Law Schools, Money, Student Loans

Law Student Living In Poverty Relies On Food Stamps To Survive

For some people, this is what it's like to go to law school without financial support from family.

By  
on

I live in St. Paul, Minnesota and I have lived here for about 3 years. I’ve lived in different cities in Minnesota all my life. I am a 25 year old, white, single, child-free woman and I receive food assistance totaling about $160 a month. I have just started it a month ago, but 5 years ago I also received it for about a year.

I work 21 hours a week at a gas station near my home at $8.50 an hour. I also attend law school full-time. The thing with law school is you must sign an agreement with your school saying you will only work 20 hours a week while in school, in order to focus fully. This causes problems for those of us who do not have trust funds or dead rich grandparents. My rent is split between me and a roommate ($865 total) and then about $100 in utilities, not including phone bills. My monthly bills often total over $1,000 and getting about $600 a month just doesn’t cut it. Without food support, I would literally starve.

It’s not a matter of not “working hard enough” or being lazy. It’s about how in order to “make it” in this world, you are often required to shoulder the burden of hundreds of thousands of debt and somehow still pay all your bills and eat regularly. I am trying to become a successful lawyer who helps her community and changes the world and in order to do that I need a degree. In order to get a degree, I need food assistance. I don’t feel as if there should be some extraordinary experience in my life that somehow “makes it okay” that I’m getting help. I shouldn’t need a sob story of a disabled family member, or a death in the family, or unexpected triplets. Society is designed for me to fail. Food support will help me succeed.

I am not ashamed of being on public assistance.

— an anonymous law student, sharing her story about what it’s like to go to law school without financial support from family, and be so impoverished that she needs to live off food stamps.

Sponsored

Topics

, , , , , , ,