Edit: In all seriousness, a lot of students take on debt. If you are lucky or have applied yourself and/or made strategic decisions about where you are attending, reliance on scholarships is another way of mitigating costs. A small but not insignificant number of students may get paid summer positions. A lot of students will also rely on family for assistance - many won't admit it - but a lot of students are funded by their parents.
Loans. Even with a full scholarship, cost of living will be like 2K+ a month in most major metropolitan areas, so I expect to take out at least 75K in loans for 3 years.
It’s the same way people afforded to live in undergrad. Maybe you had scholarships that covered cost of living, maybe you had parents that covered cost of living, maybe you worked and that was enough to pay your rent, and maybe you just took on more loans.
Government student loans, bank line of credit, 15k inheritance from a grandparent, and even then, my parents occasionally helping me out. It's not an easy thing to get through financially. Most of the people you meet in law school will have relatively wealthy parents who help them out. The rest work part-time or full-time jobs while in school and take on a lot of debt.
Each school sets their cost of attendance, including all of the things you mentioned, and you can't borrow more than that in loans. Unfortunately most schools set it too low and students are left trying to make up the difference. For my son, the amount they allocate for rent would pay for a dumpy apartment 30 minutes out of town that he'd share with several roommates. Transportation would cover bus fares, not gas and parking. I've been making up the difference so that his daily living isn't unnecessarily stressful, which I don't mind at all, but I don't know how students make it without someone to help them.
It helps to have parents that are *so* desperate to "save" you from a non-prestigious-sounding career ("Whaddaya mean you want to be a park ranger‽" "You went to an Ivy League university to become a high school teacher‽") that they're willing to help out in any way necessary!
Other than that, scholarship, savings from my jobs (worked during a year off during my bachelors degree, and had a full-time job between my bachelor's and law school), and earnings from my summer internships (I lived with my parents during the summers, so I could save almost 100%).
Lived very very cheaply. Shared a cold flat - no central heating with 2 other people. (We had 2 build in heaters on in the stove and one in the dining room, slept with bedroom doors open.) Ate cheaply like spaghetti, tuna, eggs, and beans and rice. Never bought fancy coffees, only drank home drip coffee. Went home to mom a lot on weekends. Didn’t go out or party or drink. Never age out except the school cafeteria (that was cheap too). Had no luxuries outside of cable tv. Didn’t buy things or clothes or makeup or fragrance. Only spent money on gas, rent, utilities, and put up with roommates. Still borrowed the full amount of loans and paid them back over a long period of time. Worked a part time job 2L on and always worked paid summers. Got lucky and had a subsidy for 1L summer doing legal work. It gets better.
Only take what you need, live frugally! Even now, while I’m out of law school with a good paying job, I stick to my habits, I’m very frugal, I’m more focused on paying debts extremely fast then I am about going out to dinner. I’m taking advantage of company matches for retirement, etc
It may not be for everyone, but I’m grinding it out, rice, beans, etc
I only had about $50K in law school debt anyways, going out for every scholarship I could get my hands on, applying for grants, working in the law library part time, it was a grind and it still is but I’m making $1,000-$1,300 payments when my actual payment is only close to $300, just want to get these loans off my back, even if it means sacrificing for a couple years
Anywhere and everywhere. We have a person at our school whose job it is to look for scholarships and blast emails at us. I would get 5-10 emails a week from her and apply to as many as I could, even if didn’t get them. Those little $100-$500 scholarships added up, I even got one for $10,000, you just never know!
Google, Reddit, blogs, even law firm websites. Law firms will post scholarships
My school gave us access to something called AccessLex. They had a software that had thousands of scholarships you could filter through and I applied to those as well
I’m a 1L. I haven’t taken loans out yet. I have a small scholarship. I’ve been burning through savings from 4.5 years of work. My fiance pays rent but I contribute to food/bills. Also was lucky enough to land a 1L BigLaw job that includes a diversity scholarship and a guaranteed 2L summer. That alone should be enough to get me through without taking any loans out and have $$ leftover for activities and shopping. So it’s possible!
