How to defer Student Loans For Law School
How to Pay for Law School (my $160K debt and how I consolidated my loan)
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how to pay for Law School and how I
dealt with my over a hundred and two
thousand dollar debt scholarships are
the number one way to get basically free
money I mean the last resort obviously
is to take out student loan should I
consolidate my life
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hi everyone welcome back to my channel
in today's video we'll be talking all
about how to pay for law school and how
I dealt with my over $160,000 debt from
law school loans if you're interested
then keep on watching so something
that's on a lot of people's minds about
law school is how much it's going to
cost
as with any college or undergrad degree
or a graduate degree you're gonna have
to pay money and if you don't have
enough savings or your parents aren't
willing to help you out or you just
don't have the money to pay for school
then you're gonna have to take out loans
and loans are scary there's something
that not everyone and I certainly didn't
understand when I took them out if you
do a little bit of research into it then
you'll understand a little bit more
about what student loans are and how you
can best repay them after law school and
the beginning of my video I'm basically
going to be talking about a few tips and
tricks and things that I would do if I
were in law school or before law school
in order to pay for Law School
if you're not working my first tip of
course is to get scholarships I know
I've talked about this in my how to get
into law school video but scholarships
are the number one way to get basically
free money to go to a school and get a
law degree and that way when you come
out of law school you don't have to
worry about law school debt or if you
have a little bit of debt it's not gonna
be as big as my debt obviously I do not
get any scholarships from Chapman the
school that I went to but my but if
you're debating between going to a
school that's higher rank that didn't
give you any money or a school that's
lower ranked that gave you money
I would really waive both options
equally if the schools are both not in
the top tier and they're in somewhere in
the middle and maybe the difference is
ten placement rankings it's probably
worth it to go to the lower ranked
school because you're gonna get more
money and honestly you're probably gonna
get the same amount of education and if
you pass the bar exam you're still gonna
get a good job so I would say really
think about the options and if it's
almost equal I would go with the one
that gives you more money when you have
scholarships it's just so much easier
because it's money that you don't have
to worry about repaying later another
tip for those of you that aren't even in
law school yet is
to really study hard for your LSAT and
get a good GPA so that schools would
give you money and schools that you want
to go to will give you money because
scholarships are hard to come by and a
lot of them are based on academics so
try your best so that you can get a good
scholarship and you don't have to worry
about repaying any loans obviously not
everyone is as smart or not everyone is
able to get a scholarship so my second
tip is to take out student loans don't
be scared about taking out student loans
because although they are annoying and
although they have high interest rates
it's something necessary obviously are
choosing to go to law school or go to
grad school so you have to take out
money if you can take a personal loan
from a family member if your parents can
help you pay if you can save up money
during undergrad so that you can pay for
school and that would be great but if
you can't do these things then the last
resort obviously is to take out student
loans the way student loans work is that
you would fill out at least four for me
in California you would fill out a FAFSA
and this you put out all your
information and it'll decide that should
give any name based money this would be
money similar to starship but it's
because you don't make enough for your
family doesn't make enough they're
willing to give you money that you don't
have to pay back then the rest of it
would be either subsidized or
unsubsidized loans and the difference
between the two is that subsidized loans
the interest is paid by the government
during school or in deferment versus
unsubsidized loans the government is not
paying your interest and unlike some
misconceptions you actually do accrue
interest while you're in law school so
although you think you're just borrowing
the money and you don't start accruing
until after law school or when you start
paying that's not true you are paying
interest water in law school and it does
add up in the end law school can cost
anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 dollars a
year when I went to Chapman it was 41
thousand dollars a year and I believe
now is almost 51 thousand dollars a year
so think about that times 3 you're gonna
be you're gonna need to take out a lot
of money so for me I had to take out
about 123 thousand dollars just for
tuition alone however if you are not
living at home or if you have other
expenses then obviously this is not
enough
I mean living expenses because generally
one else do not work and when I was in
law school they had this rule that you
can't work more than 20 hours a week and
