Jill Stevenson enrolled at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2002. She completed 87 credit hours toward completing her degree, but she was “academically dismissed” because her GPA dropped in her last year of study. Stevenson took out student loans to pay for her legal education and entered an income-based repayment plan (IBRP) in 2006. … Read more
Much like the Lusitania, legal education steams full speed toward its ultimate destruction, while law school deans and professors sip California wine and contemplate their retirement portfolios. Earlier this month, the California’s State Bar announced passage rates on the California bar exam, administered last February. Only 27 percent passed the exam–the lowest pass rate in … Read more
Question: Dear Steve, I decided to attend law school at 40 because it was a dream I always had, when I graduated in 2009 there were no legal jobs and my loans kept garnering interest. I landed a new job in 2015 but my loans went into default, now they are taking $600 per check, … Read more
Question: Dear Steve, So you’re only the second person in the world I’m telling this to because I was embarrassed by my decision to default on my private law school student loans back in 2014, but now I’m thinking I may be a genius. So I went to law school at large private school in … Read more
“Dear Steve, Public interest lawyer 250k in student debt 6k in credit card debt 8k in private credit loan from sallie mae I have a Sallie Mae loan through their private credit department. I used this loan for living expenses while I took the New York bar exam this past summer. Is this the type … Read more
“Dear Steve, Student Loan Debt: over $100,000.00 law school debt plus masters debt but no undergrad debt. Here’s one for you. I was studying for a Masters at a law school in so. cal. withdrew due to illness. They say I never withdrew and took the money for one class from student loan and the … Read more
“Dear Steve, Recent law school graduate. Legal job at $10/hr, part time. $250,000 in loans (includes 4.5 years undergrad and 3 law school without any family assistance or preparation) accruing interest. Required monthly payments at just under $4500/month, can’t afford rent, gas, food, etc. Living tentatively with family. Hopeless and deeply, deeply scared. Waiting IBR … Read more
Wouldn’t being a doctor or lawyer be nice to just rake in the dough? Well not so fast. When it comes to lawyers making a killing after law school, new data out paints a different picture. For a long time law schools had promoted how many graduates were employed after graduating. These figures gave incoming … Read more
Remember all those people that wanted to go to law school to make a ton of money, and help people as well. The way it looks now the trend in lawyers being able to find jobs is slipping. Paul Campos, a Professor of Law at the University of Colorado says that only one in three … Read more
“Dear Steve, Well here it goes…I went to an expensive undergrad school and took out a good amount of student loans. My parents told me it was fine and was actually a good thing to help my credit after I got out. The plan was that they were going to pay for most of the … Read more
“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 … Read more
“Dear Mitch, I am 40 years old and work as a land development consultant. I don’t have to explain what has happened to land development in recent years. I used to make 63k/year with a 15-17k bonus every year. I now make $40k/year with no bonus. My husband’s small business has struggled and drained all … Read more
“Dear Steve, I have defaulted on $90,000 in student loans. The remainder of my loans (I believe they are now somewhere around $100,000) are in forbearance. Last year I made a total of about $40,000, first as a temporary administrative assistant and then as a full-time employee of a corporation. Unable to find a job, … Read more
The New York Times published “Is Law School a Losing Game?” and raised some excellent points that I’ve certainly observed from people visiting this site. In the NYT article, lawyers that have graduated with high student loan debt discuss the grim job prospects and reality of becoming a lawyer in the current economy. In reality, … Read more
“Dear Steve, I went to both law school and business school. I dropped out of law school after a year and a half but borrowed a lot of money for that time since law school is quite expensive, especially for a private school. This pretty much set me back. Business school wasn’t as expensive. I … Read more