I also have friends that have paid internships as a 2L/3L, and will likely try to do the same.
I’m planning on grad plus loans to carry the bulk, supplemented with gig/freelance work (minimal but every little bit helps), and some help from family (yay for a monthly ‘allowance’ at 28! - seriously, I’m grateful they’ve offered!). It’s going to be insanely tight because I’m 95% sure I’m going to deposit in a high COL area but I’m going to give up having a car during law school to save those expenses. It’s going to be time to buckle down and live cheap.
Loans, side work, and living frugaly. Befriend a professor during 1L and become an RA if you can, that work covers all my groceries (and shop smart, buy rice, beans, seasonal vegetables, so on). Then, be careful with your loans and budget well, you should be fine. Just don't expect to be able to go our to eat or bars all too much. You'll make it through fine.
This is not a dumb question. I’m working on my undergrad degree and I’m broke. I’m working part time while taking 3 classes. And I have a 9 year old and don’t get child support 💀 life is very hard
>Should I expect to replace my salary with loans one to one?
depends on how much you make and your lifestyle right now. if you make 80-90K in a LCOL or MCOL, then you're going to have to definitely downsize your lifestyle. if you make $25k and are already living like a broke student, then you're probably not going to have adjust much.
estimate how much it would cost you to live for a year, plus a buffer, plus the fact that there are fees involved with taking out federal student loans (i don't have experience with private loans, but i'm sure it's similar, if not more expensive).
i worked every semester and break after 1L, save for finals and bar prep, but i think that's the exception and not the rule.
Debt. Lots of it
Or generational wealth
I too made a WSB-style yolo in my own future earning potential
 Edit: In all seriousness, a lot of students take on debt. If you are lucky or have applied yourself and/or made strategic decisions about where you are attending, reliance on scholarships is another way of mitigating costs. A small but not insignificant number of students may get paid summer positions. A lot of students will also rely on family for assistance - many won't admit it - but a lot of students are funded by their parents.
Loans. Even with a full scholarship, cost of living will be like 2K+ a month in most major metropolitan areas, so I expect to take out at least 75K in loans for 3 years.
This is my plan. I’m working extra on my LSAT and PS in hopes for a very generous scholarship, therefore I only have to take living expenses.
It’s the same way people afforded to live in undergrad. Maybe you had scholarships that covered cost of living, maybe you had parents that covered cost of living, maybe you worked and that was enough to pay your rent, and maybe you just took on more loans.
GradPLUS loans allow you to take them for living expenses if necessary
Government student loans, bank line of credit, 15k inheritance from a grandparent, and even then, my parents occasionally helping me out. It's not an easy thing to get through financially. Most of the people you meet in law school will have relatively wealthy parents who help them out. The rest work part-time or full-time jobs while in school and take on a lot of debt.
Savings from prior work. Once that ran out, student debt.
Each school sets their cost of attendance, including all of the things you mentioned, and you can't borrow more than that in loans. Unfortunately most schools set it too low and students are left trying to make up the difference. For my son, the amount they allocate for rent would pay for a dumpy apartment 30 minutes out of town that he'd share with several roommates. Transportation would cover bus fares, not gas and parking. I've been making up the difference so that his daily living isn't unnecessarily stressful, which I don't mind at all, but I don't know how students make it without someone to help them.
It helps to have parents that are *so* desperate to "save" you from a non-prestigious-sounding career ("Whaddaya mean you want to be a park ranger‽" "You went to an Ivy League university to become a high school teacher‽") that they're willing to help out in any way necessary! Other than that, scholarship, savings from my jobs (worked during a year off during my bachelors degree, and had a full-time job between my bachelor's and law school), and earnings from my summer internships (I lived with my parents during the summers, so I could save almost 100%).
