Continue college or gap year?

Paying for College
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<p>I’m having what one might refer to as a “mid-college crisis.” The whole debt conversation I started a month or two ago has me indecisive about continuing my college career until I get my current debt under control. First day of my junior year starts in a couple weeks but I’m thinking of withdrawing for the year while I address my “manageable” debt load.</p>

<p>If I go on to completing my degree in political science, I’ll be about $42,000 (plus interest) in debt. Looking at online job sites, there is not much demand for political science degrees in my area…giving me the impression that I’ll be stuck with a low paying job after graduation. Another thing is, I’m not quite set about what I’d do with a political science degree, mainly because I originally planned to apply to medical school after graduation. </p>

<p>If I decide to withdraw, I plan to take a whole year off to pay off my current debt. Goal is to pay off about $17,000 in loans, if at all possible. I then plan to go back to school in the fall of 2015 (only to go into more debt, but at least it won’t be $42,000 (plus interest) right after graduation)! With this plan, I worry that working full-time for one year might make me ineligible for the same amount of financial aid when I go back. Does anyone know exactly how a full year of working full-time might mean for financial aid eligibility? Certain that every penny earned will go toward paying my loans off, likely nothing will be saved while I live with my parents. I'm mainly worried about this because my state school has been known to give just enough aid for me attend college.</p>

<p>As mentioned above, I’m planning to attend medical school but I refuse to apply until I have all this undergrad debt paid off, so medical school won’t be immediate (nor guaranteed). No master’s degree for me until I pay of the undergrad debt, unless one can suggest a degree that might provide some job security in a field that will help me pay off my debt at a faster rate.</p>

<p>I’m a first generation college student so my parents don’t know how to guide me (they already told me that this issue I'm having is my call). A part of me is telling me to continue college, another is telling me to stop and pay off debt (mainly to avoid the torture of paying $42,000 in loans + interest)! It seriously feels as though I’ve lost motivation for completing my degree because of all the debt I’m acquiring, and the student debt stories I’m reading.</p>

<p>A part of me is also thinking that I’ll be better off in the workforce with a degree than without… so continuing might be the best route being already halfway there. But, is it? After some research, about $46,000 is the maximum debt I should be taking out for a political science degree. More research tells me that $42,000 is the “average” starting pay for someone with a political science degree…that’s only a few thousand dollars more than what my parents make separately (they don’t have bachelor’s degrees by the way). This has me further wondering whether a political science degree will be worth my time altogether as a child coming from a “middle class” family who will need to pay for college on my own. Am I insane for thinking this? I apologize if it comes off as being “unthankful,” I’m thankful for the opportunity to attend college, really, but the amount of debt is driving me crazy.</p>

<p>So back to my main reason for starting this thread, will continuing my degree eventually outweigh my debt at this point? Or should I stop and pay this “manageable” debt first before I go back to complete my degree? Thanks in advance for any guidance!</p>

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<p>What can you do, realistically, that will bring in 17,000 after taxes and expenses?</p>

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<p>@kandcsmom‌ That’s still something to think about. I might work two full-time entry-level jobs if this is what it will take to pay off this debt. I’ve also looked into loan forgiveness (i.e., Americorps volunteering, which I wouldn’t mind doing as I volunteer in the community regularly) but that will likely only shave off a fourth of my debt. </p>

<p>Am I crazy for thinking I can pay off this much in a year? If I am, even half that amount would make me happy, honestly, if that makes it more realistic.</p>

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<p>It seems that it doesn’t cost any less to go whether or not your take a break to pay down the loan, so I don’t see the point of delay. You already note that you will probably get a better paying job when you graduate.You should try to get an internship next summer. Political science, govt, business, whatever. Don’t compare starting salaries for fresh out of college with mid-career salaries of other people, or even a couple of years experience. The whole point is having the credentials to get a job where you can be gaining experience and looking for opportunities as you go along. </p>

<p>If you work and you are a dependent, half of your income is supposed to be applied to the EFC formula after the income protection of about 6k. So even if you use it up, you will likely have to come up with that amount as EFC before you get aid, from my understanding.</p>

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<p>True, I might be reapplying to more affordable schools (or schools that might give better aid) but I don’t see my degree costing any less.</p>

