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A friend of mine who has a relatively low paying job wants to go to law school (history major). She has family connections supposedly but she was unemployed for almost a year after graduation. These connections would not even offer her an internship or low paying hourly gig to do general filing. She still has over 50k in student loans from college and will have to borrow again for law school. The kicker is she thinks she will waltz right into a 150k/year job to pay it all off.

I've guided her to several sites and employment data but she's still of the opinion her connections will find her a job as a lawyer. What makes this even worse is she's considering a T2 or TTT. Is there anything else I can do? I'm out of ideas and do not want her to have 200k+ in loans without knowing what she's getting into. Of course she always could get a high paying job and not have a worry in the world, I just want to make sure everything is out on the table.

Thanks.

(hopefully this is the right thread for this question)

Maybe explain the consequences of defaulting on 200k of student debt? Hint. They're effing huge.

If you already showed her LST, I dunno what else you can do

The Georgetown loan repayment calculator put a lot of things into perspective for me. Being able to see exactly how much in loans you have to take out for 3 years of sticker price at a law school, and how much that actually is over 10 or 20 years of monthly payments was a shock to my system.

MoMettaMonk wrote:The Georgetown loan repayment calculator put a lot of things into perspective for me. Being able to see exactly how much in loans you have to take out for 3 years of sticker price at a law school, and how much that actually is over 10 or 20 years of monthly payments was a shock to my system.

Agreed. No way in HELL am I going to put myself in the position of having to pay back 2k+ a month for loans. No WAY. People who know this and go into it are insane as fuck.

Thanks for the responses. I'm going to talk with her again this weekend, I'll tell her to look at the monthly payments. The real issue is she seriously thinks her "connections" will get her a six figure legal job right out of school. No employment data site, etc. will convince her that the connections are meaningless. I hate to be an ass but I almost want to say these people wouldn't hire you to be a runner out of college, do you really think they are going to pay you 150k/year? I don't know, it may just be a lost cause at this point. It just sucks knowing the probability of this all working out is not in her favor, although, I do wish her the best.

ManoftheHour wrote:

MoMettaMonk wrote:The Georgetown loan repayment calculator put a lot of things into perspective for me. Being able to see exactly how much in loans you have to take out for 3 years of sticker price at a law school, and how much that actually is over 10 or 20 years of monthly payments was a shock to my system.

Agreed. No way in HELL am I going to put myself in the position of having to pay back 2k+ a month for loans. No WAY. People who know this and go into it are insane as fuck.

Meh. Still coming out ahead. No regrets.

What was her uGPA, and has she taken a diagnostic LSAT? Maybe if you can't talk her out of law school, you can at least guide her toward a better school and/or less debt?

bimmer11 wrote:Thanks for the responses. I'm going to talk with her again this weekend, I'll tell her to look at the monthly payments. The real issue is she seriously thinks her "connections" will get her a six figure legal job right out of school. No employment data site, etc. will convince her that the connections are meaningless. I hate to be an ass but I almost want to say these people wouldn't hire you to be a runner out of college, do you really think they are going to pay you 150k/year? I don't know, it may just be a lost cause at this point. It just sucks knowing the probability of this all working out is not in her favor, although, I do wish her the best.

Have you asked point-blank why they haven't hired her for administrative work? "It seems like you could be using these connections to be getting some great pre-law experience. Why aren't they doing that for you now?"

Her uGPA was a 3.3X and she has not taken a diagnostic yet. I already talked her out of taking the Oct LSAT with only 4 weeks of prep, instead she will take a diagnostic later this month.

I asked a similar question while we were still in undergrad and the problem was they didn't have enough work. The one attorney I know about is a plaintiffs' attorney. I guess I should take a more point blank approach now that 200k is on the line. It's just one of those things you just nod and say oh that sucks but when all of a sudden she's now ready to take out 6 digit loans a reality check is needed.

IAFG wrote:

ManoftheHour wrote:

MoMettaMonk wrote:The Georgetown loan repayment calculator put a lot of things into perspective for me. Being able to see exactly how much in loans you have to take out for 3 years of sticker price at a law school, and how much that actually is over 10 or 20 years of monthly payments was a shock to my system.

Agreed. No way in HELL am I going to put myself in the position of having to pay back 2k+ a month for loans. No WAY. People who know this and go into it are insane as fuck.

Meh. Still coming out ahead. No regrets.

Yeah categorical statements like this are pretty ridiculous. Someone getting 30K a year at HYS will still be paying 2K a month for 10 years to pay off loans. They're supposed to pass that up?