Harvard Law c/o 2020 Applicants (2016-2017) Forum

[bloomsday]

.

[KateMcKitten]

Agreed. I also believe these schools provide benefits that extend beyond surface costs and are impossible to assign accurate monetary value to. Social circles and the like.

Also, we aren't the only ones that fall to the H prestige factor. If you want to work for boutique firms or international, just putting "H" in the subject line of the email will oftentimes get them to look at you (source: my friend who literally got 40+ interviews and many offers from cold-emailing firms this way). Caveat: I cannot speak to whether or not putting "NYU" in the subject line would have the same effect.

[forum_user]

I would choose HLS over any other school with any scholly in a heartbeat. The fact is just that you can pay off your debt in two years anyway if you work in BigLaw.

lolwut

Theoretically I think it could be done if you land a job in a lower COL market like Dallas which still pays NYC market salary (which I'm assuming has pretty easy-going tax laws too). You'd live like an ascetic for two years, but it wouldn't be impossible per se.

[Rigo]

I would choose HLS over any other school with any scholly in a heartbeat. The fact is just that you can pay off your debt in two years anyway if you work in BigLaw.

lolwut

Theoretically I think it could be done if you land a job in a lower COL market like Dallas which still pays NYC market salary (which I'm assuming has pretty easy-going tax laws too). You'd live like an ascetic for two years, but it wouldn't be impossible per se.

You could live under an overpass and still not make this work unless you got significant need-aid from H in the first place.

[bloomsday]

.

[Dovaking]

I would choose HLS over any other school with any scholly in a heartbeat. The fact is just that you can pay off your debt in two years anyway if you work in BigLaw.

lolwut

Theoretically I think it could be done if you land a job in a lower COL market like Dallas which still pays NYC market salary (which I'm assuming has pretty easy-going tax laws too). You'd live like an ascetic for two years, but it wouldn't be impossible per se.

I really don't think this is true, unless you had free housing and food for the year (maybe if you could move back in with your parents, I guess).

But you can plug in salary and different state taxes to get an estimate here: https://www.adp.com/tools-and-resources ... lator.aspx

There is SUBSTANTIAL information about this topic that is probably extremely helpful to read. Do some forum research on this, tons of graduates discuss this issue and the general consensus is that paying off a sticker price T14 is very hard. There are fairy tales of people doing it in just under 3, but they follow extreme budgets - something hard to do with a biglaw lifestyle.

[forum_user]

I would choose HLS over any other school with any scholly in a heartbeat. The fact is just that you can pay off your debt in two years anyway if you work in BigLaw.

lolwut

Theoretically I think it could be done if you land a job in a lower COL market like Dallas which still pays NYC market salary (which I'm assuming has pretty easy-going tax laws too). You'd live like an ascetic for two years, but it wouldn't be impossible per se.

I really don't think this is true, unless you had free housing and food for the year (maybe if you could move back in with your parents, I guess).

But you can plug in salary and different state taxes to get an estimate here: https://www.adp.com/tools-and-resources ... lator.aspx

Woops I substantially underestimated how much would be taxed out. I guess I should clarify that I don't necessarily advocate for this plan of attack either

[Rigo]

k-jd 0L's talking debt and finances is scary, mannnnn.

[dddddd90]

Exactly. As someone who paid off all my undergrad debt in two years (and trust me that this was not a figure anywhere near the sticker cost at the t14s), it's actually way harder than people assume. Just wait until you're getting a paycheck and want to reward yourself for all those years of hard work...

[crookedsmile]

k-jd 0L's talking debt and finances is scary, mannnnn.

Mhm. Even as someone with several years working experience I still don't think I can fully grasp the concept of six figure debt.

[kiwi50]

.

[The_Pluviophile]

In addition to the ongoing debt discussion - can we make predictions re what day this week the JS2s will come?

+1 The suspense is killing me

[MrJD2020]

In addition to the ongoing debt discussion - can we make predictions re what day this week the JS2s will come?

I think you misspelled "JS1s"

[Monday]

.

[Dr.Degrees_Cr.Cash]

I would choose HLS over any other school with any scholly in a heartbeat. The fact is just that you can pay off your debt in two years anyway if you work in BigLaw.

lolwut

You could almost definitely pay off sticker h in two years. No one does it but with starting big law salary at 180 you could live on 60k a year and get really close if not done in two. If you were willing to live on even less that would get faster still.
That requires you to work like you're in big law and live like you never went to law school, but it's doable if you really want your debt gone asap

[Pozzo]

.

