How do you pay for rent? Or does everyone live on campus?

[davoarid]

I have about $1,000 to my name. I can use my financial aid money to pay for tuition, but what am I going to use for money to spend on... you know, the things you need to survive? I worked 40+ hours a week while getting my Bachelor's, but I obviously can't do that when Law School starts. I've never even filled out a FAFSA before, so this is all very confusing for me. Thanks.

[.zone.]

I have about $1,000 to my name. I can use my financial aid money to pay for tuition, but what am I going to use for money to spend on... you know, the things you need to survive? I worked 40+ hours a week while getting my Bachelor's, but I obviously can't do that when Law School starts. I've never even filled out a FAFSA before, so this is all very confusing for me. Thanks.

Money for rent, food, and other expenses are considered and included in every school's full "student budget"...notice when a school lists its costs, it includes personal expenses, room & board, transportation, books, etc. alongside tuition.  When you apply for financial aid, you are applying for aid to cover those expenses as well.  So, if your school has $30,000 tuition a year & $20,000 in estimated living expenses, you are applying for aid to finance that full $50,000.  Each school has different forms to fill out, but most at least require the FAFSA & others will require more.  Browse the other threads or consult your schools to get more details.  And do it fast...if you're applying this year, you've probably missed a lot of deadlines.  The FAFSA will give you an "EFC" which is what the stupid FAFSA formula will decide your contribution should be based on your income, assets, etc.  This amount will be deducted from the student budget & your school will try to fill in that gap with loans, scholarships, or grants.  If you can't pay your EFC, you'll probably have to finance it privately or contact your school & ask them to reconsider your EFC since it will not accurately reflect your financial situation next year (i.e. FAFSA will show your income last year when you were working 40+ hours a week, but if you are only going to work 20 hrs. a week & lose that other chunk of income, let the schools know).  Also, to the "does everyone live on campus" question, it makes no difference if you live on campus or not.  Both cost money & your financial aid can be applied to off-campus housing as well.

[Quail!]

I would guess most people pay them out of the “living expenses” that the school gives you in their “Cost of attendance”. You can borrow up to the schools “cost of attendance”, usually that comes out to 20.5k from the government, and the rest in private loans (these are based on your credit score) from the lender of your choice.

I will add that here is an idea for someone going to law school as a way of cutting down on housing costs. See if you can find a landlord who needs help running their properties. I employ students in AZ to take care of my rental units there (I live in CO). Basically the job is collecting all the rents (mostly by mail), and deposit them in the bank for me. Call my maintenance guys when there is a problem with a unit. And when I have a vacant one, take care of putting the add in the paper and showing the empty apartment (as long as you are flexible you can do this on your own schedule when people call to make an appointment with you).

Depending on how many units you manage for me I pay a small salary and give free rent on a 1 bedroom apartment, or I just give you some money off of your rent if your only handling a few units. Its pretty easy job, you just have to be willing to answer your phone when not in class, go to the bank, and meet people at the units when there is one to be rented. Its pretty cush, no so demanding (except maybe at the first of the month when rent is do) and can be done on your own schedule from your apartment.

I am sure small landlords in every town are looking for this kind of help all the time. Check your local paper under ‘real-estate” jobs.

Not so, anymore.  Now that GradPLUS loans are available to law students, many will probably forgo private lenders

[Quail!]

I would guess most people pay them out of the “living expenses” that the school gives you in their “Cost of attendance”. You can borrow up to the schools “cost of attendance”, usually that comes out to 20.5k from the government, and the rest in private loans (these are based on your credit score) from the lender of your choice.

I will add that here is an idea for someone going to law school as a way of cutting down on housing costs. See if you can find a landlord who needs help running their properties. I employ students in AZ to take care of my rental units there (I live in CO). Basically the job is collecting all the rents (mostly by mail), and deposit them in the bank for me. Call my maintenance guys when there is a problem with a unit. And when I have a vacant one, take care of putting the add in the paper and showing the empty apartment (as long as you are flexible you can do this on your own schedule when people call to make an appointment with you).

Depending on how many units you manage for me I pay a small salary and give free rent on a 1 bedroom apartment, or I just give you some money off of your rent if your only handling a few units. Its pretty easy job, you just have to be willing to answer your phone when not in class, go to the bank, and meet people at the units when there is one to be rented. Its pretty cush, no so demanding (except maybe at the first of the month when rent is do) and can be done on your own schedule from your apartment.

I am sure small landlords in every town are looking for this kind of help all the time. Check your local paper under ‘real-estate” jobs.

Not so, anymore.  Now that GradPLUS loans are available to law students, many will probably forgo private lenders

I thought Grad Plus was still from private lenders (ie. G-ment is NOT the lender), only the intrest rate is capped under grad plus? I don't know though, becuase I don't use them, but thats is how I understood it.

