Law Schools

What Parents Need To Know About Student Loans

With some explanation, it is easy to convey the complexities of living with and conquering student debt.

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I receive emails from all types of people who read this column and my articles on Student Debt Diaries.  Many of the messages I receive are from individuals struggling with student loans who seek advice on how to improve their situations.  I also receive numerous emails from prospective law students looking for suggestions on how to minimize the burdens of law school debt.

More recently, I started to receive many emails from parents seeking student debt help for their children.  Some parents email me about where their child should attend law school, and others send me messages seeking information on how their kid can improve their student debt situation.  I was surprised at first at how many emails I received from parents, but I guess this makes sense.  Parents naturally want to find out information to help their kids, and student debt is one of the things that can seriously impact someone’s life.

However, many of the parents I communicate with do not understand some fundamental information about law school loans.  This is probably due to the fact that most of these individuals are not lawyers and never went to law school themselves.  As such, parents might not have a firsthand understanding of what it’s like to live with crushing student debt, and as a result, might not know strategies that can be employed to lessen the burden of student loans.  Since there seems to be some demand for information about student loans that might be useful for parents, I decided to write this article for parents who are seeking information about student debt.

Many emails I receive from parents ask which law school I think their child should attend.  Parents usually tell me that they are inclined to suggest that their child attend the highest-ranked law school possible, since a degree from such an institution supposedly means that their child will have more possibilities in life.  Of course, I completely understand the desire of parents to open as many doors as possible for their children, and it seems natural that parents would want their kids to attend the most prestigious schools possible.

However, choosing a more prestigious law school over scholarships at another institution can be a very unwise choice.  As has been covered on this website at length, most people who graduate from average law schools and even some top-flight institutions will not earn a high enough salary to comfortably pay off their student loans.  As a result, unless your child is admitted to one of the best law schools, you should seriously consider advising your kid to accept a scholarship at a lower-ranked school.  Nothing will close more doors for your child than paying off six figures of crushing student loans, and it is advisable to avoid debt in most situations.

I also have to explain to parents that paying off student loans is a much more nuanced enterprise than paying off other types of debt.  Many parents have an “old school” notion that student debt should be paid off as quickly as possible so that other financial goals can be pursued.  However, as I have mentioned on my own website many times, income-driven repayment plans might make it unwise to accelerate student debt repayment.  In addition, the availability of refinancing and public service loan forgiveness might make it advantageous to make certain career decisions that might be different if you were just trying to pay off debt as quickly as possible.  I explain to parents all the time that every student debt situation is different, and it is important to become educated about the strategies that might work best for their children.

Surprisingly, I also have to tell parents at least once a week that there is no “magic bullet” to conquering student loans.  Some parents ask me if I think that the government will step in and retire student loans en masse, and I convey that this eventuality is very unlikely.  I also relate that student debt options like refinancing are advisable in certain situations, but not under different circumstances.  I convey to parents all the time that the only way to pay off student loans is to boost one’s income through side-hustles and to save as much money as possible.  This strategy might not sound appealing, but as my personal example shows, it works.

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I also oftentimes tell parents that they should not feel bad if their children have student loans.  Some of the parents I communicate with relate that they feel bad that their children have to bear the burdens of student debt.  I think some parents blame themselves for not being able to provide for their children, and now their kids are shackled with crushing student loans.

Ultimately, everyone has different financial situations, so it is difficult to judge someone for not paying for their kid’s law school expenses.  Also, having student debt teaches important life lessons, and makes someone value a legal education more than if their law school expenses were paid for by parents.  As a result, your child might actually be better off because of their student loans, and no parent should feel bad about not being able to pay for their kid’s legal education.

All told, parents naturally have many questions about student loans since student debt has a massive impact on the lives of their children.  And with some explanation, it is easy to convey the complexities of living with and conquering student debt.

Jordan Rothman is the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a personal finance website discussing how he paid off all $197,890.20 of his college and law school student loans over 46 months of his late 20s. You can reach him at [email protected].

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