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How much of an advantage is it if your parents pay for law school?


EdmontonLaw

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If your goal is to help your parents retire why don't you just let them keep the $100k and go to UBC? 

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2 hours ago, EdmontonLaw said:

 

Point is, I just want to have the most options I possibly can.

Ya go $150k into debt for the same education you would get at ubc in that case. 
 

Gotta spend money to make money!

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Pantalaimon
  • Lawyer

@EdmontonLaw you may want to research earnings in Vancouver/Calgary Big Law and compare them to Toronto, keeping in mind that a Toronto 2nd year is a Calgary/Vancouver 3rd year. The difference isn't that stark, at least at the associate level, and I would be surprised if the NPV on the difference in future earnings on Bay vs Calgary/Vancouver is more than $150,000.

Partner comp is a mystery to me, so I'd assume partners in Toronto make significantly more, but it doesn't sound like you're interested in Big Law for the 8+ years required to make partner.

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For the first five years, when you consider both salaries and living costs, Calgary and Montreal are probably the place to be if all you care about is saving up money. Montreal is obviously tricky because of the language stuff, and Calgary sounds like a terrible place to live, but if it's just about money, choose one of those.

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Lawstudents20202020
  • Lawyer
2 hours ago, EdmontonLaw said:

Just want to close it on this: real lawyers who have their JDs have their feelings hurt because…my parents paid for my schooling? Every single one of you would do the same for your kids. And some in the comments are also not happy because I want to attend UofT in order to get hired at a more prestigious firm, in order to make more money. Yes, me and every other big law attorney. Did my original post come off as spoiled? Yes. Are some of the replies just moral grandstanding? Yes.

Just to shatter your illusions of the world a bit more, not every parent with the means thinks they should pay for their child's tuition. Ive met people with 7 figure incomes that won't put a cent towards their child's post secondary education. 

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1 hour ago, Lawstudents20202020 said:

Just to shatter your illusions of the world a bit more, not every parent with the means thinks they should pay for their child's tuition. Ive met people with 7 figure incomes that won't put a cent towards their child's post secondary education. 

My impression was that it’s unusual for parents to pay for everything. Through undergrad and law school, most of my friends paid for school with summer/PT jobs, OSAP, and LOCs. And a lot of my friends were from pretty well-off families. 

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I have stuffed an RESP for him that will pay for stuff, but I'm not sure there will be a lot more forthcoming!

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Chewy
  • Law School Admit
8 minutes ago, hiccups said:

Sorry to be off topic but what is the watermelon eating emoji supposed to mean? 

It just means that if your comment was a fruit, it'd be a watermelon. 

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Patient0L
  • Law Student
On 5/25/2023 at 9:40 AM, EdmontonLaw said:

My parents can afford to pay tuition all 3 years and living costs. They also paid for my undergrad and I live at home so I can graduate law school at 26 with 0 debt. Does this even matter or is the debt from law school negligible given the salary of most lawyers? If I get accepted to UofT, should I attend despite probably graduating with $100k+ of debt? For a number of reasons my parents dont want me to go to Toronto so I doubt they would pay any of the 33k tuition, just living costs. Whereas if I attend Allard, UVic, or UAlberta they told me they would pay all the costs. 

Have you considered family therapy?

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Yogurt Baron
On 5/25/2023 at 4:38 PM, EdmontonLaw said:

Yes, me and every other big law attorney.

Ugh, EL, I don't know. There's something about you. You seem to set a few people's teeth on edge, and I get why, and I wish I could help with that, but it's not my first rodeo and I know I can't help with that. As I've said before, you remind me of how this community was fifteen years ago - when I was young, when everyone here was young. You might not realize that you're young, but you are.

I've led a tough life. That seems to be my role here the past few months - the poor guy dropping poor-bombs. And I'm not really going to do that now. We all have the lives that we have. "My parents have $100,000 to spend on my tuition for a field I'm maybe kind of thinking I might want to do" is a level of privilege I'll never understand. So is "I'm over 18 and my parents are in the picture". But that's not your fault. That's not something you're doing to me, or at me.

Where I think you're losing people is with stuff like what I just quoted. You can either be the guy whose parents won't let him go to big scary Toronto, or you can be the guy who casually and non-ironically calls himself a "big law attorney". I know you weren't trying to misrepresent yourself here - again, not my first rodeo. I know you're just skipping some pages in your head. You've thought about becoming a lawyer; you're smart; you don't see why you can't become a lawyer; therefore, it's just a couple of hoops you have to jump through until you are one; therefore, you are one. Nay - the best one.

You've got this thing you do where you assert something that's just completely off-base, and then you'll ask a question based on your assertion. You're probably just trying to present as confident. And it's fine that you're completely off-base about things - we all are when we're exploring a new field! But it's okay sometimes to ask a question rather than making an assertion. No one here will think less of you for asking, "How does this work?" - people will think more of you for that. "Is it worth going to a law school I'm less interested in to minimize debt?" is a question. "Lawyers make so much money that I won't even notice $100,000 when I'm a rich lawyer. Should I take a free $100,000, given what I just asserted?" is...going to annoy some folks.

