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Law School is a sham

That loan forgiveness is the best deal around unless you get a job with a big firm. I'm already making about the same as friends in medium to small firms, but the loan forgiveness factor is worth about 30k a year. So for the 10 years I'll be doing this im pretty content.
 
wakelaw13 said:
That loan forgiveness is the best deal around unless you get a job with a big firm. I'm already making about the same as friends in medium to small firms, but the loan forgiveness factor is worth about 30k a year. So for the 10 years I'll be doing this im pretty content.
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It certainly limits your job opportunities though.
 
P4nthers11 said:
Doubt it. My work-study was pretty awesome as those go.

On a related note to law school and its varying degrees of shamness, I was delegated the job of reviewing applicants' submissions in preparation for interviews tomo and I can't tell if I'm imagining it or the decrease in quality is true even at schools like Wake. I was also surprised at how many people already had graduate degrees, but felt adding another three years of debt to get a JD was what was going to put them over the top.
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#pretentiousmidlawalert
 
OldGoldandGrobe said:
Wake was my safety school. I chose UNC to avoid paying through the nose.
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The schools are both ranked #31 in US News and World. I wouldn't blame anyone for paying in-state at UNC if they were going to be paying sticker at both, but Wake law gives out a ton of scholarship money if your grades and scores are legit.
 
John Ruskin said:
the market is so shitty right now, not sure it would hurt as much as it would have pre-2008

could be wrong

often am
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The effects of taking advantage of the loan forgiveness program are independent of strength of job market.
 
P4nthers11 said:
The schools are both ranked #31 in US News and World. I wouldn't blame anyone for paying in-state at UNC if they were going to be paying sticker at both, but Wake law gives out a ton of scholarship money if your grades and scores are legit.
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As does Wake undergrad. My tuition was only like $5k more than the Hope Scholarship, so essentially I went to Wake for $20k tuition thanks to scholarships.

Thanks Bill Stamey!
 
DistrictDeacon said:
The effects of taking advantage of the loan forgiveness program are independent of strength of job market.
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Yeah, no. Pre-2008 a CRE atty with a few years experience from a T50 law school (didnt have to be top of class) in a major market could easily make over 100K and more like 130-150 after a few years if you knew what you were doing. That isn't the case now.

Pretty sure you should consider 'amount of money left in your account after 10 years' an effect of going the loan forgiveness route.
 
TheTwinAndreBen said:
Yeah, no. Pre-2008 a CRE atty with a few years experience from a T50 law school (didnt have to be top of class) in a major market could easily make over 100K and more like 130-150 after a few years if you knew what you were doing. That isn't the case now.

Pretty sure you should consider 'amount of money left in your account after 10 years' an effect of going the loan forgiveness route.
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All I said was that taking advantage of loan forgiveness limits your job opportunities. That is as true now as it was 7 years ago.
 
How do law school loan forgiveness programs work? How do they limit job opportunities?
 
Remember any amount forgiven is taxable as ordinary income that final year...
 
PhDeac said:
How do law school loan forgiveness programs work? How do they limit job opportunities?
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The Public sector loan forgiveness program allows you to make payments for 10 years and then forgives the balance, tax free. The catch is you have to make those 120 payments while working for the government or a non profit.

The other federal loan income based repayment/forgiveness plans require 20 or 25 years of payments and the forgiven balance is taxable income the year it is forgiven. But you can work anywhere (even biglaw).

The monthly payments for all of the above are capped at very low levels (as low as 10% of your discretionary income). Of course, that just leads to a larger tax bill in 20 years. But you have 20 years to plan for that tax bomb and there is a good chance that this issue is fixed sometime between now and 2035.
 
Thanks. That seems like a good setup if you don't plan on going to big law.
 
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