Ready

With just over a month until law school my earlier anxiety is gone and now I am feeling ready, even eager, to start. I went shopping last week and bought some new clothes that fit -- I have lost some weight recently and now weigh less than I did before I was pregnant, so everything I owned was too big -- which has probably added to my confidence level.

I am also getting back in to reading some books from my pre-law reading list. I finished Gideon's Trumpet, which was good, although at times it seemed padded with a little too much basic info on the Supreme Court. But I was unfamiliar with the history of the right to a lawyer and Gideon himself was an interesting guy, so I thought it was a worthwhile read even though it was fairly light. I have now returned to A History of American Law. It is a long and pretty dense book, but I think that it would be useful to have that background and if I read just 10 pages a day I will be able to finish it before school starts. I am actually aiming for 20 pages a day though, because I would like to have time to read something else before school starts as well.

There are a few minor law school related tasks to attend to before school starts, like completing my student loan entrance interview online (I actually already did this but the financial aid office doesn't seem to have a record of it, so I sent them the email confirmation I got and have to follow up with them on that next week), getting in touch with the person responsible for certifying my enrollment to the VA so I can get my GI Bill benefits, and signing up for or submitting a waiver for the student insurance. I won't find out what professors I have or what my schedule will be until the first day of orientation (although I may be able to find out a few days earlier online), so I can't buy books or start filling in my weekly schedule or anything like that yet. I do have the schedule for orientation though. Ours is just two days, and the second day is optional, but highly recommended. I plan on attending both days, but will probably skip the evening stuff so I can get home in time to relieve the nanny and put the little guy to bed.

It's Official ...

I am going to uptown school. I paid my deposit and I withdrew from downtown school. Uptown school ended up not giving me any financial aid either, but I had already resigned myself to the large loans I will have to take out. As you might have noticed, I added a little countdown widget to the column on the right of the page and was surprised to see how close law school really is. Yikes! And I still have to find daycare!

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.

Law School Update

It has been a while since I posted anything about law school -- my life in the couple weeks has been consumed almost completely by the move. But there are a couple law-school-related items to report on.

Friday was the day by which finalists for the scholarships I applied for at downtown school were to be notified. I have not been notified, therefore I am probably not a finalist. Hubby called them Friday afternoon to ask whether all the finalists had been notified. They said they would be notifying some alternates early next week, but other than that, yes. So maybe I will be an alternate, or maybe I will be nothing. If the latter, then I will almost certainly go to uptown school. I mentioned before that I was leaning that way, but thought my opinion might change after the admitted student event at downtown school. Well I went to that two weeks ago (right before the move, so I never got a chance to blog about it), and while I feel like I got a better sense of what the school is like from that event, and I definitely feel more positively about it than I did after my first visit, and I certainly would not be unhappy there, I still think uptown school suits me better.

As an example of a difference between the two schools, when I was visiting downtown school for the first time, a current student who was there to talk to us was asked about the professor's teaching styles and the Socratic method and she said something to the effect that the professors weren't too hard on 1Ls. When I was visiting uptown school the student giving our tour made a comment that the professors don't use the Socratic method too much after the first year. Now, if the statements by both of these students are true, this would seem to represent a pretty big difference in teaching styles at the two schools. Personally, I think that it makes more sense to use the Socratic method more in the first year in order to really get students to "think like a lawyer." After the first year, hopefully, the thought process will be pretty well ingrained and the professors won't have to ask the questions because the students will already be asking them themselves.

So, anyway, while I am leaning towards, to the point of almost falling over onto, uptown school, I am still holding out a tiny piece of hope for the scholarships at downtown school, and failing that I will still need to see what my financial aid packages are like. Speaking of which, I don't think I mentioned that my third choice school, which had offered me a $15,000/yr merit award, sent me a letter telling me that I do not qualify for any need-based aid. I hope that is just because they already offered me money and is not an indication of what I should expect from my top two schools.

Done With Financial Aid

So, after talking to the Director of Financial Aid at the uptown school last week I was able to answer the unanswerable questions and finish my financial aid applications. Now I just have to wait for the money to start rolling in. Ha! Hubby keeps saying, "maybe they'll start a bidding war over you." I told him it is not likely, but the Director of Financial Aid at uptown did say that they want to know if you get more money from a comparable school if that will be a factor in your decision.

