Categories: Financing a Legal Education, Practicing Law, Reasons for Going to Law School
 3 Comments »
I wanted to share a random assortment of some great resources for those of you applying to law school:
Studying for the June LSAT? Here’s a great tool: a FREE LSAT proctor download, complete with distracting noises to prepare you for actual test conditions.
When trying to decide where to apply, there is no better resource than the ABA LSAC Official Guide to U.S. Law Schools. (Check out my cool video review and check the “helpful” box. Should I do more of these?)
New Law School Interactive podcast site with a few good downloads already posted, and a schedule of promising topics to take you through the summer.
Deciding whether to apply to law school? Check out The Law School Decision blog.
And, I have a brand new Blog Talk Radio Show coming up on Tuesday (May 11th at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST) – Don’t miss it! The Topic is: Is Law School Worth the Sacrifice? I’ll be interviewing recent law school grads about their job prospects and whether it’s something they would do all over again, knowing what they know now. Listen live (and chat questions for me to ask our participants) or download it (or listen online) anytime afterward.
Categories: Financing a Legal Education, LRAP Programs, Public Interest/Pro Bono, Uncategorized
Tags: Income Based Repayment, Loan Forgiveness, LRAP, Public Interes
2 Comments »
One thing I urge my law school admission consulting clients to consider is the cost of law school, especially for those who hope to work in public interest law or other low-paying fields upon graduation from law school. One such client was good enough to share some of her research on the subject so that I might share it will readers of my blog.
Here’s a great link to the basic information about the recently enacted legislation to help graduates repay federal student loans.
Here is another link on FinAid.org with information about the Income Based Repayment legislation enacted in 2009.
Also, look into the scholarships offered by law schools specifically for those who plan to practice in the public interest. Here’s a shameless plug for an amazing scholarship program at my alma mater, the University of Miami School of Law’s Miami Law Scholars program. It’s not too late to apply!
Categories: Financing a Legal Education, Practicing Law
Tags: law school worth the investment?, paying for law school
4 Comments »
A very good starting point for this discussion should be read by ALL law school applicants. (Yes, even YOU.)
On the ABA blog, see this article about whether law school is worth the investment. And, as an added bonus you MUST read the comments. Usually I hate the comments to these articles because they are written by disgruntled, rude, unprofessional people. However, these comments are (for the most part) an extremely valuable part of the discussion.
Please take 5 minutes to read this. And then add a few schools to your list where you might be considered for scholarships and/or where you might be able to live on the cheap.
I look forward to your comments and feedback on this one!
Categories: Advice, Financing a Legal Education, Salary Trends, Scholarships
Tags: cost of law school, financial aid for law school, law school debt, law school tuition
11 Comments »
I know this isn’t my usual style post, but I have a brilliant idea – not for law applicants, but for the law school administrator who may be secretly reading this blog.
Lower Tuition.
If you’re a private school with a considerable endowment and you’ve been trying to break into the top 50 or top 20 or top 10 for a while, seriously discount tuition.
Applications would flood in. Rankings would soar. Students would be fighting to get in, and wouldn’t be negotiating scholarships. You could actually avoid playing the rankings game and still benefit from the rankings game. You’d get better students knocking on your door. People submitting deposits would be more likely to actually attend. Students would be less disgruntled, and might actually have warm and fuzzy feelings about the school upon becoming alumni.
To the law school applicants out there – to me, more than ever, choosing a law school is about money. It’s a financial decision, and one that will impact a law student’s life for years and years and years to come. I’m 35 and I make a very nice living, but it’s still a 5-year goal for me to pay off my student loans. I chose a private school (and one I felt offered a fantastic education, by the way) instead of a public school. I’m able to pay my loans, and 10 years post-graduation I really don’t feel the payments, but that wasn’t always the case.
