Law Schools

Knowing What I Know Now, I Still Would Have Borrowed Massive Amounts of Student Debt to Attend Law School

Student debt can help you stay disciplined, learn valuable life lessons, and lead you to be less dependent on others.

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I receive a number of interesting emails from readers of this column and my website Student Debt Diaries.  And definitely feel free to reach our to me with any questions or input that you may have!  One question I have been asked numerous times is whether I would borrow student loans all over again knowing what I know now about how student debt could impact my life.  My blog recounts how I sacrificed in unbelievable ways and worked thousands of hours at part-time jobs in order to pay off my student loans.  Readers of my website and my column here oftentimes ask if borrowing massive amounts of student debt was worth it, and if I would do it all over again.

Although I would have done some things differently, I would definitely borrow money all over again in order to finance my legal education.

One of the reasons why I would borrow student loans all over again is because student debt is a necessary evil in order to become an attorney.  Although it may sound cliche, it is true that I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a lawyer.  I was fascinated by debate and argument for as long as I can remember, and I romanticized the lawyers that I saw in movies and on the news.  Since my family could not afford to help me pay for my legal education, I needed to borrow law school loans in order to fulfill my dream of becoming a lawyer.

If I could do things over again, I might have taken the LSAT over again, since a higher LSAT score might have increased the likelihood that I would receive merit scholarships from law schools.  In addition, I might have also considered living with family or taking other steps in order to minimize the amount of student debt I needed to borrow.  However, I definitely still would have attended law school and debt-financed my legal education, since this was a necessary step toward achieving my goal of becoming an attorney.

I would also borrow student debt all over again, since student loans were only part of my life for a relatively small amount of time.  It is easy to be consumed by student debt right after graduating from school, especially since you will typically have the most difficult time dealing with student debt right after graduating than at any other point in your life.  However, even the most indebted individuals will only spend a fraction of their lives paying off student loans.  Indeed, it only took me 46 months of hard work and sacrifice to pay off my student loans, and this will hopefully only represent a small portion of my life.

However, the benefits of an education are much more lasting.  An education enriches everything that you do, and makes you a better reader, writer, and improves your ability to interact with others.  In addition, an education also greatly impacts your earning potential for the rest of your life.  Since the benefits of an education last far longer than the time it took me to pay off my student debt, I would borrow student loans all over again if I could redo parts of my life.

In addition, there are definitely certain life benefits that can be realized from having student debt.  This is probably the most controversial point I have made on this column and on my website, and I have not received much love on the internet for saying this.  However, student debt can help you stay disciplined, learn valuable life lessons, and lead you to be less dependent on others.  Even after you pay off your student loans, these lessons will stay with you for the rest of your life and help you achieve other financial and other life goals.

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In my own experience, the only people I know who are not doing anything meaningful with their lives, and still depend on other people for money, are individuals who did not need to borrow student loans to finance their educations.  This is likely due to the fact that these individuals never learned how to be independent by borrowing student debt and having the responsibility for paying this money back.  I bet that many readers of this article know similar people, and my life might have actually been worse if I never borrowed student loans to attend law school.  It is very easy to focus on the negative effects of a decision rather than its benefits.  However, I am somewhat happy that student loans were a part of my life due to the positive impact that student loans had on me.

Of course, we cannot turn back the clock and undo decisions we made about how to finance our educations.  All we can do is convey our experiences to inform people who still have to make some of the same decisions that we did.   However, even if I could go back and alter how I financed my legal education, I would still choose to borrow student loans.

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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