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Dr. Jeff Hanson is a recognized expert in debt management.
In the legal education setting in particular.
He has worked at universities. He is an economist.
He has worked for the Access Group a major lender in legal education.
And just has a fabulous reputation for his care and concern about students
related to borrower education.
His reputation proceeds him.
And his willingness to come speak to our students individually
and counsel with them individually is something that was just
to good an opportunity to pass up.
And I think that because debts are going up,
because the cost of education is getting higher,
and with uncertainty in the job market, particularly for young attorneys,
that it becomes more important that they get as much information as they can
about how to manage the repayment process
as well as how to take advantage of opportunities to temporarily
postpone repayment if they need to and sort of be able to
plan for whatever contingencies might happen in their lives
particularly from a financial perspective.
Well I came to the debt program today because
I was hoping to learn some things I didn't already know
I worked in Atlanta for a few years before coming to law school.
I worked as a financial planner with two different firms,
so there were a lot of things that I did know, however
also I was hoping to learn something about managing a large amount of debt
Well I came for a couple of reasons.
I graduated undergrad with no loans through the Hope Scholarship program
in Georgia. So coming to law school is a scary thing taking on these loans
for the first time. I needed to know what are the steps, what I do have in debt,
what I need to do to repay it, and what would be my best options.
I've pretty much kept up with the amounts that I owe
and I've been checking credit reports and other things just because of what
I've learned from my background, however I'm very concerned about repayment
and different options, and just, I would like to be able to jump into it with
a good plan of attack.
It laid the foundation, I mean there is a lot of stuff you have to do by yourself
and talking with your spouse and figuring out the best plan for you in the future but
for the time being I think it opened up a lot of information.
Information that I previously probably didn't know or didn't think about.
Well the title of the presentation was Take Charge and that's really what students need to do.
Take charge of loan repayment, plan for it, because with the flexibility of the federal loan
programs they will be able to come up with an affordable monthly payment.
But it won't happen just automatically.
They need to take charge, prepare for it, and be informed
so that they can make the choices that are going to be right for them.
The UT College of Law is really concerned that we have a good advising chain
from the prospective students stage through the alumnus stage
so that the individuals who choose to study with us here at UT Law will have access to great information
about how to finance their legal education, how to minimize their debt,
what kinds of salaries can be expected in various job settings,
all of that information is incredibly important to understand before a prospective student
ever makes the decision to come to law school and begin that long and somewhat expensive
journey through legal education.
We want to have prospective students who are as aware, as engadged, and as knowledgeable
as possible so they will make good decisions at the very beginning and throughout
the process of their legal education and their alumnus years.