One Crushing Tale and My Letter to a 0L

File this one under “there but for the grace of God go I.”  Here’s a profile of Andrew Carmichael, a “whiz kid” who racked up law school debt totaling $215,000.  Yep, that’s not a typo.  Two hundred fifteen large.  Just to put that in perspective – most people in this country could own a house outright for two hundred fifteen thousand dollars.  Meaning, Andrew took on law school debt that could have financed a home.  Meaning, he’s now looking at a student loan payment the size of a mortgage (to the tune of $2,756 per month).  Thank goodness mortgages are totally easy to pay off and have never gotten anyone into trouble.  

Spoiler alert: Andrew did get a great job after taking on all that law school debt, so it wasn’t a total waste.  He is now employed…as a computer programmer.  Yep, that’s also not a typo.  He is now a computer programmer.  I'm no expert, but last time I checked, a lot of computer programmers were scraping by without JD's.

A Creative Route to Student Loan Forgiveness?

Photo courtesy of stockfreeimages.com

I came across this comment on All Education Matters today in response to Cryn Johannsen’s post about AEM’s two-year anniversary:

“Has this blog done anything?  I'm thinking that this entire AEM is a pretend nonprofit that you "work" for so that you can get your student loans forgiven after a decade!  Right?”

It got me thinking…why not?  Have any borrowers actually thought of going this route?  Wouldn’t it be wonderfully ironic if student debtors had their loans forgiven by starting non-profits that fight against the student lending industry? Here’s a link to the eligibility requirements for public service loan forgiveness. 

I know one of the requirements is that the borrower must work “full-time” for a non-profit, but it doesn’t give a definition of “full-time.”  I’m sure some un(der)employed JD out there will find a loophole somewhere!