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<p>This might be true if you never land a job that earns in the ballpark of what most lawyers want to make and feel like they should make. In some cases the first three years of extra interest may be forgiven, but after that you will still owe any additional interest for the next 25 years. Even if you are still in the program that interest will continue to accumulate and it will still be listed on your credit report as an outstanding debt. This will severely impact ones attempts to land other types of credit during that 25 year period. </p>
<p>If you land a higher paying position you’ll fall out of the IBR program and be expected to make payments on this, now larger, debt. In this situation one will almost certainly pay more than they would have paid if they made full payments from the beginning. </p>
<p>In both situations you get some help from a safety net, but there are serious downsides too. </p>
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The jobs that offer the 10 year public service option only covers a narrow range of positions. There are plenty of low paying legal jobs that are not in this program. Also, if you have to choose a specific job just because of the potential for a loan forgiveness program, as opposed to having the freedom to do what one wants to do, I fail to see how one “wins.” </p>
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<p>A student loan is still an loan and an unsecured one at that. It shows up on your credit report just like any other loan as would the fact that you’re not able to repay it at the full monthly amount. </p>
<p>In a nutshell, if you already have a big loan that you’re unable to fully repay each month then why would a bank give you another big loan to say buy a house? They won’t–and especially not now in the post bust world where we saw what happens when you loan money to people already in big debt.</p>
<p>Finally, as also stated above, the typical debt taken on in law school is often far above that available from normal student loans so one often also has to take big private loans. Those loans are never covered by these programs and look even worse on a credit report.</p>