Proposal to Include Bar Exam Costs Within Tuition
A few days ago, I received the following email from one of my favorite classmates:
Due to the current economic environment, many lenders have suspended their bar exam loans. Additionally, applicants for some of the bar exams being offered must adhere to more stringent criteria than in recent history in order to quality for the loans that are available. Without federal or private loan options, graduates may have to rely on less desirable means such as using credit cards to cover bar exam expenses or forego taking a bar review course.
The Alliance for Legal Education, a coalition of law schools and other organizations, recommends the following as a temporary solution: “Permit costs associated with bar exam preparation to be included as a component of the cost of attendance and therefore eligible for federally guaranteed student loans.”The Alliance is advocating that this initiative be passed as part of the Higher Education Act technical corrections bill (H.R. 1777). The bill was introduced and voted on by the House on March 30, 2009.
I have to admit that this has concerned me lately as well. I had been banking on a biglaw job to pay for my bar preparation expenses, but given the current state of the economy, it would be foolish for me to expect such a thing. What do I do then? My credit is lackluster so I probably couldn’t get a private loan anyway, especially given my current level of education debt and lack of collateral.
I’ll probably have to get a temporary job to afford it. Doesn’t seem conducive to studying for the bar exam.
I’m curious as to what other law schools do about this problem. Feel free to let us know how it works at your school via comment or @legalgeekery on Twitter.
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I plan to use my company’s tuition reimbursement program to offset the cost of BarBri. A lot of professional companies offer tuition programs because they are often unused thus not costing them much.
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Joshua Auriemma Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:58 pm
That requires having a job, though. No? :\
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I knew going in that I didn’t want to get a loan for bar prep, so I paid my bar prep class off a little every semester. By the time second semester my 3L year rolled around I owed about $400. Much less devastating than having to pay it all at once. And I got to lock in my rate my 1L year, so I ended up saving a few hundred bucks too.
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Joshua Auriemma Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Definitely much smarter than me. I heard about the lock-in rates and I thought to myself, psssh, what does it matter if some biglaw firm is footing the bill?
Clearly an error on my part.
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I’m not sure how it works at my law school as I graduated in 2005, but I have to say that I think it’s a good idea to roll the bar exam costs into the financial aid package if a student elects to do so. They may not elect to do so for various reasons, but it would be nice to have the option. It’s not an inexpensive proposition and working while studying for the bar isn’t desirable.
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Joshua Auriemma Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Agreed. I hadn’t thought about the optional aspect, but I think you’re right that it’s necessary to work.
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