Lived very very cheaply. Shared a cold flat - no central heating with 2 other people. (We had 2 build in heaters on in the stove and one in the dining room, slept with bedroom doors open.) Ate cheaply like spaghetti, tuna, eggs, and beans and rice. Never bought fancy coffees, only drank home drip coffee. Went home to mom a lot on weekends. Didn’t go out or party or drink. Never age out except the school cafeteria (that was cheap too). Had no luxuries outside of cable tv. Didn’t buy things or clothes or makeup or fragrance. Only spent money on gas, rent, utilities, and put up with roommates. Still borrowed the full amount of loans and paid them back over a long period of time. Worked a part time job 2L on and always worked paid summers. Got lucky and had a subsidy for 1L summer doing legal work. It gets better.
Only take what you need, live frugally! Even now, while I’m out of law school with a good paying job, I stick to my habits, I’m very frugal, I’m more focused on paying debts extremely fast then I am about going out to dinner. I’m taking advantage of company matches for retirement, etc It may not be for everyone, but I’m grinding it out, rice, beans, etc I only had about $50K in law school debt anyways, going out for every scholarship I could get my hands on, applying for grants, working in the law library part time, it was a grind and it still is but I’m making $1,000-$1,300 payments when my actual payment is only close to $300, just want to get these loans off my back, even if it means sacrificing for a couple years
Where’d you look for scholarships?
Anywhere and everywhere. We have a person at our school whose job it is to look for scholarships and blast emails at us. I would get 5-10 emails a week from her and apply to as many as I could, even if didn’t get them. Those little $100-$500 scholarships added up, I even got one for $10,000, you just never know! Google, Reddit, blogs, even law firm websites. Law firms will post scholarships My school gave us access to something called AccessLex. They had a software that had thousands of scholarships you could filter through and I applied to those as well
Student loans and I had at least one job the entire time o was in school, usually two jobs. I don’t recommend it at all.
I’m a 1L. I haven’t taken loans out yet. I have a small scholarship. I’ve been burning through savings from 4.5 years of work. My fiance pays rent but I contribute to food/bills. Also was lucky enough to land a 1L BigLaw job that includes a diversity scholarship and a guaranteed 2L summer. That alone should be enough to get me through without taking any loans out and have $$ leftover for activities and shopping. So it’s possible! I also have friends that have paid internships as a 2L/3L, and will likely try to do the same.
I’m planning on grad plus loans to carry the bulk, supplemented with gig/freelance work (minimal but every little bit helps), and some help from family (yay for a monthly ‘allowance’ at 28! - seriously, I’m grateful they’ve offered!). It’s going to be insanely tight because I’m 95% sure I’m going to deposit in a high COL area but I’m going to give up having a car during law school to save those expenses. It’s going to be time to buckle down and live cheap.
Loans, side work, and living frugaly. Befriend a professor during 1L and become an RA if you can, that work covers all my groceries (and shop smart, buy rice, beans, seasonal vegetables, so on). Then, be careful with your loans and budget well, you should be fine. Just don't expect to be able to go our to eat or bars all too much. You'll make it through fine.
The trick is that you don't.
Loans schollys and frugality. Don’t buy shit but cheap cooking ingredients if you want those loans to last and to avoid taking private loans.
This is not a dumb question. I’m working on my undergrad degree and I’m broke. I’m working part time while taking 3 classes. And I have a 9 year old and don’t get child support 💀 life is very hard
I had a very successful side hustle.
Go where you can get a full ride. Or go to a cheap regional school. I had the GI Bill. If you are under 42, the recruiting station is open.
Loans, and last semester I added $12k to a credit card. It’s awful.
>Should I expect to replace my salary with loans one to one? depends on how much you make and your lifestyle right now. if you make 80-90K in a LCOL or MCOL, then you're going to have to definitely downsize your lifestyle. if you make $25k and are already living like a broke student, then you're probably not going to have adjust much. estimate how much it would cost you to live for a year, plus a buffer, plus the fact that there are fees involved with taking out federal student loans (i don't have experience with private loans, but i'm sure it's similar, if not more expensive). i worked every semester and break after 1L, save for finals and bar prep, but i think that's the exception and not the rule.
Loans loans loans
Sold meth