conversation: User (olemiss18): "I'll preface this post by saying that I would normally take this kind of question over to lawschooladmissions sub or an online forum like TopLawSchools or something. But those clusters of folks tend to be hyper focused on specific things that would derail the discussion from being a financial one. That's been my experience at least. So I hope that is okay. \n\nSo I've been accepted to a number of really decent law schools and a really great one so far. Many of the really decent ones gave me a lot of scholarship, so much so that I may only have to worry about costs of living. The really great one - I don't think I need to conceal its identity, the University of Minnesota (#23 in the nation) gave me about half off tuition. When I estimate some of the cheaper schools (in areas that I feel largely indifferent about working), I'll likely owe between $50k and $80k in student loans. Minnesota (in a city I would love to work in) would be between $110k and $130k, depending on some factors. Minnesota's median starting salary for an attorney in the private sector is $110,000. I may play it safe and assume I wouldn't get a job with better pay than their 25th percentile for grads, which is $97,000. None of the other schools come close to that. Some medians are as high as $70,000, but many are $60,000 or so. \n\nMy question: Can I make this work? $100k+ in debt is something I've always wanted to avoid. I have no debt of my own besides a $5k loan I took out to finish an otherwise completely free undergraduate education. But Minnesota is frankly my dream school and the outcomes for graduates (not just salary but types of jobs and how far the degree could take you) are muuuuch greater than any of the financially safe schools. \n\nI'm not too experienced with this sub, so if you need more info, please ask. I have recently (a few months ago) established credit, it's good, and I pay everything off on time. "
  Self: "I think it's a good idea to take university-reported salary statistics with a healthy dose of skepticism.  \n\nI did some googling to find the [salary stats you're probably looking at](https://www.law.umn.edu/career-center/where-grads-go/2016-career-facts-statistics), and one of the things I noticed is that of those 2016 grads known to be working in the private sector, only 62.1% reported salary data.  \n\nIf I were in your shoes, I'd assume the private sector salary statistics are potentially biased in favor of the more successful graduates.  Maybe the law school primarily surveys students while they are still in school, and therefore the people who respond are disproportionately the more successful students who already have job offers.  Maybe a significant number of the 38% of private sector law school grads who didn't submit salary data were unhappy with their offers and unwilling to share for that reason. \n\n\nPlus, it seems like you are assuming that you would definitely get a private sector job, but a solid third of graduates from the University of Minnesota end up working in public sector jobs, earning way, way less than their private sector counterparts.  What if some of those grads accepted these lower paying public sector jobs because they couldn't find a job within the private sector?  \n\nIf you want to play it safe, I think you should consider whether you would be able to afford your student loan payments if you could only find a $50k per year job in the public sector, or if your private sector salary were more like $80k.  \n"
  michapman (michapman): "If he ended up with a public sector job, he may be eligible for public service loan forgiveness (PSLF). The problem that he may run into is less that he might have to settle for a public sector job, but that he might not get any law jobs at all. Law jobs in the public sector (prosecutors, public defenders, corporation counsel/law department for a city or state, in house counsel for an agency, etc) are extremely competitive. \n\nThey might pay less than Big Law but there are a ton of people after those positions too; no one should expect that they will be able to fall back on public sector law professions if they aren’t able to get into Big Law because it’s still an enormously competitive area with significantly more applicants than positions."
  uvaspina1 (uvaspina1): "That's the route I took, and by year 7, I was making 6 figures.  -I started at $50k in 2007.  Now, after 11 years, I'm at about $130k.  No debt.  "
  boogi3woogie (boogi3woogie): "Did PSLF work for you?  If so congrats!"
  