I am going to be graduating with a BSEE in June this coming year and I am starting to dread it. Not because I love school, I don’t. The main reason is that I am going to have to start repaying those student loans that seemed like some sort of distant fairy tale while I signed the papers for them every year.
I know EE is one of the most versitile and profitable undergrad degrees you can get, and I am an engineer right now making like $35K a year. But I am also drawing on the GI bill which is $800 a month. That will end as soon as I graduate. Then I start repaying my loans the month after I graduate because I used my 6 month grace period Junior year after 9-11 when my (now) ex-wife was going to be deploying so I had to take the time off.
I am expecting my monthly bill to be around $400 a month. Minus the $800 a month that I won’t be getting anymore that makes a $1200 a month income difference as soon as I graduate. I would have to jump into a job making around $50K just to maintain my current life style.
Grad School baby!
I know a women who went to college and never left. After about 20 years of being a student she finally just got a job teaching there. (music department)
Do you want to be like that?
Its been a long time, but I was definitely nervous going into the home stretch. I wasn’t nervous about finding a job - I was nervous that I wouldn’t. Once I had my offer, then all was good.
I have a lot of loans to pay off, too. However, I have not done the math, figuring that there’s no point until I get job offers. So I’m choosing to be happily ignorant until May. Can’t wait to leave school. As long as I get a job, I figure it’ll all work out somehow.
I went to college (undergrad) for eight years. Yes, eight. No, I’m not a doctor or a lawyer.
Thing is, I switched majors a few times. But as the last semester was winding down, I tried like heck to not graduate. I had this one class I was surely doing poorly in, and all I needed to do was give a presentation (it was in German literature, and I read almost nothing). I skipped it.
A week or so before graduation I got a call at my retail job from my professor. She noticed then I hadn’t done the presentation. Said if I did a written report, I’d be okay. Darn, I thought, foiled again. I couldn’t well pass up the chance, right? I didn’t want to graduate, but I didn’t want to be a jerk, either.
So I handed in the paper. The morning of graduation, I found out I was walking.
I finally understand why my parents joined the army. They enlisted in about 1975, and I couldn’t grasp why on earth they’d do such a thing. Now it all makes sense. Not enough sense to actually join the army, but sense nonetheless.
I’m terrified about finding a job. I’m getting a BS in math and physics, and while I know I want to go to grad school eventually, I also know I need some time off. I should find out this week if I got into Teach For America, but if I didn’t (and honestly I’m not expecting to) I don’t know what the heck I’ll do. Wait tables for a while, I guess. Maybe become an Actuary like all the advisors keep telling us to do. shudder
My friend and i do have a running joke about becoming UPS drivers instead of going to grad school. That’d be neat, and we’d get to wear those awesome shorts, and drive a truck with no door! It’s all falling into place…
I was sort of dreading graduation. I put off the inevitable by going directly from my BS to my MS, but now I KNOW there’s no way I can keep plowing through to my PhD. I need to work for a few years and (hopefully) regain my sanity and focus. I’ve done some similar math, though my income at present is much lower than yours, Stinkpalm, so I’m not worried about a decrease in standard of living.
Anyway, I went to a job fair a few weeks ago, and talked at length with a few potential employers, who seemed genuinly interested in my qualifications. I also put my resume together, using a few books that helped me identify my skills and abilities. I feel much more in control now, and am more confident that I’ll land a job before my 6 month safety net gives out.
Now the only thing that scares me is having REAL responsibilities and having to make decisions with actual consequences. Yikes.