<p>While it will likely cost the same, the difference in amount of interest will likely make continuing college more costly (at least that’s how I’m seeing it). $42,000 will gain more interest at a faster rate than $25,000; therefore I’d be paying more than $42,000 if I decide to go on with college this year. Moreover, since it will take longer for me to pay off $42,000, it will allow for more time for interest to pile faster, if I understand correctly.</p>

<p>Yes, I think a good internship is likely my next move if I do go on with the PS degree. Sometimes I think that a political science degree isn’t a match for me in terms of getting a job, even though I’m interested in the subject. A lot of the political science folks who go in to the fields of political science, government, and some sectors of business (sales?) seem to have the opposite personality and social perceivability as I. I didn’t need to worry about this originally with my medical school plans, but if I need a job as a political science student, guess I’ll need to work on those skills…or pick another major?</p>

<p>The difference in EFC is exactly what I’m worried about. Don’t know where I’ll be getting extra cash to cover that EFC if the gap is prominent.</p>

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<p>Your EFC will greatly be affected. If you earn $20k (to net $17k to pay debt), then your EFC will go up a good bit.</p>

<p>You are not likely going to get a decent paying job with just a Poly Sci undergrad degree. I would imagine that many Poly Sci majors either go on to law school or grad school…or end up working in something unrelated to their major.</p>

<p>What other major would you consider? </p>

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<p>If you are thinking of applying to med school, you may well be better off applying directly from UG and you may well be in better shape taking your MCATs right now along with others who are in college with you. The materials will be fresher in the brain, and the momentum with other students doing the same thing and the process at the college will help you. The same issues arise when you apply to UG on your own, rather than while you are in high school when the infrastructure is set up to get the bunch of you all into colleges. </p>

<p>Yes, your EFC will be affected in that half of what you earn over about $6K will go directly to EFC. If you are getting PELL , if you make $20K, it’s wiped out. Different schools that don’t use FAFSA alone will use student income differently, but bottom line, yes, you can lose some financial aid. </p>

<p>Frankly, I suggest you finish college, focus on med school while the Big MO can give you some push. If you don’t go to medical school immediately–if you do, you won’t be alone as a med student with heavy ug debt on top of loans for med school–you would be very lucky finding any full time job, forget the $40K annual salary with any degree that doesn’t slip you into a highly desired work situation. It’s been a known fact for years that if you go into fields like accounting, engineering, medical tech, nursing, you will be far more likely to find a job paying a living wage than someone who graduates with a very general liberal arts degree. </p>

<p>I know kids who graduated from ivy league schools with anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, English degrees with great grades who could find no work that paid even a living wage. Nada. They pumped gas, worked retail, fast food, whatever they could find. There are more such grads than jobs is the bottom line. I suggested to a number of them to take certificate type courses at community college or rec centers to get some sort of training that put them in a field that paid, whether it was as a dialysis aid, medical transcription person, accounting clerk, nuclear medicine aid, etc, etc. Look in the want ads and see what the market is seeking, and get some certification in this area, forget the masters.</p>

<p>What happened to every single one of them that did this, is that they got their foot in the door somewhere and when some administrative, managerial position opened up that had something to do with that business, they were prime to get it as they knew the day to day work involved AND they had that bachelors. </p>

<p>The same happens a lot of time to those who went to work at, say the GAP, or any store, as sales clerks at min wage. With that BA, a solid work history over time, exemplary behavior and that BA on the resume, maybe a key course or two at comm college or even rec center that shows additional insight in the field can make such former lib arts major prime candidates for moving up into management and even corporate positions. It just takes longer. You have that accounting degree, you walk right into those upper positions and skip folding those sweaters. So there are many ways to get to these jobs, but some take longer and more work. When you pick a major like poli sci, you are not likely to go right to the higher paying positions. </p>

<p>Cost for school goes up each year, you get older, and things can change in terms of loan availibility. I suggest you get your degree and if you can get into med school, do that asap. Though becoming a doctor does not pay as it used to do so, that degree still has more of the higher paid guaranteed type work than any. You won’t have much trouble finding work that can pay the loans as a MD. </p>

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<p>I don’t know…the liberal arts majors from good colleges I know went into well paid entry level business jobs, particularly into the varied positions at Google People Operations for instance (Sociology, Art History.). I know others that went into the elite talent agencies in Los Angeles, not a lot of money there but potential to make great connections for the next job, or advance to the real money making positions.</p>