I do wish you the best and won't subject you to this rant again.

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GoatDuck
  • Law Student

OP for what it's worth, I get the parents wanting to pay for their kids education thing. When I just came to Canada, it seemed wild to me that it's not the norm. Where I grew up, it's assumed that parents pay for all your schooling, and I grew up in a relatively poor country with relatively cheap post secondary education. But others are right in that your attempts to save your position strike others as lacking self-awareness, which isn't a good thing. You've probably gotten all the helpful replies to your original question that you're going to get, so might as well stop engaging here and make your decision. 

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EdmontonLaw
  • Applicant
19 minutes ago, Yogurt Baron said:

Ugh, EL, I don't know. There's something about you. You seem to set a few people's teeth on edge, and I get why, and I wish I could help with that, but it's not my first rodeo and I know I can't help with that. As I've said before, you remind me of how this community was fifteen years ago - when I was young, when everyone here was young. You might not realize that you're young, but you are.

I've led a tough life. That seems to be my role here the past few months - the poor guy dropping poor-bombs. And I'm not really going to do that now. We all have the lives that we have. "My parents have $100,000 to spend on my tuition for a field I'm maybe kind of thinking I might want to do" is a level of privilege I'll never understand. So is "I'm over 18 and my parents are in the picture". But that's not your fault. That's not something you're doing to me, or at me.

Where I think you're losing people is with stuff like what I just quoted. You can either be the guy whose parents won't let him go to big scary Toronto, or you can be the guy who casually and non-ironically calls himself a "big law attorney". I know you weren't trying to misrepresent yourself here - again, not my first rodeo. I know you're just skipping some pages in your head. You've thought about becoming a lawyer; you're smart; you don't see why you can't become a lawyer; therefore, it's just a couple of hoops you have to jump through until you are one; therefore, you are one. Nay - the best one.

You've got this thing you do where you assert something that's just completely off-base, and then you'll ask a question based on your assertion. You're probably just trying to present as confident. And it's fine that you're completely off-base about things - we all are when we're exploring a new field! But it's okay sometimes to ask a question rather than making an assertion. No one here will think less of you for asking, "How does this work?" - people will think more of you for that. "Is it worth going to a law school I'm less interested in to minimize debt?" is a question. "Lawyers make so much money that I won't even notice $100,000 when I'm a rich lawyer. Should I take a free $100,000, given what I just asserted?" is...going to annoy some folks.

I do wish you the best and won't subject you to this rant again.

 

7 minutes ago, GoatDuck said:

OP for what it's worth, I get the parents wanting to pay for their kids education thing. When I just came to Canada, it seemed wild to me that it's not the norm. Where I grew up, it's assumed that parents pay for all your schooling, and I grew up in a relatively poor country with relatively cheap post secondary education. But others are right in that your attempts to save your position strike others as lacking self-awareness, which isn't a good thing. You've probably gotten all the helpful replies to your original question that you're going to get, so might as well stop engaging here and make your decision. 

Yes, you are both right. And i stopped responding to this thread because I was just digging myself a deeper hole trying to justify myself.

I think I have a warped perspective of the world and also an attitude problem. And an inflated ego that isnt justified.

Btw I think some people did misunderstand the post. My question essentially was "is the money from working in toronto big law enough to offset the debt, or would it be better to work in a different city for less salary but with no debt". But I didnt ask it in this vague fashion. The part about my parents paying for law school was completely unnecessary and so was the part about deciding between UofT and UBC. It was 100% bragging. And it reflects my privilege that I thought speaking this way and having these opportunities was normal when that isnt reality.

Anyways, Im leaving this forum. Cant seem to find a delete account option though. You know theres something wrong when lawyers of all people are calling you an asshole (this is a joke).

 

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Yogurt Baron
20 minutes ago, EdmontonLaw said:

 

Yes, you are both right. And i stopped responding to this thread because I was just digging myself a deeper hole trying to justify myself.

I think I have a warped perspective of the world and also an attitude problem. And an inflated ego that isnt justified.

Btw I think some people did misunderstand the post. My question essentially was "is the money from working in toronto big law enough to offset the debt, or would it be better to work in a different city for less salary but with no debt". But I didnt ask it in this vague fashion. The part about my parents paying for law school was completely unnecessary and so was the part about deciding between UofT and UBC. It was 100% bragging. And it reflects my privilege that I thought speaking this way and having these opportunities was normal when that isnt reality.

Anyways, Im leaving this forum. Cant seem to find a delete account option though. You know theres something wrong when lawyers of all people are calling you an asshole (this is a joke).

 

If you see this: I don't think you're an asshole, I didn't mean to call you one, and I don't think anyone else is calling you one. I think you're young. I think a lot of us had the issues you have when we were, say, 20. (I don't know if you're 20, I'm just saying, I had these issues at that age.) I hope things turn out well for you.

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