That could be, I'm not quite sure myself, though I thought they were government provided.  I'll check up on that

[The Poster]

I would guess most people pay them out of the “living expenses” that the school gives you in their “Cost of attendance”. You can borrow up to the schools “cost of attendance”, usually that comes out to 20.5k from the government, and the rest in private loans (these are based on your credit score) from the lender of your choice.

I will add that here is an idea for someone going to law school as a way of cutting down on housing costs. See if you can find a landlord who needs help running their properties. I employ students in AZ to take care of my rental units there (I live in CO). Basically the job is collecting all the rents (mostly by mail), and deposit them in the bank for me. Call my maintenance guys when there is a problem with a unit. And when I have a vacant one, take care of putting the add in the paper and showing the empty apartment (as long as you are flexible you can do this on your own schedule when people call to make an appointment with you).

Depending on how many units you manage for me I pay a small salary and give free rent on a 1 bedroom apartment, or I just give you some money off of your rent if your only handling a few units. Its pretty easy job, you just have to be willing to answer your phone when not in class, go to the bank, and meet people at the units when there is one to be rented. Its pretty cush, no so demanding (except maybe at the first of the month when rent is do) and can be done on your own schedule from your apartment.

I am sure small landlords in every town are looking for this kind of help all the time. Check your local paper under ‘real-estate” jobs.

Not so, anymore. Now that GradPLUS loans are available to law students, many will probably forgo private lenders

I thought Grad Plus was still from private lenders (ie. G-ment is NOT the lender), only the intrest rate is capped under grad plus? I don't know though, becuase I don't use them, but thats is how I understood it.

That could be, I'm not quite sure myself, though I thought they were government provided. I'll check up on that

GradPLUS is done one of two ways:

1. for schools that participate in "direct loans" there is no outside lender; you get the gradplus loan directly through the school and couldn't use another lender for it even if you wanted to. the good news about this is that all the direct loan schools have to use the same terms, which although they don't have the fancy upfront reductions like the private lender's do, they do tend to have better overall terms/slightly lower overall rate.

2. for all other schools, you can get GradPLUS through any lender that offers it. these private lender's all have their own offers that you can shop around for...some reducing the origination fee or eliminating it totally to entice you to sign with them, etc.

[queencruella]

The government doesn't provide any loans. Regardless you have to go through a lender, be it for Stafford, GradPLUS, or a private loan. The main difference among the three is that almost everyone will be eligible to get a Stafford, GradPLUS has minimal requirements, and private loans tend to rely heavily on your credit rating.

From what I've seen, people aren't abandoning private loans to go for gradPLUS because there are several notable drawbacks. I do not plan on signing up for GradPLUS because the terms of my private loan are much better than any of the direct lender's terms for the GradPLUS.

[Quail!]

The government doesn't provide any loans. Regardless you have to go through a lender, be it for Stafford, GradPLUS, or a private loan. The main difference among the three is that almost everyone will be eligible to get a Stafford, GradPLUS has minimal requirements, and private loans tend to rely heavily on your credit rating.

From what I've seen, people aren't abandoning private loans to go for gradPLUS because there are several notable drawbacks. I do not plan on signing up for GradPLUS because the terms of my private loan are much better than any of the direct lender's terms for the GradPLUS.

Could you possibly explain what some of these drawbacks are?

[Edna St. Vincent Millay]

From what I've seen, people aren't abandoning private loans to go for gradPLUS because there are several notable drawbacks. I do not plan on signing up for GradPLUS because the terms of my private loan are much better than any of the direct lender's terms for the GradPLUS.

only if they're fixed. otherwise, beware. you have no control over how much they go up if variable.

personally, i'm not a gambler, i'm opting for the gradPLUS. 

[queencruella]

The government doesn't provide any loans. Regardless you have to go through a lender, be it for Stafford, GradPLUS, or a private loan. The main difference among the three is that almost everyone will be eligible to get a Stafford, GradPLUS has minimal requirements, and private loans tend to rely heavily on your credit rating.

From what I've seen, people aren't abandoning private loans to go for gradPLUS because there are several notable drawbacks. I do not plan on signing up for GradPLUS because the terms of my private loan are much better than any of the direct lender's terms for the GradPLUS.

Could you possibly explain what some of these drawbacks are?

It really depends on your school, but at my school the recommended private lender had no origination or other fees, 9 month deferral period after graduation, .25% reduction by using direct draw, another .50% reduction after making the first 48 payments on time. On the other hand the GradPLUS lenders charge a 3% origination fee and require payments a month after graduation. Since I have excellent credit, it didn't make sense for me to go with the gradPLUS. Your school's GradPLUS loan terms may be much better than mine.

I don't consider myself a gambler, but with the 3% origination fee + 8.5% it seems like things are going to have to get pretty bad before the GradPLUS would have been a good choice for me.

[Quail!]

Gotcha, thanks for the info - I was going to eliminate private loans all together (my credit is relatively neutral with one tiny negative mark, but not very developed) but I suppose I'll now have to do some comparisons