[AnonHumanPerson123]

Yeah, let's move toward speculations and not placing the cart before the horse (at least for the majority of us).

There are way more 172+ scores than HYS collectively need.

Assuming HLS wants its 173 median back and YS hold their medians, that's at least 563/2 + 210/2 + 180/4 = 432 seats for 173+ scorers, out of an applicant pool of 840. That means HYS will enroll at least 51% of all 173+ scorers this cycle, and that's not even considering the GPA cutoffs. CLS enrolls at least another 12%.

Per Spivey's data: in the Class of 2018 cycle, there were 903 173+ scores and HLS actually maintained its 173 median then. Seeing the median dropped to 172 last year, even with 1098 173+ scores, I think HLS is quite comfortable with either a 172 or a 173 median but either way, HLS won't face much trouble.

Also Thursday for JS2!

So the number of 173 scorers is actually lower this year than in 2018 (which I understood to be a relatively "lower" year for top scorers)?

[Anon.y.mousse.]

I would choose HLS over any other school with any scholly in a heartbeat. The fact is just that you can pay off your debt in two years anyway if you work in BigLaw.

lolwut

You could almost definitely pay off sticker h in two years. No one does it but with starting big law salary at 180 you could live on 60k a year and get really close if not done in two. If you were willing to live on even less that would get faster still.
That requires you to work like you're in big law and live like you never went to law school, but it's doable if you really want your debt gone asap

How? If you take out ~250k for tuition + COL, you might not even net that after two years making 180k let alone net enough to pay the 250k + interest.

[unrelated]

I would choose HLS over any other school with any scholly in a heartbeat. The fact is just that you can pay off your debt in two years anyway if you work in BigLaw.

lolwut

You could almost definitely pay off sticker h in two years. No one does it but with starting big law salary at 180 you could live on 60k a year and get really close if not done in two. If you were willing to live on even less that would get faster still.
That requires you to work like you're in big law and live like you never went to law school, but it's doable if you really want your debt gone asap

This still isn't really accurate. If you have a starting salary of $180k, you're still only going to end up taking home like $120k after taxes. Assume you live on $60k (very doable), and devote everything else to debt payments, that's still close to five years paying off nearly $300k in sticker debt that's increasing with interest, while also assuming no emergencies or extravagant expenditures come up (like buying a car or a house or starting a family).

[Rigo]

I would choose HLS over any other school with any scholly in a heartbeat. The fact is just that you can pay off your debt in two years anyway if you work in BigLaw.

lolwut

You could almost definitely pay off sticker h in two years. No one does it but with starting big law salary at 180 you could live on 60k a year and get really close if not done in two. If you were willing to live on even less that would get faster still.
That requires you to work like you're in big law and live like you never went to law school, but it's doable if you really want your debt gone asap

This is just dead wrong and I welcome you to post your janky budget.

[dddddd90]

I would choose HLS over any other school with any scholly in a heartbeat. The fact is just that you can pay off your debt in two years anyway if you work in BigLaw.

lolwut

You could almost definitely pay off sticker h in two years. No one does it but with starting big law salary at 180 you could live on 60k a year and get really close if not done in two. If you were willing to live on even less that would get faster still.
That requires you to work like you're in big law and live like you never went to law school, but it's doable if you really want your debt gone asap

Two things:
1. 180-60 =/= 120
2. H @ sticker =/= 240

180 after taxes in NYC = 115. Even if you could live on a not so doable 60 (a challenge considering health ins, rent, and the cost of maintaining a professional image -- think clothes, manicure, lunches with colleagues, etc), it would still take you 4+ years to pay off 320K debt (total debt financed cost of attendance at HLS) plus continued interest even if you stayed living at 60 and paid down your debt with all bonus and raise money.

[bloomsday]

.

[unrelated]

Really, really encouraging that 3 or 4 different posters have now posted the same objectively verifiable math/numbers on this page alone and people are still not convinced.

Welcome to 2017.

[texteach]

.

[addie1412]

Personally, I have no intention of paying off my loans in less than 10 years. Eat, work, sleep, make student loan payments, rinse and repeat. It's just a part of life y'all