What about GWU, since I’m a political science major.
No, you can’t buy your way into any ivy unless you have millions to buy a building or something. “Average” rich internationals and New Yorkers (family income above 500K, say) can’t do that. Anyway, I spend a lot of time in NY, I know several NYU attendees, and can tell you, the school is overrated for the money. They will charge what people will pay and not reinvest it all back in the school. Huge administrative salaries… Google it. The president of NYU had gotten allot of bad press over it.
The problem is that all full need schools are tough to get into. Your high school stats will be a factor, although college stats matter more for transfers. Focus on full need for transfer schools, but have a backup that is affordable.
There are so many stories of kids struggling so bad with college debt for the rest of their lives, just because of their lofty “dream school at any cost”. Google “buried under student loan debt” for some stories.
Here is the cost of Columbia Law School:
http://web.law.columbia.edu/admissions/graduate-legal-studies/tuition-fees-and-financial-aid
Would I be mistaken in saying that the OP won’t need cosigners for law school (or grad school)?
SUNYs cost ~$20k for state residents and ~$30k for OOS students. Baruch is a CUNY (city system, not state). The estimated costs appear to be similar, but you’d have to check the housing situation carefully. NYC is an expensive place to live. If the college doesn’t provide housing, that could be a problem.
Whether or not a co-signer is required for private loans depends on creditworthiness, not degree program.
Could you re say what your plans are in one post?
Undergrad:
Law school:
Why would you be asking your parents to cosign loans for law school? For that, you would be able to take a direct loans in your name only…and add to that the Grad Plus Loan in your name only (which can be taken up to the cost of attendance). You would NOT involve your parents at all.
Plus…cosigners need to be qualified cosigners. On an income of $40,000 a year, it is highly unlikely your parents would be qualified cosigners for you at any point.
And please…at this point you are going to NO law school. Columbia Law School is as expensive as NYU, never mind the added living costs of living in NY while you attend. Plus…you would have to get accepted.
I would VERY strongly urge you to take a personal finance course ASAP. You need to understand how to manage money, what long term debt can do to you in the future, what loans are all about including cosigners, etc.
Sure…apply to NYU. But please please…don’t encourage ANYONE to cosign these huge loans (and yes, I think a loan of $100,000 plus for undergrad school is HUGE). Go to a place where you can get an outstanding GPA, and prepare yourself well for that LSAT. You will have plenty of debt from law school. Plenty of it. Don’t have undergrad debt as well.
Oh…and remember, there are tons of newly minted lawyers who don’t have jobs. There is an over abundance of new lawyers.
@Lilliana330 I was going off of the premise that if the OP gets the Blue and Gold Opportunity Program through UCLA, that his/her financial aid package would be better than USC’s. I could be wrong about that, though. The only people that I know who graduated from USC did so with a LOT of student loan debt, so perhaps that is clouding my judgement about that.
Since the UCs have excellent FA for low income in-state students it’s possible.
That doesn’t change the term of the loan. If you get a $1M home loan, it is still going to be a 15 or 30 year mortgage, and the payments might be $10k/mo; the bank isn’t going to give you a 60 year mortgage just so you can take out a bigger loan.
Standard term on a Student loan, government or private, is no more than 10 years. If you consolidate or go into one of the Income Based Repayment plans, you can get a longer term.
In the olden days, car loans were 48 months. Why? Because cars didn’t last that long and who wants to be paying $300/mo for a 5 or 6 year old car that might not even run anymore. Then cars got more expensive and did last longer, so some loans started being 60 or 72 months.
I am pretty sure Parent Plus loans can be extended
@thumper1 So even if I do not have a job by the time I get to law school, I can still take out loans without a cosigner. Of course I know it is hard to get into Columbia, but I do know that it is possible. If I keep up my 3.9 GPA, continue to get involved with extra curriculars or internships or anything of that like, and prepare for LSAT well, I know I can get there. And yes I know the LSAT is hard, which is why I am starting to study for it right now, and I will continue to study for it during the 2.5 years that I have left of undergrad.
Apply to all the schools you would like to go to. Try to get waivers for your application fee’s so you can apply to many schools. Apply to schools that would be hard for you to get into (reaches), schools you think you will get into (matches), and schools you know you will get into (safeties). Apply to as many as you’d like.
At the end of the day, no one on this website will know how much financial aid you will get or if you will get accepted.
When you go to law school, you can take out grad plus loans in your own name up to the cost of attendance.
