Sunday, April 08, 2007

I see large loans in my future

Last week I received notice from downtown school that, not only did they not think I was cool enough to be a finalist for the scholarship I applied for, they also do not think I am needy enough to qualify for any aid whatsoever. So, since money was the only thing that was going to change my mind at this point, that pretty much seals the deal for me -- I will be going to uptown school. I attended an admitted student event there a week and a half ago, and I definitely think I will be happiest there. I haven't received anything from them about financial aid yet, but I don't really expect them to give me anything either (although I am hoping for a little something anyway).

So, obviously, I will be taking out loans. My husband's current salary is sufficient to pay our living expenses, and for the first 9 months of school I will be getting GI Bill money (I've already used a lot of it and only have 9 months of benefits left), which will help pay for daycare, but I am probably going to have to take out loans to cover the entire cost of tuition and fees, etc. We have some money from the sale of our house, but we would rather save that for a down payment on another house after I graduate than spend it all on tuition. In any case, if we change our minds we can just use the money to pay down the loans after I graduate. So, I guess I am looking at $120,000 or so in loans. Luckily my school has a pretty good LRAP, so if I enter public interest law, as I plan to, making the loan payments shouldn't be a problem. So, I am not particularly worried about having to take out these large loans. Even if for some reason I don't qualify for the LRAP, student loans tend to be pretty flexible in how you pay them off.

I haven't really started thinking of myself as decided on uptown school yet, even though I can't think of anything that will change my mind. I guess it is because I feel like things are still pending, or maybe because I am not ready to start doing all the things that I will need to do once the decision is made, the most difficult of which will be finding daycare.

2 comments:

LawSchoolMom said...

I have six figure student loan debt and sometimes I start to panic just a little bit when I think about that payment. THANK goodness for LRAP programs! Contrary to some believers, student loans are not evil.

saramel said...

lawschoolmom, I definitely agree... student loans are not evil. Although I graduated from undergrad 10 years ago, I still haven't paid hardly anything on that loan because I keep taking classes and qualifying for deferences or forbearances. I suppose one day I will have to pay, but I am not particularly worried about that either.