A law school education can be quite expensive. You need to know about law school student loans as much as possible in order to take advantage of graduate federal loans and if need be, some of the other private loan sources as well. Although as an attorney, you would eventually get to earn a very good income, your income would not be substantial until after a few years of law practice. So until then, using all the financial help you can get is a wise move towards attaining your career goals.
Graduate Federal Loans
Prerequisites - file your FAFSA first
The FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid is the basic application form for determining your eligibility for federal student financial aid. The FAFSA consists of a series of questions which help determine the Expected Family Contribution or EFC. As most schools may award aid on a first-come, first-served basis, you must fill out the FAFSA as early as possible to get maximum financial assistance.
Stafford Loans
Federal student loans should be your first option for funding your law school education. Federal law school student loans can either be subsidized or unsubsidized Stafford Loans. These loans are affordable and are available to almost every student. The Stafford Loan limit for graduate students is $20,500. The actual amount of your award may however be less than this maximum limit.
Grad PLUS Loan
For additional funding consider going for a Grad PLUS Loan which is a loan specifically meant for Graduates and Professionals. Since this is not a need-based loan, a credit check is done to see if you qualify. However, if you have bad credit you may still qualify if you apply with a credit-worthy cosigner who may be a relative or a close friend. If you make a series of payments on time, lenders may even release your cosigner from the loan. You can also use your consistent payment history to build good credit for yourself.
Private Loans
Use private loans only as a supplementary or auxiliary loan. Consider private loans only to cover limited expenses and never to completely fund all your educational costs.
Spend time to explore the various options available to meet your particular needs and make use of all the financial help that you can get. Most important of all, apply for all these law school student loans as early as possible to ensure that you get maximum financial aid.
What's the hardest part about obtaining a college degree? Is it passing your subjects? Well, some would possibly think so. Most college students could attest that the most challenging part about getting a college education is, as you may have guessed, paying for your college tuition fees.
Every school year, American college students pay at least $20,000 to cover college tuition fees alone. And as you well know, the costs doesn't really stop there. You still need to pay for books, allowance, food, transportation, and the list just continues to infinity and beyond.
Perhaps you've spent a lot of sleepless nights thinking about it. And perhaps you'd be glad to learn that the United States government, your government, has thought about it as well. In fact, the government has been thinking about it well before 1980.
The United States Government mandated the establishment of United States Department of Education under the Department of Education Organization Act of 1979.
The US Department of Education was basically created to encourage the promotion of student achievement and their preparation for global competitiveness by way of fostering academic excellence and ensuring equal access to quality education.
The department participates in four fundamental activities, including:
a) The development of policies that are associated with federal education funding, the administration of funds and the monitoring of its usage
b) The gathering of data and overseeing of scientific studies in American schools
c) The detection of major issues in education and the development of solutions that would address them
d) The enactment of federal laws that prohibit discrimination in certain programs that receive federal funds.
The Department of Education provides a lot of programs and several other forms of financial assistance which have been proven to be largely helpful for students who are academically deserving but financially challenged.
Some of the services offered by the Department of Education are Grants, in the form of Federal Pell Grants, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grants, and Iraq & Afghanistan Service Grants; Federal Work-Study Programs, and Federal Loans such as Perkins Loans, Direct Stafford Loans, Direct PLUS Loans, and Direct Loan Consolidation Programs.