Going to law school can be both academically demanding and expensive in both time and money, especially if you’re going through it and paying your way alone. It’s not a bad idea when you’re in such a situation to want to find ways that you can make money to help finance you through law school while you’re in law school.
How can you finance law school?
The first step to financing your way through law school is to look for schools that allow you to look for money on the side. It’s important to consider which schools you apply to, as you ideally want those that have part-time programs or evening programs. Sure, it will take longer to graduate from such a school, but then again it frees you up to make some money on the side and finance yourself through school. It’s a great option if you want to continue to earn a salary, even as you go through school.
How do you get money for law school?
Let’s say you’ve already been accepted at your favourite law school. Actually, let’s say you’ve received acceptance letters from all of them and are now wondering which one you should go to.
The most appealing choice in this case will be the school that offers you the highest amount of scholarships. That’s understandable. Scholarships are not repayable, like loans, and people who have rejected scholarships and opted for loans instead have often seen a harder time later when they got a job as they had a hefty loan to pay off.
However, think about it this way: a scholarship is often contingent on you maintaining a high grade on certain performance metrics, whether it’s doing your best for the college football team or staying at the top of your class academically. If you slack on those performance metrics, then you can easily lose your scholarship.
As a result, they are more often than not a shaky long term plan for education. If you do manage to keep up with the requirements, a scholarship can help you pay off the vast majority of your costs while in law school, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you don’t like the idea of being held to very strict standards in order to be allowed in a school, then maybe a scholarship is not for you.
Moreover, scholarships are both rare and highly competitive. They are therefore difficult to get, and they often don’t even cover the full cost of law school. Considering the amount of work involved in maintaining one, you might end up working really hard just to maintain a scholarship that only covers 30% of your tuition. Meanwhile, if you decided to go for more lax arrangements and get a job, you might be able to pay for 100% of your costs.
In that case, you’re probably better off looking for a loan, or a school that offers to even or part-time classes. That way, you can get a job on the side that helps you pay your way through law school. This is also a viable option.
How do you make money while in law school?
There are lots of jobs you can do while in law school to make money. Here are the most promising:
You can be a research assistant
As a law student, you can apply to work as a research assistant, which will not only help you make some money, but will also give you valuable experience that is relevant to your field.
As a research assistant, some of the tasks you might get include translating documents, proofreading, reading research and then cataloguing it, attending trials, editing documents, and even generating some of your own content.
Working as a research assistant can also be a great way to establish a strong working relationship with your professor. You can do this kind of job either throughout the academic year or during the summer. A summer job will pay less, but it will be a valuable investment and will at least give you time to focus on your education otherwise. On the other hand, working throughout the academic year will help you make more money, even though it is likely to be more demanding.
You can work at the library
This is one of the best ways to use your extra time. Working at your law school’s library is a way to kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, all you have to do is some minimal maintenance and administration work to keep things running and you get paid for it. On the other hand, you get to sit down in a quiet environment, study, and do your homework.
You also get to be in close proximity to all the books that you typically need for your research when writing custom papers, as well as get special perks when it comes to borrowing books. In a way, you’re getting paid to study, which is pretty cool!
You can work as a tutor
Yet another great way to make money while in law school is to be a tutor. Tutoring not only helps you make some extra cash, but also helps you figure out your skillset. You can tell you’re good at something when you find it easy to teach it to others. You also get to make money off of something you’re good at. Check if your school has a posting board then advertise your services.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are plenty of options when it comes to making money while in law school. These are the top 3, but there are plenty of others you can explore. At the end of the day, it’s quite possible to pay your way through law school while getting a world-class education.
Written by Kurt Walker
Kurt Walker has been working as an editor and a copywriter at College Paper Writing Service in London offering thesis help and assignment writing services for 3 years. He is also a professional content writer and journalist in such topics as inspiration, productivity, education, and technology.
