Final Thoughts
The bottom line is this: if you want to go to
law school, you can borrow enough money to do so. The ceiling on
graduate student loan borrowing is very high—well in excess of
$100,000—and there are enough loan programs out there for you to
obtain the money you need. Schools like to lend money, because it
brings more people and tuition money in the door and it doesn’t cost
THEM anything—it costs YOU!
Therefore, you must seriously consider
whether you might be “making a deal with the devil” in taking out
sizable student loans. Take a look at your local newspaper or any
national magazine: they are replete with stories about the mounting
student loan debt of the middle class. They should be! Lawmakers,
and particularly Congress, decided years ago that the best way to
help citizens pay for higher education was to loan them the money to
do so, and to allow each student to choose where the money would be
spent. (The other alternative, used commonly in elementary and
secondary school funding, is to give large sums of money directly to
the institutions, not the students.)
If you borrow substantial sums of money, you
should expect a reduced lifestyle upon graduation. You may be forced
to take a high pressure, high paying job that you do not enjoy. You
may postpone having children. You may not be able to relocate
easily. There are many potential negative consequences when you
accumulate massive debt. (And, just so you know, student loan debts
generally are not excused if you file bankruptcy!)
That being said, law school should not be
reserved simply for the children of the rich. Student loans exist
for middle- and lower-income students in part so that this doesn’t
happen. Student loans are there for you to take advantage of, to
better yourself and eventually to obtain a higher standard of
living.
The key for you, then, is to make a careful,
informed decision about how important a legal career is and how much
you are willing to sacrifice to pursue it. That means you should do
your homework. This includes not just your financial aid homework,
but more importantly the homework involved in discerning whether a
legal career is for you. Know what you are getting into before you
start, and you’ll be better off when you finish.
Good luck!
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