LOANS: Your debt load? Normal debt load?

[cwhelan]

I anticipate being 175k in the hole, which is right within what my school cover under its LRAP. But just because the school allows it doesnt always mean its a good idea.. is that a normal amount? How about you?

[nealric]

Graduated about 65k in the hole, but it's going to be 90k after my LLM. Debt makes me unhappy. 

[cmd758]

My friend just graduated and had 150k and he said that is about normal. They have a new income based repayment plan for federal loans if you make under 70K though. You should look into it. It won't solve all of your problems, but it can take some stress off you if you are worried about $1500 a month loan payments starting six months after you graduate.

I figure I will have anywhere from 80k - to 140k. Hopefully it is the lower number because of interest.

[sonofapickle]

Hm, depends mostly. Right now I have not used any FA and was waiting until Law School. The average cost per year seems to be 60k and my parents only pay 35-40k right now for me to attend college. If they could keep paying the same amount then I should be about 75-80k in debt. It depends upon your circumstances though; for people who are getting through school on their own the norm tends to be 150-200k in debt, whereas for people like me, nothing over 100k.

[the white rabbit]

I anticipate being 175k in the hole, which is right within what my school cover under its LRAP. But just because the school allows it doesnt always mean its a good idea.. is that a normal amount? How about you?

It's not an unusually large amount, but I would say it's on the high end.  That's a lot of debt to have hanging over your head.

[cooleylawstudent]

take out what you need. Try not to go beyond that. When in doubt take out more and pay it back sooner if you dont end up needing it. Remember no interest adds up untill you graduate.

[cwhelan]

Numitor this sounds like what I will do for the first year. Take out what makes me feel like I dont need to worry about being broke, and then if I wind up not spending it all 1) make sure to consider it surplus and not act like "oh wow, free money to play with" 2) use it for legit expenses the following year and take out way less loans the following year.

and if what you say is true that the loans (i anticipate them all to be stafford or gradplus) dont accrue interest while im in school, there's no cost to me for getting too much money loaned out 1 year sooner, whereas if there was interest accruing i would have that cost of paying interest on money i didnt really need out yet.

anyway, sounds good.

[cmd758]

Uh, isn't that the difference between subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans? When interest begins to accrue?

[the white rabbit]

Uh, isn't that the difference between subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans? When interest begins to accrue?

Unsubsidized Stafford loans accrue interest before graduation, as do private loans.  At least, that was the case when I was in law school.

[cmd758]

Plus loans also accrue interest in law school