This fall I dutifully sent away grad school applications, and was rewarded this spring with some very nice fat envelopes.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t awarded any merit-based aid- not surprising in my field (International Studies.) I recently received my financial aid letter, and it said the only aid I can get is $20,500 in Direct Loans, which is apparently the maximum.
The schools I am thinking of attending have a year cost of attendance that is around $45,000.
How am I supposed to finance the rest? Private loans? What company do I go to for that? Or do I just hope that I can make the $20k over the course of the year working? I’ll have enough in savings that I might be able to swing the first year, but financing the second year is a complete mystery.
Why do you need to go to grad school? Will you do something that will give a positive payout (vs what you could do without attending grad school) so that it makes it worthwhile to go so far into debt?
GradPLUS loans can be for the full amount of tuition for graduate school. They have higher interest than Stafford loans but they still have all the perks of gov’t loans - deferral prgrams and fixed rates.
It’s weird they didn’t find you eligible. Did you fill out a FAFSA? You should call the financial aid office of any school you are considering and find out what’s up with that.
My school tuition is the same as yours so I was/am in a similar situation. See if you can find Grad PLUS Loans (I believe these are interest-subsidized by the federal government so the rates aren’t as high.) Your financial aid counselor should be able to help you with resources for this. I ended up going with Discover Student Loans, both Grad PLUS and private for the rest.
Wait-- is it $45k including room and board or is that tuition alone? I’m just curious. I received merit and need-based aid–half of my tuition is paid by my university, and I’m still going to be $100k in the hole when I graduate. The irony is if I continue my education when I’m done with my Masters, the effect on my debt will be negligible. They really stick it to Masters students.
You can work during the summer, that often helps. I don’t know how much you plan on working in grad school, but my program requires a 24 hour weekly internship (3 full working days) on top of full-time school. It’s not conducive to taking on second jobs, since I’ve basically already got one. It would be good for you to know ahead of time what to expect in terms of time-commitment.
Yes, it’s a terrifying amount of debt, with no guarantee of a future payoff. Going to school is a calculated financial risk. School is more to me than a financial investment – if it weren’t, it would not be worth the cost of attendance. Sad, I know. But that’s basically what it means to be a student nowadays.
Going to grad school is absolutely the right choice for me.
My goal is to work in a leadership position in a major NGO or government agency focusing on development/human rights work in (or working closely with) Africa.
I’ve been in the field for four years and have done my informational interviews, etc. The programs I am applying to are professional (not academic) programs that are designed to give you the skills you need to enter government/NGO administrative work. They are designed for people who are already have significant work experience and need to bring their career up to the next level. They will teach me a lot of hard skills, such as handling economic and demographic data, that I will need to be effective in my future jobs.
Without this degree I could get a career started, but I would always end up bumping my head against a ceiling. A lot of these jobs are with governments or large-scale international organizations that have pretty set requirements. Without this degree I will simply never be able to enter the high and medium-high levels in the field.
With the degree, I could open a lot of doors and potentially make a lot of money- the upper ends of this field can get pretty cushy. Most of the programs I am looking at say new graduates make around 50k a year (which can be a lot living overseas in places with a low cost of living), and that seems reasonable to me and certainly a lot more than I could be making right now. I’m confident I will find good work- I have a set of fairly rare skills and experiences and am willing to work in remote and dangerous places. The internship opportunity I will have as a student will also greatly boost my employability.
So yeah, I’ve thought this one through pretty well.
Okay, so it seems like a Graduate PLUS loan is what I am looking for- my loan package didn’t even mention them. I guess I will have to finally commit to a school and apply for one.
Disclaimer: my experience is in the sciences, which may be very different from the field that you’re thinking about.
That said, there are grant opportunities, scholarships, and fellowships available fro a wide range of sources. If you’ve been in touch with potential advisers at the schools where you’ve been accepted, that may be a good place to start. If not, maybe the financial aid offices of the schools themselves. Professional organizations, government programs, and private foundations are a few potential sources of funding. You might be looking at $1000 a shot, but at least that’s money you don’t need to borrow.
