Actually, Grad PLUS loans require a credit check. If the student did not pass the credit check, a cosigner would be needed in order to get the Grad PLUS. In that case, the parents would be wise to say no to cosigning … the only students I have had who were declined for Grad PLUS were very poor at handling money. The others were able to rectify their credit issues and get an override. Those who are already in a financial hole are a bad risk for a cosigner. (Of course, my own belief is that you should never cosign a loan … if you really want to help someone borrow, better you should borrow yourself, lend the money, and have the person repay YOU. When you cosign & the borrower doesn’t repay, your credit gets destroyed. Oh, and if you are doing this, you should fully expect you’ll never be repaid & be happily surprised if you are.)
Patrents' Excuse for Refusing to Cosign Law School Loan "not good enough" for This Student-Dear Abby
Not true - @kelsmom is correct that if a law student is taking Grad PLUS loans out, then there is a credit check and a “non-approved” on that credit check can change to “approved” with a cosigner who is also subject to a successful credit check.
And let’s not conclude that all students who are not approved for GradPLUS loans is due to their poor management of money. There are many reasons a student can automatically be not approved for GradPLUS loans (outlined on the DoE website), including bankruptcy and other issues. Of course, many may draw conclusions here that reasons like bankruptcy automatically mean poor money management as well, however there can be many instances where this is also not necessarily the case. For example, a student could have incurred a huge medical debt (hundreds of thousands of dollars) as a new adult due to life threatening complications resulting from genetic conditions, possibly because he or she was under false pretense from parents or others that he or she was covered medically and then turned out not to be. The student subsequently may choose to request to discharge the debt through bankruptcy. Just pointing out that there could be reasons other than general “money mismanagement” for which individuals could not qualify for GradPLUS without a cosigner.
My bad. But note, the student has not yet applied – LS is two years out --so we don’t know if s/he will get turned down.
These are some smart parents. Not mortgaging their future on the success of the son who may or may not make it in the law. At least if he doesn’t make it, his parents will still have a basement for him to live in. If they are on the hook for his loans he doesn’t repay, it may not only financially devastate the parents but may create lots of ill will between them
Um? As I understand it, merit money is pretty uncommon in the top 14, so I don’t think it’s necessarily true that someone who was accepted to Columbia Law would receive a merit offer (let alone “plenty”) from other top schools.
And for a field that is so notoriously prestige-focused and oversupplied, I would think there is certainly a difference between attending a top 5 law school and a top 15 school, as silly and hair-splitting as that sounds.
Not true in today’s LS environment of declining apps of top testers. Those 7-14 have been paying big bucks in the past ~4years to try to hold their median numbers.
There is some difference between 5 & 14/15, yes, but not much 5 & 8,or 5 & 10. The big difference in the latter (~10) is that a CLS grad would have more prestigious clerkship opportunities but that only applies to Lit folks. And, someone at median at CLS would have a better shot at Big Law than median at #10, but the total difference is marginal (and somewhat related to geographic preference).
For example, CLS places 73.6% into Big Law. Duke and Northwestern place 65.9% and 62.2% respectively. But, CLS only places 5.6% into federal clerkships, which is lower than Duke (8.7%), and Northwestern (7.3%).
Adding together, one measure of an excellent out come of law schools (Big Law+Clerkship):
CLS = 79.2%
Duke = 74.6%
Northwestern = 69.5%
Is it really worth paying sticker (vs. a heavily discounted #8 Duke, or #8 tie Virginia (70.3%)) to attend CLS for a 5% better chance at an excellent outcome? Perhaps if you are from a wealthy family, sure, but that is a LOT of loans to incur for a marginal job benefit.
And while CLS may place significantly better than say, 15, Texas/Vandy/UCLA, all three are excellent regionals and place well into their backyards. A Texan who wanted to practice in Texas would be foolish to pass up a heavily discounted UT to pay sticker at CLS. Similarly, SoCal Big Law hires quite a few locals (UCLA/USC grads).