<p>kane, how can you say you might transfer to a more affordable school but your degree won’t cost any less? HUH? Whaaaaa? How does that make sense?</p>

<p>Sit down and do some calculations, you seems half cocked and are just making stuff up.</p>

<p>a. Calculate what the payments and interest look like now for your estimated borrowings on a 10 year payment plan. Then calculate if you can pay off some and see what that looks like. Don’t pretend you can pay it all.</p>

<p>b. Calculate your new EFC where 1/2 your earnings toward the next year school. Adjust the amount you can pay on the loan in a. because you will have to hold that back to come up with the money.</p>

<p>I just don’t think it makes sense. Where are you going to school? Your past threads are all over the place with random and changing questions about all sorts of unrelated things.</p>

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@mom2collegekids, at this point, with the sole intent to gain employment with better moderate pay before I apply to medical school, I’m considering accounting. Every other major that my school offers –with the exception of maybe computer science—have similar prospects of a political science major. Computer science interests me less than accounting. </p>

<p>Change in major to accounting will mean an indefinite fifth year. Should I expect decreased amounts of financial aid during this fifth year and is there a way to calculate this? I inquired with the financial aid office about this and they were very vague…claiming that it all depends on the amount of funding on that particular year. </p>

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@‌cptofthehouse, okay, thanks for confirming pell too. It sounds like I should leave the idea of working full-time aside for now. Pell and various scholarships make up significant portions of my financial aid so it sounds like I should just go on with the degree. Moreover, the mention of rising college costs in your last paragraph made sense.

I’ve considered applying and going straight into med school but the UG debt is exactly what’s turning me off. Nothing else is holding me back. Having these loans sit without payment for 8+ years (?) accruing interest kinda makes my stomach churn, especially with all the student debt stories I’ve been hearing. It also kills me to not have some sort of immediate back up in place, if for some reason I don’t get into medical school the first time around.

Very interesting. Never thought about this method before. I always imagined that a graduate degree will mostly qualify one for those better paying jobs (administrative/managerial positions) but what you’re saying about experience within a company makes sense. It does make me wonder, however, how long one usually needs to wait for positions like this to crop up. With medical school plans in mind, it might take years to pay off UG debt if I were to follow this route…so your recommendation to go straight into medical school with UG debt also makes sense. I guess I’m more so worried about having a backup in place with whatever degree I decide to graduate with. </p>

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<p>@BrownParent, I’m in HI and attend a public university here.

I was referring to overall estimated pricing that only included tuition and fees that are straightforward. Coming from HI with the intent of applying to affordable schools on the mainland, the stationary quoted prices for living expenses and travel costs used in college estimated COA will greatly vary (hidden costs of relocating from HI, so to speak). If you look further into my previous threads, it will make more sense for you.

At an estimated initial debt amount of $42,000, I’d be looking at a repayment plan of about $500/ month…the calculator assumes that I’d be able to pay that off comfortably with a $60,000/year salary. An unrealistic starting salary. </p>

<p>The calculator further mentioned that if my starting income was around $39,000, I’d be very near the read considered financially unstable, to keep it short. </p>

<p>Looking at the jobs available here that I think I’d be “qualified” for after graduation: </p>

<p>A $10/hr job equates to $1600 = $19,000/yr (tax/deductions still to be taken out)… How am I going to pay for housing? Food? Transportation-related expenses? Etc…I can barely see myself getting by alone with that income and this amount of debt where I live.</p>

<p>A $15/hr job equates to $2400 = $29,000/yr (tax/deductions still to be taken out)…a little better but it’s still far from realistic.</p>

<p>A few years of the same paying job will still leave me in thousands of dollars in debt and nowhere near where I want to be. </p>

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All mostly related… while keeping this issue in the back of my mind, I was focused on moving forward. It’s difficult to move forward with loan repayments I’m looking at now haunting me daily.

You mention google jobs and jobs in LA. Keep in mind that it’s likely for these types of jobs to be out of the box compared to the type of jobs available in HI, at least IME, solely based on doing some job searching. HI is a small state where the type of jobs is limited to its industry…transferring somewhere on the mainland (what I referred to as affordable schools earlier) might be worth the investment if it means better recruiting opportunities to jobs with better starting pay that will help repay those loans faster. </p>