Paying for Graduate School

[Kevin]

The question you should be asking yourself is how you plan to pay back the loans. A few weeks ago, I read about a girl who graduated from a prestigious program offering some sort of graduate degree in photography.

She had over $240,000 in student loans.

Student loans are great (God knows I'm up to my eyeballs in them). I'll be doing a job where I'm sure I'll be able to make my student loan payments (and have plenty to spare). If you look at the sort of job you'll have upon graduation and you know ou'll be able to find a salary which is enough, then great. If not, you'll need to find some source of cash besides student loans.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Kevin

She had over $240,000 in student loans.

Wow. That's astronomical. I thought my $5,000 from my 5th year of undergrad was bad.

Kappamd: What kind of program is this?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Wow. That's astronomical. I thought my $5,000 from my 5th year of undergrad was bad.

Kappamd: What kind of program is this?

Yep.

Just remember you have to actually pay the money back. I think we sometimes approach student loan money as not being real money. It doesn't feel like real money... we've gone to school since we can remember. I just have to click here and sign there and I can continue doing what I've always done.

But six months after graduation, those bills come -- and they expect payment in full.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Kevin

But six months after graduation, those bills come -- and they expect payment in full.

Yes they do, and they don't want to hear "I have a PhD in Photography and don't make enough to make these payments."

[KSigkid]

Whether you should work, or even can work, will depend heavily on your program.

I'm working full-time while attending law school evenings (usually 4 evenings per week). However, if I was a day student, the ABA would limit the amount I could work to 20 hours per week (it depends on how many credits you take). My money from work is going towards school, and since I go to a (relatively) inexpensive state school, that plus financial aid covers my tuition and living expenses. Of course, my wife works full-time as well, so that helps.

Depending on the program, some schools will give you a stipend for working with a professor or on a project.

I'll echo Kevin on the student loans; just make sure you keep track of your loans, and, before you take any out, try to take a long view of your career. You'll want to think about the following things (which I've tried to keep in mind throughout my schooling):

- Will you be making enough when you graduate to pay the loans off?
- How will loan payments fit into your long-term future? (buying a house, buying a car, having a family, etc.)
- Is your job market one that has been hit especially hard by the economic downturn?
- What will your monthly payments be when you graduate?
- Is there any way to get loan reimbursement because of your profession?

Again, like Kevin said, way too many people think of loans as Monopoly money, and get into real trouble when they graduate and can't pay them off.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by Kevin

The question you should be asking yourself is how you plan to pay back the loans. A few weeks ago, I read about a girl who graduated from a prestigious program offering some sort of graduate degree in photography.

She had over $240,000 in student loans.

Student loans are great (God knows I'm up to my eyeballs in them). I'll be doing a job where I'm sure I'll be able to make my student loan payments (and have plenty to spare). If you look at the sort of job you'll have upon graduation and you know ou'll be able to find a salary which is enough, then great. If not, you'll need to find some source of cash besides student loans.

This is absolutely true. $240K to do photography?! Some DOCTORS I know don't even have that much, and they make more than enough to pay it back easily. Sometimes I think schools make it way too easy to take out loans. Ewww!

I was a graduate assistant in Residential Affairs in Graduate School. I had to live in a dorm, but it was an apartment within a dorm. It paid for my housing, which was great because I lived in NYC, and most of my dining expenses. I had a TA-ship that paid for half the tuition for that semester, and a scholarship that was half-tuition for the full year. A lot of my grad school classmates laughed at me because theye totaally thought I was an RA, but I got the last laugh since my student loans were oh, less than half of theirs. They send each other Facebook posts about how they can reduce their loan payments. Idiots.