<p>I'm but a senior in high school but I need some help so that I can decide what college I want to go to. The estimate for financial aid that I received for my #1 school would leave me with $20,000 to pay for my first year (this isn't including any outside scholarships, but I'm trying to look at the worst case scenario). If I do have to pay 20,000 a year, and graduate with 80,000 in debt, I wonder how much more debt I'll take on in grad school, if I go to get my Ph.D. I know very little about how you finance grad school. If I taught while in graduate school, how generous would the school be in reducing my tuition, or paying for my living expenses? I just don't want to take tens of thousands of dollars in debt as an undergrad to turn around and double it as a grad student.</p>
<p>Another question: if a loan taken as an undergrad says "payment deferred until after you graduate," does that mean after you graduate, or would the lender ever defer your payment until after you graduated from grad school?</p>
<p>I'm truly clueless about grad school and could use some advice. Thanks</p>
<p>In graduate school, you may be awarded in some form a fellowship, teaching assistanship, research assistantship, or a tuition fee waiver. The first three are supposed to be enough to pay for living expenses while attending grad school and you just pay registration fees, but the TA requires that you teach and the RA requires that you participate in research, whereas the fellowship just requires that you just go to class. They vary between schools and programs. They also have external fellowship programs such as the NSF, National Defense Science and Engineering, Homeland Secuirty, and etc. which are very generous fellowships. The NSF awards the recipient around $30,000 a year just to go to class, while others may require summer research or internships. The Tuition Fee Waiver, just waives tuition.
Your students loans don't go into repayment if you are still enrolled in school, no matter if it's undergraduate or graduate school.</p>
<p>My advice is to maintain a high GPA while in undergrad, obtain research experience, and prepare for the GRE so that you will have a better chance to qualify for the fellowships, TA, and RA.</p>
<p>Loans are deferred through graduate school, you just need to make sure they know you are still attending school (they didn't go out of their way to see if I was continuing school or not...).</p>
<p>As for the other question, it all really depends on your field. In many scientific fields, teaching/research assistantships are fairly common and will cover basic living expenses (I think I've taken out one small loan in 2 years...for debt incurred summer between undergrad and grad) and along with the stipend you generally receive tuition remission and health insurance (usually crappy insurance...but keeps you alive!). It varies widely between schools whether you are required to pay student fees or not (where I go now, I am responsible for this...but some schools waive them...).</p>
<p>For now, I would just focus on where you can get the best education for the least incurred debt, just in case....</p>