Post removed. Forum

[Incubateus]

I'm a 3L and I think it would be fine if you ask me. This is an investment. You want to see what other people are putting in so you can figure out how much validity there other opinions get. If I tell you that everything is hunky dory and I'm here on a full scholarship and coming out with no debt then it has a bit less weight than someone who is carrying close to 200K in debt. Albeit there are some sensitive people, but on the most part you're fine.

[rpupkin]

The real lesson here is that you shouldn't rely on personal anecdotes (good or bad) to assess the financial wisdom of attending a particular law school. There's good data available to you. The fact that Trollie McGunner thinks his law school is great shouldn't sway you one way or the other. Who cares how much debt he has?

[Johann]

Another way to feel this out without putting the burden on the other person disclosing the information is sying yeah I'm considering X school but I would have to take out 300k in loans or whatever to attend and I'm not sure it's worth it.

I would never ask someone what their loan balance was I wasnt really tight with, but Ive disclosed my loan balance unprompted plenty because why does it matter.

[BiglawAssociate]

Odds arei if they are at a T-14, they don't have any debt, so NOT RUDE

[chuckbass]

Another way to feel this out without putting the burden on the other person disclosing the information is sying yeah I'm considering X school but I would have to take out 300k in loans or whatever to attend and I'm not sure it's worth it.

I would never ask someone what their loan balance was I wasnt really tight with, but Ive disclosed my loan balance unprompted plenty because why does it matter.

Exactly.

You can talk to current students and explain how much money you're offered though and this should be more than sufficient in order to get advice. We just had ASW and I talked individually with a few students about money, but more along the lines of they have XYZ offers at ABC schools, and helping them weigh those considerations.

[queerqueg]

derailing here a bit, but what are other 0L's are expecting of ASW conversations if not schools, LSATs and scholarships? It goes without saying that there are acceptable and unacceptable ways to bring up topics but come on. How else are we going to compare our cocks?

[A. Nony Mouse]

Odds arei if they are at a T-14, they don't have any debt, so NOT RUDE

Lol. I'm sure there are frightening numbers of people with rich families at T14s but I really doubt no debt is more likely than not.

[newforllm]

I had a lot of current students ask me what my scholarship offers were at various schools, but I find it different because they're trying to give me advice on where to attend and it's a different context. I wouldn't ask about debt, I would ask what made them come here. Often they will tell you if it was a money choice or not. You can sort of weed it out that way.

Yeah I get this but I feel like because they're trying to spin the school very positively, even if the money was the real reason, they'll tell me the community or whatever

I don't think a random student will try to spin the school. The ambassadors probably will because that's their job, but that's why you need to talk to people who's job it is to not sell you on the school. My friends and me are all honest when we get questions from admitted students because they invariably end up coming to the same bar we usually hang out at.

I still don't understand how the debt level of anyone is valuable to you. How do you have any idea what their personal situation is. Some people take out as much in loans as they can and they've been doing that since the first year of undergrad and live it up. Some people have other jobs, worked before coming to law school, or have other financial support. You know how much you'd have to take out in loans, what does it matter how much someone else has in loans.

This should be all 0Ls first lesson that the law school community, and in most cities the entire legal community, is EXTREMELY small. 1L year is like middle school, and sometimes the gossip even makes it up the ranks.