re: “I took $200k in loans for law school but never passed the bar. Now I'm stuck with debt”

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Even if this schmuck passes…then what? Like the ambulance chasing sector isn’t already replete with warm bodies.

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He could become a professional document review attorney.

Seems stupid to take out six figure loans for a career that might not even pay six figures for a long time. Shoulda went to med school

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People actually fail the bar exam?

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Didn't JFK Jr fail it like 4 times?

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Learn to code

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Most people throw this as a fallback but depending on what your learning to code that could be harder than passing the bar

$19k for three years plus living expenses for three years plus bar prep and not working = six figures

I could not pass the bar and now have $200k in debt to pay back without the reward = mental stress

Cause = Effect

This = Life

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My debt has ballooned to more than $332,000, including interest.

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This didn't happen overnight, nor was he a victim. You chose to take out 200k in loans, which is daunting by itself, but then you apparently blew off making any payments for years and nearly doubled your debt. Don't feel sorry for ya bro. Prolly expected daddy Biden to forgive it all.

Passing the bar is tough, and lots of people fail multiple times. It happens. But as other posters said, only taking it twice in 10 years, letting your debt balloon, and then just moping around feeling sorry for yourself is pathetic. You wouldn't need the expensive bar prep courses if you weren't 10 fricking years removed from law school and still not licensed. It's a sunk cost to keep bitching about it a decade later. Move on, choose a different career path and pay your damn debt.

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You don’t have to pass the bar to say you are a lawyer.

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And I suppose you don't have to be a green unicorn to say you're a green unicorn--but to be a lawyer, you have to be admitted to a bar (in some jurisdiction), and to be admitted to a bar, with rare exceptions you have to pass the corresponding bar exam.

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In the 10 years since I graduated from law school, I've failed the bar twice because of mental-health issues. My debt has ballooned to more than $332,000, including interest.


If I tried to take the bar again, the cost for a class and the test itself could be up to $3,000, which I just can't afford — so I'm stuck with the debt of law school without the prestige of bar membership.

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Easy. Our government put a solution for this in place about 11 years ago.
1) Consolidate into a federally qualified repayment program. Make minimum payments for 25 years. The rest is taxably forgiven

Or

1) work for 501c3 or other qualified employee
2) consolidate as above into an income-based repayment plan
3) make 10 years of minimum payments which are capped at some amount of discretionary income
4) get the loan forgiven tax free.



alternatively, they could just do what they agreed to do, but they’re allowing their debt to balloon and cannot afford $3,000 (which are somehow going to fix the mental illness barrier?), it seems they are unlikely to do that.