BUT here is my opinion…you are going to be swimming in huge debt if you do that and also have $100,000 additional in undergrad debt…not that I think you will be able to get those loans…but that is what you are looking at to attend NYU.
Get THE highest LSAT score…and get THE best GPA possible. Then apply to law schools…and look for programs where you will get some funding. The are around.
@Jpgranier For undergrad, I want to go to an East Coast school. Somewhere that has good academics and reasonable to get into, considering my poor high school grades. Somewhere that has good financial aid is good. Smith College, Bryn Mawr College, Trinity College, University of Rochester, Boston College, Amherst (?). It would also be nice to go to somewhere that is in a big city, like Georgetown, though Georgetown is hard to get into, that I understand. Maybe GWU, which is also in DC and easier to get into, but I’m not sure how good they are when it comes to financial aid. I’ve heard that they were generous with freshman students, but I’m not sure how generous they are with transfer students. I also like the school because they would not require high school transcripts for me, so going off soley on my academics in college so far, I’m not sure if it would me qualify for some scholarships. Do they even have scholarships for transfers?
Grad school: Go to law school at Columbia Law School. (IDEALLY, IDEALLY, IDEALLY Go to Harvard Law School. IDEALLY, AGAIN.) Backups would be NYU Law School or Georgetown Law School. I’m thinking about getting a dual business and law degree. It won’t take any longer than the 3 years, anyways, but it would be a lot more stressful.
Yes, getting a joint MBA/law degree takes longer than 3 years. You can’t get around that because of the requirement of ABA accredited schools that you MUST take courses for the equivalent of 6 semesters. Some schools offer 4 year full time programs, and those may even include a summer class. The business school part of it may vary based on your undergrad classes, but at a minimum it is going to be 4 years.
I know, you are just planning for the ideal education, but it takes a lot more than a 3.9 and a good LSAT score to get into any of the schools you are talking about. A friend currently in law school was Phi Beta Kappa and she was no automatic admit. Financial aid for law school is more often merit aid than need aid.
Financial aid for law school is almost always merit based. It IS possible to get merit aid at some law schools. I know a few students who did so.
- One student got acceoted to some great law schools with 1/2 tuition scholarships. That is terrific...but still left the student with the other half of tuition, and the costs of housing, and living expenses. All were on major metro areas which were also very costly of housing, etc.
- Second student had a more successful hunt. This student wanted very specific law programs with a focus on immigration. Student also only applied to colleges where law fellowships were offered. This student ended up getting accepted to a number of places...four flew the student in for fellowship interviews. Student got four full rides to choose from. However, this student did not go directly from undergrad to law school. Student did a fullbright fellowship for a year, and then worked for a non-profit for two years which helped immigrants who needed assistance with all sorts of things...including legal, health care, etc. Oh, and this student is fully bilingual English/Spanish.
That’s what it takes to get money for law schools.
In my opinion, you are doing the wrong hunt. Right now, you need a college where you can get a great GPA, and get the best LSAT scores. Oh…did I also say that both of these students prepped like crazy for the LSAT and both took the test twice.
You have almost enough money to complete a bachelors degree in CA at a public university. I’m not really sure why you think it will be an advantage to spend more than twice the amount of money to get your undergrad degree 3000 miles from where you currently live.
I guess the grass is always greener…you do understand that there are TONS of students from outside of your state who would LOVE to attend college there.
Like I said…please take a personal finance course. You need to learn about debt management of nothing else.
But if one were to get accepted into let’s say Columbia Law School, wouldn’t the opportunities and the resources attached to that school be worth it to still go, even though that student weren’t one of those top students who got a full merit scholarship or something?
Then why would I even save money to go to law school, if I can’t get into law school. I should just take out debt right now and then go from there because since I won’t be going to law school, why worry about the total cost of it… the cost of undergrad on top of the cost of law school?
For student one, did he went directly from undergrad to law school? Did he get into some of the top law schools that student 2 got into?
Student 1 got accepted to good schools.
So did student 2…but a different set of good schools which were very specific to the kind of law that student wanted to practice.
There are unemployed and under employed Columbia law school grads around too.
Just keep,in mind, your salary as a newly minted lawyer could actually be on the lower side. It would be very smart, in my opinion, to keep ALL of yoir debt…undergrad and beyond…to a minimum.
You seem to equate quality college with spending more money. There are any number of CA publics where you will get an excellent education, and can subsequently apply to law school…with far less debt than any of the high priced schools on your list that don’t meet transfer full need.
Please think about how you spend your money. Spending $70,000 a year for college might seem like a necessity to you…but it’s not.