I also struggled to pay for living expenses when I was in law school. In hindsight, now I understand I could plan everything better and save more money in the process.
As a rule, law students take out student loans for law school expenses. Other students work part-time. However, it is better to reduce your expenses to reduce the total amount of student loans you incur while in law school.
This article will explain what you can do to pay for your living expenses while in law school.
Estimating Living Expenses For Particular Law Schools
Here are examples of estimated costs of living depending on law school and its geographical location. Per annum. Data is based on the 2019-2020 academic year.
Law School, Location, Living expenses for 2019-2020:
University of California Irvine School of Law, Irvine, CA – $32,650
Arizona State University School of Law, Athens, AZ – $22,714
Florida State University School of Law, Tallahassee, FL – $16,750
New York Law School, New York – $23,759
As you can see, estimated living expenses costs vary significantly between law schools. For example, I have seen a 30% difference in living expenses estimation between law schools in the same city.
That is why I would always err on the side of higher costs to be safe.
When you make your plans, look at how law schools estimate expenses and lookup real-life economic data about the cost of living in a target location area. Because, as you can see, $23,759 in New York is a funny number.
Other New York law schools estimate this to be more like $30,000 plus annually.
Better look up independent data online to estimate your future living expenses.
How Do Law Students Pay for Living Expenses?
Most often, law students take out student loans to pay for living expenses while in law school.
Student loans for graduate students, including law students, include a certain amount for living expenses. It is calculated based on the particular law school and geographical location. I used student loans too.
But there is a significant problem with student loans. Law school price tag ballooned in the recent decade, and so did living expenses for law students. And thus, student loans got bigger.
As a result, law students get themselves into a more significant debt which has become increasingly hard to pay off.
I recommend avoiding incurring student debt as much as possible by lowering expenses while you go through law school.
Law school tuition is high enough, but law students usually cannot reduce it and must pay. But law students can control living expenses and can reduce them while in law school.
There are a few tricks and methods to use for that purpose. It will be well worth it in the long run.
How Do You Afford Living Expenses in Law School?
Cover Living Expenses by Working Part-Time.
For lack of any other options, I worked part-time during law school. Initially, I went to law school in a rural area where jobs were scarce.
But I was able to find a student job at university, to which law school belonged. Granted, that was not high pay, but it covered a portion of my living expenses such as rent or gas and car insurance money.
Then I transferred to Rutgers School of Law in New Jersey, and my expenses went a little higher. Higher rent, longer commute, resulting in more gas money and potential repair. The student did not cover all living expenses when I was in law school.
So, I found another part-time job there. I was lucky (or unlucky) to find a part-time job in a small solo attorney law office. I cannot say I enjoyed it. But that was real legal work and some extra money.
It was to balance work and law school because law school is highly demanding. But I had to somehow pay for living expenses in law school, right?
Now, law school made me sign a contract where I promise to work no more than 20 or 25 hours per week. Sometimes I think I exceeded that restriction simply because I had to stay overtime in the busy times. Otherwise, I would lose a job.
Nevertheless, I still managed to finish law school with a decent GPA.
I suggest you focus on law school grades in your first year. Law schools recommend avoiding working in your first 1L year. Usually, you can find part-time work in the summer and starting your second year of law school as 2L.
By working was able to meet my living expenses while in law school. However, I was not able to love my costs much. That is where you should excel over me.
Live With Your Parents to Reduce Living Expenses in Law School
It would help if you considered living at your parent’s house while in law school. Depending on your relationship, this living arrangement will help you to save on rent, utilities, and food, at least.
This could be a substantial amount of savings in large cities by reducing such living expenses as rent.
There is no shame in living with your parents to reduce living expenses when in law school. This is how to pay for such living expenses in law school.
I had plenty of relatively adult classmates who lived with parents when they attended law school. Some of them are now quite successful attorneys.
Granted, you may need to forgo some fun and suffer some inconvenience if you live with your parents. But as a law student, you are a professional and must focus on studies and get ready for the bar exam instead of binge drinking.
Relying On Your Spouse for Living Expenses While in Law School
Relying on a spouse for covering living expenses while in law school is not an uncommon arrangement. It happens pretty often, and there are special laws about it.
It is such a common topic that laws make judges consider this type of support when splitting assets in divorce later on. Hopefully, you will never go through a divorce.
I had some classmates who relied on their spouses for financial support while in law school. Spouses usually consider this a joint endeavor from which both husband and wife will benefit in the future.
See if your spouse can afford to help pay living expenses while saving money by taking out the lesser amount in student loans.
Married people usually are mature enough to help each other as a family unit.
Get a Roommate While in Law School.
Getting a roommate will help pay for such living expenses as rent, utilities, and maybe food or even car transportation. You can share all those living expenses.
Try to get another law student as a roommate. Preferably, that will be your classmate. You can also set up a study group with your roommate and share textbooks and law school supplement materials.
If you cannot get a law student as a classmate, try to get a professional graduate student or Ph.D. student. This will help you to avoid having to deal with parties or other distracting behavior by your roommate.
If not, try to get a person closer to your age or older – they have done their share of partying, and they are more likely to understand that you need a quiet place to live and study while in law school.
Reduce Your Living Expenses While in Law School
Finding a roommate is one method of reducing living expenses for a law student. But there are other methods to consider. Downsizing is the key.
Get a smaller apartment where you can sleep and breathe. Rent a room in the house where adults live or graduate students or other law students.
Renting a home together is another standard method of sharing expenses by law students while keeping a professional environment in the house.
Sharing a car between roommates could be another solution. Sharing car expenses such as insurance and gas helps to split the cost. Or, ditch a car entirely and walk or take public transportation.
