The majority of law school students rely on some type of loan to help pay for their education.
But, those loans aren’t free. When you add on interest, graduates can carry around a heavy debt load for many years to come.
Access Group, a nonprofit membership organization of nearly 200 nonprofit and state-affiliated ABA-approved law schools, has launched a new student loan calculator to help students make wise financial choices.
“Deciding to pursue a law degree is a substantial, life-impacting choice,” said Christopher Chapman, president and CEO. “Consideration of financial factors is critical to making informed decisions.”
The free online calculator includes pre-populated cost-of-attendance data for ABA-accredited law schools, along with estimated cost-of-living figures for the schools’ respective cities.
Users can enter the name of the school they’re interested in, upload data from the National Student Loan Data System or manually input the information, and then enter other funding sources, such as savings and expected income. The calculator will determine an amount that may need to be borrowed and will suggest various federal student loan repayment plans.
A “prepayment slider” lets users see the compounding effects of paying more each month on student loans.
There are plenty of other loan calculators available online, so why does this one stand out? The company puts the information right at your fingertips. The pre-populated fields provide estimated living expenses for specific cities to help students better understand financial needs while in school.
One other outstanding feature of the calculator is the ability to calculate the advantages of prepaying loans. Students can see how much money they can save and how much faster they can pay off debt by paying a little extra each month.