Answering the Unanswerable Questions

So, the taxes are done and I have begun financial aid applications. With one exception, they are pretty easy to complete once all the information is gathered. The exception is one school whose financial aid application asks me to predict the future. They want to know what our total assets will be in September, what our credit card debt will be in June and how much child care will cost for the 2007-2008 school year (and who will be providing it). Everything is so up in the air with us right now that I have no idea how to answer these questions. First we need to sell our house -- and we have no control over when that will happen. And, in a couple months hubby will be getting a raise at work, but we don't know how much. Once those two things have happened we will see how much money we have and how much hubby is making and can decide whether we are going to buy or rent. Then we will see where we can afford to live and find an apartment, or house, or whatever. Then we will have to pay a deposit or make a down payment and then pay for moving expenses, and then, if there is money left over, pay off the credit card. Then, once we are all settled, we will need to look for a daycare, or nanny, or maybe hubby will be able to work from home by then and we won't need either. So, it all adds up to I DON'T KNOW!!!

Money Money Money

I got a letter in the mail from my third choice law school yesterday offering me a $15,000 a year merit award. It is automatically renewable for three years, so I don't have to worry about losing it if I'm not able to maintain a certain GPA. Which is nice, but it is also not a free ride, by any means, considering tuition at the school is approximately $37,000. Still, it's nice to know that they like me enough to offer me one of their few merit awards, and it would certainly decrease the amount of loans I would have to take out.

In other money news, I am currently waiting for W-2s to arrive so I can do my taxes, so that I can fill out financial aid forms. Why must everyone wait to the last minute to send out tax forms? Also, my parents have informed me that they will probably not have their taxes done before April, so I am going to have to figure out whether the schools I have applied to will accept their 2005 taxes or estimates of 2006 or what. Also my parents have a relatively large chunk of money sitting in the bank from an inheritance they received from my grandfather, so I hope that is not going to screw me on financial aid.

I am kind of embarassed to have to ask my parents for their financial information because I don't feel like that is any of my business -- my going to law school has nothing to do with them and I certainly wouldn't expect them to contribute anything towards it. So, while I kind of understand the rationale behind asking for everybody's parent's information no matter what, it is still annoying. scholarships financial+aid

Evaluating Loan Repayment Assistance Programs

Since I am interested in working in public interest law, one of my criteria for choosing among schools will be their loan repayment assistance programs (LRAP). Loan Repayment Assistance Programs, as their name implies, help you pay off the loans you incur while in law school. With a good LRAP your loans may be entirely paid off without you having to pay a single cent. However, not all LRAPs are created equal. Here are some of the factors that you need to look at in LRAPs:

Amount of Benefit: Most schools I have looked at will give you up to the amount of your loan payments on a 10-year repayment plan, so it is typically to your benefit to put your loan a 10-year repayment schedule to get the maximum benefit. However, some schools have a cap on the amount of benefit you can receive, so be sure to check before you make any changes.

Length of Benefit: How long after you graduate you can receive the benefit, and/or for how many years you can receive the benefit. Ten is the most I have seen, since most programs assume a ten-year repayment schedule. Some programs allow you to take a deferment or leave of absence without affecting your eligibility.

Eligible Employment: Typically, to be eligible for a LRAP you must be working in a law-related job in public service. However, definitions of public service vary, so make sure you know what kinds of jobs qualify, and, when you are looking for a job, you may want to double-check with your school to make sure they will accept a job you are considering before you accept the offer. Clerking typically does not count as eligible employment, but most programs will cover you for a one-year clerkship as long as you go into an eligible job right after.

Income: Most LRAPs have a base income, under which you receive the full benefit, and an income cap, above which you will not receive any benefit. Some schools adjust the base and cap based on the actual salaries of their graduates in each graduating class, while others have a single income cap that applies to all graduates. In some cases the income base can be unrealistically low (like $25,000), limiting the usefulness of the benefit. Significant assets may also limit your benefit or disqualify you from receiving any benefit.

Loan Forgiveness: Typically the money you receive from a LRAP is in the form of a loan which can be forgiven if you continue to work in public service. You may need to work as long as five or seven years in public service before your loans will be forgiven, so, if you work in public service and receive loan repayment assistance for three years and then take a job outside of public service, you may need to repay the money you received.

In addition to school LRAPs, some states also offer LRAPs. For more information on LRAPs see the ABA LRAP page.loan+repayment+assistance+program LRAP student+loans tuition financial+aid public+service public+interest+law paying+for+law+school

No such things as a free ride?

Frugal Law Student has a post that relates to the question I asked in my first post: is it better to go to a lower ranked school with a large scholarship or a higher ranked school without a scholarship? I knew that if I went to a lower ranked school that I would need a higher GPA to have good job prospects, but FLS points out that many of the lower ranked schools have a mean first year curve, and that if the scholarship is dependant on maintaining a certain GPA you may lose it after the first year, leaving you with poor job prospects and large debt. This just strengthens my initial inclination to go to a higher-ranked school even if I do have to pay most of the tuition myself (of course I am still hoping for a scholarship at my number one or two school!).scholarship financial+aid tuition law+school+rankings