I think chairman even made us sign
something saying that we wouldn't work
at all during our 1-all years because I
think they understand that one out and
you should understand this too is very
difficult and like I've said through all
my videos it's a pretty high learning
curve you have to understand how to
approach law school exams how to read
cases how to brief cases it's not easy
and they think that if you have a job
which I agree you're going to be
distracted you're not going to be able
to put in the full time and amount that
you need in order to study and do well
in law school if you have great time
management if you're able to section off
when you need a study when you need to
go to class and then when you work that
by all means go for it if you really
need the money if you can afford not to
work during your 1l year I would highly
highly recommend it so obviously I
needed to take extra money out in order
to pay for my rent my utilities
groceries and so whatever you can do to
live on a strict budget and take out the
minimum amount possible I would do that
because remember you're gonna be paying
interest in all this money and you're
gonna have to pay it back when you
graduate and it's not going to be fun
and I didn't think about this when I was
going into law school I had what I
thought I would just take out a bunch of
money so that I can live a decent life
in during law school and then I would
worry about it later
but now looking back I probably could
have shaved off a good ten thousand
dollars total so after you fill out the
FAFSA in other forms you'll get
information about what loans you got if
they're subsidized or if they're
unsubsidized and their interest rates
and you'll notice that each interest
rate is different mine ranged from five
point six to seven point six percent and
some might be higher for you guys
interest rates are not I don't think
interest rates with that good for
student loans right now but basically
they gave you out they give you certain
amounts that you have to pay back so you
might have a total of five loans
equalling the amount that you want and
each loan is a different amount each one
has a different different interest rate
so really pay attention to how much you
have during law school you don't have to
repay any of this money and there's a
grace period about six months after you
graduate
you don't have to repay before you start
repaying my third tip is to get a summer
job for most law students the summer
after the 1l year is a time to get their
summer internships or summer jobs for me
I was able to get a job that paid and so
I would highly recommend getting a paid
summer job because not only do you get
money but you're getting experience and
I got paid about fifteen dollars an hour
I think during the summer I worked more
than twenty hours maybe 25 to 30 hours a
week and then during the school year I
worked for the same law firm but only
worked 20 hours a week and this is
actually pretty doable in your two out
and three years because you're already
used to law school or you're more used
to it and you can study better and your
classes are more spread out you choose
your own classes and so the way I
scheduled my classes and my work
schedule out I was basically in class or
at work from 8:00 to 6:00 p.m. either
class in the morning and then work in
the afternoon or work in the morning and
then classes in the afternoon so this
was helpful because I basically was
working or going to school during the
day and then when I got home from work
or gone home from school I would just
study so I would really recommend doing
this schedule if you are good at keeping
track of what homework and assignments
you need to do and what readings you
need to do and also being able to go to
work and make money so that you don't
have to take out extra loans other than
what you need for your tuition however I
would discourage anyone from working
more than 20 hours a week during your
two-on-three out school years because
you still have a lot of studying to do
and you still have the bar you're sort
of prepping for and like I said in my to
prep for the bar exam video I wouldn't
work during the months before your bar
exam because that's a really important
time and you don't want to take any
chances okay so next I'm going to talk
about the hundred and sixty thousand
dollar debt that I had when I graduated
from law school so like I said I took
out three years worth of money for
tuition plus extra expenses and due to
the interest that I was accruing during
law school my total when I graduated was
about a hundred and sixty thousand
dollars which is a pretty crazy amount
of you think about it I did wait the six
months before paying off any of it and I
would recommend if you are able to pay
it off start paying it off right away
because you don't want more interest to
accrue and the way student loans work is
that you generally pay
interest during the first few years
possibly five years and then you start
paying the actual principal down and
during that time they're still accruing
more and more interest so it is very
difficult to pay it all off there are
also different repayment options contact
your financial aid office at school or
go to your phone website to understand
the different repayment options but
there's the standard which repaints over
ten years and you pay a fixed price
there's graduated which is what I did in
the beginning where you pay lower and
then every two years and increases
