How to handle $350,000 - 400,000 post Vandy educational debt

[partypooper]

Options:
1. Jump - just make sure you pick the right religion so you wind up in heaven and not hell.
2. Start gold digging - find the richest person you can who will marry you. Pay your dues. Get divorced in a few years.
3. (Seriously) Go Biglaw - live poor for a few years. You'll be fine.

[togbra]

the term "golden handcuffs" refers to this kind of situation.  You will have to work for biglaw for a few years preferably in a city with a low cost of living (ie. atlanta, texas, n.carolina (there are high paying jobs in Charlotte)). but i agree with the other posters, you will be fine (but you will have to be on top of things in terms of trying to save money). dont freak out.  At least nashville has a low cost of living (relatively). 

[pacific sands]

I will echo the sentiment noted above - you might want to reconsider attending Vanderbilt for law.

If you are convinced you wish to do something other than biglaw, like a boutique, small, private firm experience, then the boost offered by a top-tier school isn't necessarily worth it if there's no financial support involved. Put another way, a lot of people are willing to take on big time debt to go to law school so they can go to biglaw, only to spend the first several years of their professional careers paying off the debt they incurred and then, burnt out on the lifestyle of 2500 billable hours, move on to something else. If you see yourself on this road, you might want to avoid the headache and go to an inexpensive law school to increase your options upon graduation.

[Bulldog86]

In spite of the fact that I really, really like Vandy Law a lot: Stop digging yourself deeper into a hole that's already hard to get out of. If you're in Vandy, I assume that means there are a lot of other schools out there that might be willing to help you out more financially. Have you not tried seeking them out?

That's a serious debt load. Increasing it seems like a not-great idea.

[Fountainhead]

Go to Vandy, after graduation get an expensive home and take out a second and third mortgage for home improvement.  Use the second and third mortgage to pay off your student loans instead of home improvement.  Then, declare bankruptcy.  Sure your credit will suck, but then you can short sale your home to a sibling until your credit recovers.  You get your debt forgiven and eventually your home below market value.  It's a win-win. 

[togbra]

too bad its late in the admission cycle, otherwise I would suggest emory.  they seem to be making it rain with scholarship money...  How far away are your siblings from graduation? are they getting degrees in something that actually pays or they planning on going to grad school?  Assuming they will take care of their own debt, you still have $250k of debt.  I would try talking to Vandy and see if they are willing to help you a little bit.  Another thing to consider, you maybe hitting the maximum stafford limits on borrowing (there is a total amount you cannot exceed for undergrad+grad).  good luck.

[hbb]

The interest alone on that level of debt will run about $170000 over the standard loan period...



Payments on the total amount borrowed/cosigned would exceed $5000 monthly...



Leaving your co-signed loans out of the picture - which lenders are unlikely to do should you try to take on a mortgage - you will be paying over $90,000 in interest, with monthly payments approaching $3,000 assuming a ten year payoff schedule. This assumes all loans are at the Stafford rate: alternative loans or GradPlus loans will likely be more expensive, which is something to consider, as you seem to be on track to exceed the lifetime maximum allowable in Stafford loans.



Although the home equity/student loan payoff/bankruptcy plan sounds promising, I can't imagine what lender would extend further credit to a recent graduate whose debt obligations already exceed $400,000. Taking on a low-paying public interest job, claiming a hardship deferment, and waiting for the federal LRAP to kick in after ten years may be something to consider if you can't land an extremely well paying job after graduation.

Good luck...

 

[Fountainhead]

Although the home equity/student loan payoff/bankruptcy plan sounds promising, I can't imagine what lender would extend further credit to a recent graduate whose debt obligations already exceed $400,000. Taking on a low-paying public interest job, claiming a hardship deferment, and waiting for the federal LRAP to kick in after ten years may be something to consider if you can't land an extremely well paying job after graduation.

Many sub-prime lenders authorized loans to potential customers that couldn't afford the loan terms or shouldn't have qualified in the first place.  But, lending standards are surprisingly getting tougher.  Who knew that a massive number of borrowers would default, because they couldn't afford the loan in the first place?  Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

[$Bill]

Me and the GF will have my ~100k debt + ~200k for her medical school + 66k of what she has left to pay Holy Cross, so I feel you...I think whats going to happen is my money all goes towards loans, which should work if I expect making 45k right out of school, and then when she gets out of residency, we switch and live off of my income while she finishes the loans in two years.

[Cloggie]

For those of you with federal (and possibly state) debt, the Student Debt Reduction Act will help.  Any Federal debt owed after 10 years of payment is forgiven.  I'm going to continue with public interest work when I graduate so I'm counting on this an my school's LRAP program to hand much of the debt I get (although I got lucky with scholarship $).