Going Back for an MLS--Loans? What about a house?

In My Humble Opinion
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About two years ago, my husband and I got married–and, to date, I am very, very happy with the relationship that we have. Right after we got married, we decided that we wanted to buy a house–house prices were going up, I’d been permanently hired, and we were making a decent living. A house just seemed like the next, logical step.

So we found a house that we both really, really liked, and we bought it in January of 2005. Buying the house was a hassle–I’d really like to not repeat that experience if at all possible. But, hey, we have it, and we like it.

Unfortunately, the division that I was hired by has been purchased by another company , and I don’t necessarily know how secure my job is. I have no doubts as to whether I’d be able to find a new job; I’m smart enough, and jobs are plentiful enough, that I could find one given enough time. However, I make a lot now; I might not make as much in a different place. And, to complicate things, I’d like to go back to school to get an MLS; it’s what I want to do, and it’s what every person who’s talked to me for more than five minutes thinks that I should do.

Now, going back to school means capital-L Loans. And, to be honest, I’m a little intimidated by the idea of taking on yet more debt. I know that student loans work differently than regular loans. I also know that I’m not going to be happy doing what I’m doing now, and that my secondary plan (writing) isn’t going to work if I’m fracking miserable all the time. (Which, to be fair, is also partially caused by clinical depression, which I’m in the process of attempting to treat).

So. . .how badly, exactly, would taking a student loan for (max) 20K screw me over? I don’t know whether I’d qualify for FAFSA or not (we make over 50K/annually combined). And I don’t know how marketable an MLS is, and what the pay is like, other than some abstract figures that don’t really have any bearing on individual cases. I know that there are a lot of librarians and librarians-in-training on the boards, so I figured I’d look here for advice. Would loans be worth it to get into that field? And is it stupid to take a loan if you have a house payment?

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First: fill out the FAFSA no matter what - you have to fill it out to get any sort of student loan through the school. You may not qualify for Perkins loans or subsidized Staffords, but the unsubsidized Stafford are pretty easy to get (when I went back for my MLS, I was a single person making 38k/year and had no problem getting Staffords).
Second, are you in a place where you would be attending an on campus program or would you have to go distance ed? I as because if you go with an on-campus program, apply early and apply for assistantships - especially if you’re able to go to school full time. At some schools (like where I went), assistantships often came with tuition waivers. You still had to pay fees and books, but those were essentially nothing.

The marketability of the MLS depends on lots of things - where are you located (it sounds like you’re pretty much in a location that you don’t want to leave), what type of place you want to work when you finish and your experience. If you’re tied to an area that’s not really big AND that has a library school there, it’s more difficult. If you’re in an area without a library school and would be going distance ed…you might find it easier (and if that’s the case, I’d suggest finding something to do with libraries/information management as employment during school, even if it’s not full time - so you get that experience).

Salaries vary with type of job, location and experience. My pay’s not great, but it covers what I need it to cover. I’d suggest browsing some of the postings on http://lisjobs.com/ or through libraryjobpostings to see what things are like in your area.

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I think you spend 3 paragraphs answering this question for yourself before you ask it. “Worth” in this case is more than an economic idea here. If you have less disposable income, but you are happier and doing great stuff in your career is it worth it to you? What if you can’t make payments and have to sell the house – that seems to scare the crap out you and is holding up the works – would that stop you? Imagine best realistic case scenario and worst realistic case scenario for you – do the risk- reward thing. Make sure your husband is on-board.

For many people the answer will be NO, for many Yes – but only you can answer this.

And a 20K student Loan, when you already have a house and a job, in order to position yourself for something that will make you happy is really negligible - especially in the big picture.

Here is a 2 year old thread on it - see good judgement call already.