It’s probably too late for it, but a possibility is to enroll in a Ph.D program and drop out with a lesser degree part way through. That would likely be free, and might even come with a stipend.
Good thinking, but that probably wouldn’t work for this situation. Her degree is professional, not academic. I’m in a professional program as well, and they won’t even look at anyone for a Ph.D. unless they have a Masters degree first.
Something I learned too late: whine. Seriously (but politely, of course). Contact the department chair and the person or people who might be your advisor, and say that you’re committed to the program but concerned about the financial situation. They may be able to find something for you. I stoically assumed that if no money was offered, no money was there, and took out loans. That was a mistake. Colleagues of mine went to the department and begged and were given money. It might be a T.A.ship in another department, it might be only partial funding, but in my experience faculty at good universities really have no idea what it is like not to have access to money.
Man, I can’t imagine incurring $45K/year in debt to obtain an advanced degree in social sciences.
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but my answer is perhaps everyone isn’t “supposed to” be able to afford grad school. You are going to be a hell of a long time paying off those loans - especially if you manage to get your desired job in the high (no guarantee) paying fields of NGOs and gov’t agencies.
It sucks, but I just felt it oughtta be said. The money you will be spending repaying those loans is money you will not be able to spend on travel, buying your first house, starting a family, whatever.
One alternative I would suggest would be military service. Tho they may not offer the program you prefer at the institution you prefer, they might provide something at considerably lowere financial costs (tho potentially far greater other costs).
Or marry yourself a nice rich member of your preferred sex. Or start buying lottery tickets.
Part of the problem is that the federal loans system is switching over to an arrangement where all the money goes from the Feds to the students, without private banks as an intermediary. That’s brand-new for this school year, and there are probably a lot of schools that just plain don’t know yet how the Grad Plus system is going to work this year. I highly recommend calling the financial aid departments at the schools you’re interested in, and asking them when they’ll know how Grad Plus is working this year. Don’t just speak to the person at the front desk, either - ask to speak to the financial aid director. Call back if you need to.
I can’t speak to sven, but as someone in a very similar position (I’m nearly done with my very expensive masters degree in public policy, and I’m intending to go to into the same field that she is), I find your argument to be, frankly, less than compelling. I spent a number of years trying to decide what I wanted to do with my time on this earth, and eventually came to the conclusion that I wanted to work in development. To do so, you really do need a masters degree.
That I won’t be able to buy a house is not a big deal. People who work in development tend to move a lot anyway, and a house might not be a particularly useful investment.
Starting a family isn’t feasible right now anyway, and not something on which I place a high priority. The military is a laughable idea, for any number of reasons.
Not being able to pay for travel is the least of my worries. When you work in international development, other people pay for you to travel. I’m still in grad school and I’ve gotten all-expense paid trips to India and the Philippines, and then there’s the two years I spent working in Bulgaria (with a bill footed by the fine taxpayers of our country).
Sorry if I end up hijacking your thread, even sven, I just couldn’t help but read this post as “don’t be ambitious and go after what you want! Buy a house, raise kids, have an ordinary, mediocre life!” It struck a little close to the bone.
A couple of things to keep in mind. They will check your credit for a GradPLUS loan. Any repos, bankruptcies and other Really Bad Things will make you ineligible unless you get a cosigner. Plus they are at an 8.5% fixed rate! And they have a 4% origination fee!!! ouch!
On the other hand, regular old mediocre credit will not stop you from getting a Grad Plus loan. It really does take a Really Bad Thing to render you ineligible.
I’m not gonna presume to speak for sven, but in reading her posts over the years and what she’s done, I don’t think she’s concerned with buying a house in the States when she wants to work in Africa (and like she said, if she’s making 50K USD while living in Africa? Damn, she can pay those loans off quickly).
She’s just finishing up her second Peace Corps assignment, so that’s already tons of experience (that likely is more targeted towards what she wants to do than military would be). She mentioned that she has a lot of the experience but the Master’s is what would get her past the mid-level ceiling. That makes complete sense to me.
You’re right, but International Studies is not the same thing as International Development, which is a professional degree intended to prepare you for a specific career outside of academia.