario of lots of school debt + no job.

2. Don't subsidized Stafford loans require financial need? My uneducated guess is that if you or your family have the cash to pay for school as a lump sum, you aren't going to be able to qualify for subsidized Stafford loans.