I’m Going to Law School And Will Graduate With a Lot of Debt. – Anthony

“Dear Steve,

I currently have $39,000 of under-graduate Stanford federal student loans. I will be attending law school next year and will most likely with living expenses rack up $67,000 a year for three years a total of $239,000.

I have two questions, will I be able to borrow the additional $200,000 needed for law school from federal loan programs or must I get private loans as well?

Also, will Obama’s new student loan plan apply to my graduate (law School) loans as well as my under-graduate loans or will they just apply to my under-graduate loans? Will I be able to cap it at 10% of my income if needed for awhile and will the 20 year max also apply?

I guess that’s more than two questions. Thanks Steve

Anthony”

Dear Anthony,

You may be eligible for federal student loans but the best place to seek advice for that would be from your school financial aid office.

Beware of private student loans. There are no solutions for dealing with them and current government student loan programs, or even future ones, while not do anything to help you with a private student loan.

Additionally, current similar programs as the one proposed have income limits for eligibility. See the Income Based Repayment (IBR) program for details.

I would not make any loan commitments based on a proposed student loan program. The devil will be in the details and those have not been released yet.

There is nothing good to say about being on the hook for a private student loan. In fact I can’t think of a worse debt to have.

Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.

Steve Rhode Debt Coach and Author

Steve Rhode is the Get Out of Debt Guy and has been helping good people with bad debt problems since 1994. You can learn more about Steve, here.

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