I was in line for BigLaw jobs, and clerked for BigLaw, but BigLaw didn’t agree with me. Instead, I took a job offering $35,000/year. A year later my salary doubled, and it continually grew from there. I share this information with my readers because I want you to remember that the $160,000 or even $100,000/year job probably isn’t going to be there for you when you graduate from law school. You need to make decisions right now that prepare you to start making $50,000 and then going up from there. It will go up, and you will have to hustle for every salary increase and bonus, but being a lawyer is hard work. Know that going into it.
Someone gave me sage advice (too late) when I was in law school: “If you live like you’re a lawyer while you’re in law school, you’ll live like a student when you get out.”
Some helpful and interesting links:
The Financial Aid Blog at CUA
The Law School Debt Trap
Loan Thread
Tuition Secret: It Pays to Be Above Average (read the comments on this one!)
Categories: Career, Financing a Legal Education, Law Careers, Salary Trends
Tags: law career, law school student loan debt, tuition debt
1 Comment »
As if you didn’t already know that it’s better to keep student loan debt under control, here’s an article pointing to the realities of pay trends for BigLaw Jobs.
Categories: Advice, Deferral, Financing a Legal Education, Law School Admission Trends, Re-Applying to Law School, Reapplying to Law School
Tags: interest on student loans, number of February LSAT takers, sallie mae
8 Comments »
There is so much going on in the world of law school applicants right now that I feel compelled to address some of the recent trends. Think of this as a “Super Blog-Post” because it’s going to be long and involved and a little all over the place. I hope it’s also the most worthwhile law school admission related reading you’ve done in a while, and certainly it’s time better spent than reading all the gloating posts on discussion forums from people deciding between Harvard and Stanford.
Topic #1: April Angst
What I like to call “April Angst” is the patent unfairness of having deposit deadlines approaching and still not hearing anything back from many of the schools you applied to. This sucks. It totally sucks. You held up your end of the bargain and applied to law school in a timely fashion and the law schools are not responding accordingly. Be bitter. Be upset. Just don’t do anything rash. This is just par for the course. It happens every year and it happens to everyone. Put in a seat deposit somewhere while keeping an open mind about where you might attend. Don’t sign any leases yet. As schools get deposits back from already-admitted applicants, they will slowly open up spots. Hang in there.
Topic #2. Student Loans.
Please, please, please do your research about the availability of funding options before commiting yourself to an expensive private school in an expensive city. Sallie Mae announced this week that it will be requiring students to pay monthly interest on their loans while in school. This could amount to $500/month, which ain’t peanuts on a student budget when you’re prohibited from working more than 5 hours a week as a full time law student. If this isn’t changing how you choose a law school, then you are probably the person who won’t need any loans in the first place and will simply be writing a check for everything from the get-go. This is a big deal. Don’t underestimate its importance.
Topic #3.Don’t panic.
Right now, many applicants have not heard back from any schools – especially February LSAT takers. Please don’t panic and start thinking about developing a worst case scenario plan. Reapplying for Fall 2010 and/or deferring admission to the one school you’ve heard back from is not necessarily going to be a wise plan this year. Be prepared. Fall 2010 admission is going to be even more competitive than Fall 2009 has been. February LSAT takers were up by 11% and law schools are bracing for a huge influx of applications. Applications will be up overall, applications to top law schools will be WAY up because those schools offer (generally) greater job prospects, and more people will be fighting for scholarships to schools at all levels – thereby increasing the popularity of lower ranked schools. If you get into a decent law school this year and it’s one you can afford, it might be wise to go ahead and start rather than waiting to reapply or defer for Fall 2010 admission.
I will happily address your questions, comments and concerns about this. And, to make sure you don’t miss further updates please subscribe to the blog. Thanks so much!
Categories: Financing a Legal Education
Tags: financial aid, law school financial aid
3 Comments »
The deadline for completing financial aid applications is March 1st!
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Ann K. Levine, Esq., former director of law school admissions for two ABA approved law schools, is a law school admission consultant and owner of Law School Expert,
