Am I the only one who would like to kick this student you know where?
http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2016/6/18/student-pleads-for-help-getting-parents
Patrents' Excuse for Refusing to Cosign Law School Loan "not good enough" for This Student-Dear Abby
Wonder what a good enough excuse is? Stay strong and don’t co sign, says I. It’s too risky. Maybe co-sign and take out a life insurance policy on the student if you feel you must co sign. Because if something happens to the student, you will be on the hook.
Good for Abby.
Good response form Abby.
Since we don’t have any facts, I’m not going to offer an opinion. The student may be a jerk with a sense of entitlement and an inflated view of his/her importance; the parents may be control freaks. It came across as a dumb letter (undoubtedly edited), and I don’t understand why Tom thought it necessary to post it here or why people are teeing off on a young person who very likely still has a lot of growing up to do. Sheesh.
@AboutTheSame Parents refusing to take on a potential liability of about $150,000 are not “control freaks”.
Pretty much every student does but it doesn’t always work out that way.
Tom, as is often the case, we take a different view of things. I think you are unduly harsh on young posters. Please note that I pointed out that we do not have any facts. You have pulled $150K out of thin air. I remain unclear why you thought this post was worthwhile – except possibly to insult another young person you do not know.
It does not do any student, or parent, a favor by enabling them to be “victims” of the so called student debt crisis.
I don’t think Law Students need parents to cosign loans. They can use the Grad Plus loans
Right. The student can take a grad plus loan up to the cost of attendance…and needs NO parent cosigner for the loans.
Grad Plus loans are currently at 6.84%
6.84%? Big whoop.
Back in the 80’s, student loan rates were ~12%, and that was a competitive rate!
@GMTplus7 : Your comment might have some relevance if you bothered to compare the rate to what a cosigned loan would require NOW.
You need to know where the kid is going to know the level of risk. Parents refusing to co-sign loans for, say, Columbia would strike me as likely unreasonable. But I’m going to guess that if the letter writer were competitive at Columbia, s/he would have mentioned it.
5.99% is the best rate I can find for an UNsecured loan today, for a borrower with excellent credit. Therefore, 6.84% does not seem out of line for a student loan for a borrower w an unestablished credit history.
If a parent doesn’t want to co-sign a grad student loan…that’s their right and the student would be wrong to feel entitled to demand their parents reconsider once it’s decided.
$150k is around the cost of attending law school for 3 years at a public university. Private university law school attendance cost tends to start at ~$180k.
Not sure I’d necessarily agree if the following factors are concerns for a given parent:
- Student coasted through undergrad high GPA from taking mostly gut courses.
- Student didn't shadow/intern/work at a firm and most of his/her ideas about a Legal Career from shows like Law & order and The Practice.
- Parents have serious concerns about whether their child has the level of work ethic, internal stamina, resilience to withstand working 70-90+ hour workweeks endemic to many areas of the legal profession...especially long enough to pay off those law school loans. Knew of a couple of first-year associates from schools in the Columbia/NYU/UChicago level who quit before the first year of being associates at a Biglaw firm ended because they were fed up with working 70-80 hour workweeks which was expected if one was even halfway serious about making partner at that or peer firms firm.
Part of the reason for posting this bit is from knowing a few Columbia law graduates who had serious issues with heavy law school loan debt and having serious issues landing a reasonably paying job to defray those loans because they happened to graduate in the bottom third of their graduating law class in the midst of the 2008 recession and the implosion of the legal industry…including a few prominent biglaw firms. .
Take the Stafford and Grad Plus loans, then if he graduates, he can re-fi or, hey, work for a non-profit and get loan forgiveness in 10 years
I wouldn’t cosign any loan I couldn’t afford to pay back if the situation arose; it wouldn’t matter where it was from. Unexpected things happen. When you cosign a loan, you’re saying that if something does happen and the student can’t pay, then you can and will. I would never sign a paper saying that I can when the reality is that I can’t.
Did the student say whether or not they have siblings? As a parent, I couldn’t cosign a note for that amount for one child unless I was able to do that for all of them. It’s not unreasonable for a parent to tell a grown child what they can afford to risk and expect the child to take it like an adult. Complaining to Dear Abby isn’t taking the news like an adult.
Law students can borrow the full cost of attendance without co-signers. There is nothing to see here.
Not sure I agree. Someone who can get accepted into Columbia Law would receive plenty of merit offers from others in the T14. Besides Wachtell and Cravath, there is no real advantage to attending CLS or say, Virginia or Duke or Northwestern.