however you don't quite know how much it
will increase by so by the end I think I
was paying I would have been paying
around $3,000 or so a month and this is
over ten years
or there are other ones like income
based where based on your income if you
don't make as much in the beginning then
you don't pay as much and then as your
income increases you pay more and more
over possibly twenty to twenty-five
years for me I knew I just wanted to get
it done in ten years so I did the
graduated payments and it was fine
because I didn't make that much money as
you guys know in the beginning so it was
okay but then I started thinking about
should I consolidate my loan and
consolidating your loan is probably
something you may have heard about or
seen advertisements for but basically
these companies buy your loan and then
you repay them at a lower interest rate
at a fixed interest rate as I mentioned
before your interest rates will vary so
for some of my loans my interest rate
was 5% for some of my loans it was up to
7% but when you go with a company your
interest rate might be the average of
all those but it's one fixed interest
rate so we did a lot of research and I
would really recommend going to student
loan Hero calm I'll leave all the links
below but basically you can read
articles about which companies and which
banks are good for student loans there's
ones like Sophie Laura Road earnest and
lastly First Republic and no this is not
sponsored or anything but my friend
actually told us about First Republic
and how they had really good interest
rates and we were able to get a 2.5
percent interest rate for my student
loan and think about how crazy that is
because my my lowest interest rate was
five point five point six percent or
something like that and I'm only paying
two point five percent
across all of the money that I owe
except that instead of paying the
government I'm not paying first Republic
and there's other things like you have
to have direct deposit you have to open
up a checking account with them but
they're all easy in order to get this
2.5 percent for the 7 years left on my
loan because I already paid 3 years
through the government if you want to
know how much money you might save go to
student loan hero comm and you can click
the link below where you can do a
calculation about what your current
interest rate is and what your proposed
interest rate will be so when you
contact these companies you basically
give them a bunch of information or you
give them information about your loan
how much money you owe how much money
you make your assets you're gonna fill
out a lot of information and then they
do the calculation and give you what the
interest rate will be and the interest
rates will vary based on how the market
is doing what your loan looks like well
how much money you make even your credit
score so don't think that you're going
to get the same rate as I did because it
varies over person to person by going
with first republic' versus some of the
other companies out there I saved a
total of $15,000 by doing the 2.5% rate
whereas the other places were around 4
to 5 percent also just in general if I
had not consolidated my loans then I
would be paying $20,000 more than what I
am paying now if that makes sense
so I saved a total of $20,000 by
consolidating my loan which is crazy
that's like almost the cost of a car so
obviously don't just take my word for it
do your own research read the articles
talk to your financial advisors or
parents or people that you trust to know
about how to deal with money and see if
consolidating is for you I honestly
didn't think it was right for me at
first and I thought well sue loans or
student loans and who knows what might
happen a different president might come
in and say all student loan debt is
forgiven and then at that point what's
why did I can see why did I consolidate
but I knew at that rate if I was saving
that much money and I could get it still
done in 10 total years then why wouldn't
I do it so that's all the information
that I have about how I was able to work
on my one hundred and sixty thousand
dollar debt and of course I'm still
paying it off I think I'm only in my
fourth year so and I just consolidated
about a few months ago
obviously this will have a ways to go
and it is a monthly payment it's
annoying but it's something that you
have to deal with if you don't care
about paying it off over 10 years and of
course you can stretch it out and you
would pay less per month but I just
wanted to get it over with
and it really depends on your finances
can you afford to pay off more in the
beginning or do the standard repayment
where you only have one amount can you
it can your parents help you really look
into all the options
taking out debt is not fun especially
for going to law school where you may
not think it's worth it and you may not
be getting that good of a paying job
afterwards to pay for your student loan
this is the path that you chose in order
to go to loss or to go to grad school so
kind of have to live with it if you have
any questions about how I can saleh
dated or questions about scholarships
what you should do financial aid go
ahead and comment below and let me know
your questions I'll try my best to
answer them I'm in no way an expert and
there's a lot of things I still don't
understand but I'll try my best to
answer for you guys as usual please
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