Loan for US law school

[Future Lawyer]

Hi,

I have been admitted to ABA approval law school with an offer of scholarship. However, I still need to show around 70-75 K US$ on my account in order to obtain I-20 and F1 student visa even as a Canadian student.  Law school. indicated that even though you have a scholarship offer, you still need to show this money to US custom so they ensure you have enough money to stay and study in US. I spoke to Bank and they require cosigner since it is overseas. Does anyone had the same experience and/or know how to get this fund for education?

Thank you for sharing, 

[ramoj]

What school is this?

[Lilbb19]

go to school in Canada, you likely wont need a cosigner 

[Yogurt Baron]

On 12/21/2022 at 12:11 PM, Future Lawyer said:

Hi,

I have been admitted to ABA approval law school with an offer of scholarship. However, I still need to show around 70-75 K US$ on my account in order to obtain I-20 and F1 student visa even as a Canadian student.  Law school. indicated that even though you have a scholarship offer, you still need to show this money to US custom so they ensure you have enough money to stay and study in US. I spoke to Bank and they require cosigner since it is overseas. Does anyone had the same experience and/or know how to get this fund for education?

Thank you for sharing, 

I'm not sure which sea the U.S. is over, but that's neither here nor there.

Yes, I've been in this situation - unavailability of funds is one of the things that kept me from making the dumbass mistake of going to a terrible U.S. law school circa 2010, and I'm glad it did. (And when somebody comes in touting that the law school they've been admitted to is actually ABA-approved and everything, forum veterans are going to assume the worst about the quality of the school.)

Your options:

1. Come up with the money. If you have to ask questions like this of the internet and not of the lawyer who's promised you a job on graduation, and if your parents don't have $75k sitting around that they'll give you for law school, you probably aren't well-connected enough to parlay a U.S. law degree into a career as a Canadian lawyer anyway. (There's not a 100% correlation, but there's a correlation.)

2. Get your stats to the point where they need to be to make you admissible to Canadian law schools. If you have the aptitude, this can be done. I've done it.

3. Do something else with your life - despite what TV tells you, there are jobs out there other than "McDonald's" and "lawyer". This can be done. I've done it.

This sounds more snide than I'd like it to, but I've been where you are, and I do empathize. One of the reasons you need to demonstrate upfront that you have the $75k is because the "oh, well, my LSAT is 142, I'll just go to Florida Coastal and then come home and work at my dad's firm" path is only meant for the kinds of people who have the $75k---and, from the bank's perspective, because "person racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt by going to a law school that would render him ineligible to practice law in Canada but for the charity of a generous benefactor, and also, they don't have a generous benefactor" is a risky investment.

[Patient0L]

On 12/21/2022 at 9:11 AM, Future Lawyer said:

Hi,

I have been admitted to ABA approval law school with an offer of scholarship. However, I still need to show around 70-75 K US$ on my account in order to obtain I-20 and F1 student visa even as a Canadian student.  Law school. indicated that even though you have a scholarship offer, you still need to show this money to US custom so they ensure you have enough money to stay and study in US. I spoke to Bank and they require cosigner since it is overseas. Does anyone had the same experience and/or know how to get this fund for education?

Thank you for sharing, 

Is this just a Visa question? If you don’t have enough $ in your bank account for the application, you have to have someone who does have enough (usually parents) to vouch for you. They will probably need to provide bank statements. Your school’s international student office should be able to walk you through this.

As for any other issues… I’ll leave that to those eager to jump in.