I don't think you understood quite what male_media meant when he said "you have to work in that industry". It doesn't mean, if you go to school to be a lawyer, then you HAVE to be a lawyer whether you like it or not. It means, where else are you going to work that will pay you the salary necessary to be able to afford to pay back those loans? The lenders don't care what you do to pay it back, as long as you pay it back they're happy. But a law degree is expensive (and there's no guarantee you'll pass the Bar exam - a lot of folks don't) and working in a warehouse or a retail chain isn't going to pay you enough to live on and pay back those loans. Hell, those kind of jobs don't even pay enough to live on even without the burden of student loans, unless you're in management, maybe. So the moral of the story is to make sure you know this is the career path you want and will stick with so that you have the means to repay whatever loans you acquired to train for it. Or better yet, don't take out the loans. Save for college instead, if you have the means to do so.