Trust me, car payments, coupled with insurance, gas costs, and cost of repair, nowadays can fund a monthly mortgage sometimes.
By eliminating those, you will significantly reduce your monthly expenses. For example, I ditched a car for my second 2L year after successfully fighting off a repo attempt by the bank (that was epic).
But then I purchased another (excellent) car because I got paid for a project I worked on as a 2L.
Go to Law School in a Low-Rent Area to Save on Living Expenses.
If you cannot live with your parents or your significant other, then you may try to go to school in a location where rent is low. But, beware, it could be a wrong area, so you will need to watch out. Or, that could mean a long commute.
You may choose a rural law school. Granted, law school most likely will be in lower rank tiers, but you still save on living expenses.
But beware that the local job market may be pretty bad. You may need to move to another geographical location after you finish law school.
If low school is low ranked, employers may not be familiar with it at a new place, and you may have a slightly harder time finding a job.
Do Companies Pay for Law School?
Forget about. It is a scarce and unlikely scenario when a company or law firm pays for law school. What value could you bring them as a lawyer? I know a couple of cases when law firms paid law students to go to law school.
One example was a paralegal in a large law firm that law firm later sent to law school and paid his expenses. They hired him back after he passed the bar doing pretty much the same job as a paralegal.
Another example was an engineer working for an intellectual property law firm while in law school, making $60,000K per year. That money covered her tuition and living expenses.
But she brought value to the law firm as an experienced engineer reviewing patents the firm was preparing for filing.
Do Not Waste Money While in Law School.
Do not spend money on things like Xboxes or PlayStations. Instead, save on alcohol and ditch smoking for three years of law school. Likewise, do not spend money on sports equipment or restaurants. Instead, learn to cook at home.
Do not buy cool new clothes -all you must care about is grades and bar exams, not how fashionable you look. The only cool new clothing you may need is professional attire you find work or start going to interviews.
Even then, you may buy a used suit, for example. Employers who are lawyers understand what you are going through. As long as you are neat – you are fine.
And it would help if you had a reliable laptop which you should purchase new. If you take good care of it, then it will serve you in law school, for the bar exam, and even in the first couple of years while you work.
Imagine that the Toshiba laptop I purchased using a law school laptop loan in 2009 is still working after 13-14 years! The battery does not work, windows are outdated – but I can still browse the internet, listen and record staff on it. It was a perfect buy.
That laptop saw everything – law school exams, law school assignments, law school transfer, bar exam, and much other staff like me playing Operation Flashpoint straight two days after first-year law school exams.
You may save anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 in living expenses throughout law school by not spending money.
And if you use draconian slave 6%-7% student loan rate on top of that, you may be saving tens and tens of thousands of dollars over a lifetime just by saving on living expenses.
Save money before law school for future living expenses.
I suggest you strategically save money before you go to law school. Then, you can use that money later for living expenses while in law school.
By saving money beforehand, you will save money you otherwise would take out in the form of student loans for living expenses.
You also will save yourself stress in your 1L and maybe 2L if you have money. At the same time, in law school, that will help you focus on studying vs. working.
Depending on where you plan to go to law school, you should count on at least $1,500-$2,000 per month in living expenses.
At least that will help you in your first semester or first year of law school. Even saving $1000 per month in the first year will save you $12,000 plus interest in living expenses.
Take Scholarship Offer From Law School
If you cannot get into the top 50 law schools, then go for the one that gives you a scholarship. Even if you lose a scholarship after your first year, you still saved lots of money in the first year. Note that law students often lose the scholarship because they do not maintain their grades. It is tough to keep rates in law school.
To get the scholarship, you need a good undergraduate GPA and, most importantly, you need a high LSAT score. Therefore, you must prepare very well for the LSAT by signing up with a reputable LSAT course.
Essentially, to obtain a chance of scholarship, look for law schools where median accepted credentials like GPA and LSAT score are noticeably lower than yours.
Learn about scholarship requirements in every school where you intend to apply and see if you may qualify. Then, look up their site and call their financial aid office. Do your research.
Go to Law School With Lowest Tuition
I would also take into consideration not only the local cost of living but would go for the lowest tuition possible. With low tuition costs, you may relax a little bit more about incurring loans for living expenses.
Two-Year Option Law Schools Save Money?
Some law schools offer an accelerated program to obtain J.D. within two years. This option may or may not help you save money on living expenses, considering that you will have no time two work for two years.
You must do your math and see whether ditching an extra 3rd year in living expenses is more beneficial than working in your second and third years.
Note, you may not find work as a law student. I would go for a two-year option to finish all this sooner to focus on the bar exam.
Maxing Out Credit Cards for Living Expenses
If you have a good credit score and a high limit on credit cards, you can save credit cards for the time when you are in law school. And then use credit cards for living expenses, at least in your first year.
I am not advising this, but credit card debt is usually unsecured and is dischargeable in bankruptcy. Student debt is generally not dischargeable in bankruptcy. I am just saying.
Living in Your Mini-Van To Reduce Expenses
Well, as the last option, a law student can ditch an apartment and live in a mini-van if the weather and surrounding crime rate allow it. While you most likely will not be able to live in a van on campus, you may be able to park on the streets or rent a place to park somewhere.
If you are young and have no family obligations, then you are free to do it. Such an extreme money-saving move may save you tens of thousands of dollars throughout law school. If you go to law school in a geographical location where living expenses are high, this may work.
I would consider this the last option and only if you can live like that for a year or two. After that, you can even have a mini-stove in your van.
And you can take showers in the student gym where you can get membership as a student. However, the restroom may be a significant issue which you will have to figure out.
