Decisions and Loan Help

Graduate School
1

<p>Hey all,</p>

<p>I would really love to get some advice from people on a grad school decision based on a few factors:</p>

<p>Recently I got accepted into two grad school programs. Wake Forest, a great private University, and UNCG, a state school. Comparing the two programs, WFU is perfect for me and my aspirations. I want to go into sports marketing/ or PR. WFU is a small program with a great faculty and a faculty member in that expertise. They have a lot of available athletics internships on campus and are always looking for student interns, and keep in mind that private schools tend to have a lot of successful alumni that help out graduating students. UNCG is more general, without a faculty member in that area. Both schools are around the same area.
Program Winner- WFU</p>

<p>Now comes the financing part. WFU costs 33,000 a year to attend. I received a partial scholarship leaving me with paying 5,500 per year with loan money. I would plan to take out another 10K per year to finance my living expenses and rent, provided that my internship is unpaid (5K if my internship is paid). There is a possibility of a teaching assistantship my second year, but there are only a few spots.
Currently, UNCG, with a teaching assistant ship, is free and I would get a stipend. </p>

<p>So my dilemma is, do I pick the perfect program, which would leave me 20-30K in debt (potentially less if I get the assistant ship my 2nd year) but would allow me to work with people directly in my field, or opt out for the state school with no debt? My total undergrad debt is about 13K.</p>

<p>I would love to hear some of your opinions!</p>

2

<p>I don’t know even the smallest thing about such programs, but --‘without a faculty member in that area’ ?? What would you study and with who then? Would that make any sense? Do you know enough about that field to know that/if connections and name of uni might be everything or not?</p>

3

<p>First of all, let’s talk about these numbers.</p>

<p>It’s really not clear exactly what programs you got accepted to (marketing?), but a quick look tells me that Wake Forest’s graduate tuition is a little over $35,000 at their GSAS, and more at their business school (~$41,000). You say that you will pay $5,500 per year with loans. Does that mean that you were granted a ~$30,000 scholarship? That is very large indeed.</p>

<p>Secondly, $10,000 is far too low a number to estimate for living expenses if you have an unpaid internship, unless you have a family member supporting you. Even if you only estimated this over 9 months, that would be slightly more than $1,000 a month. But over the more realistic 12 months, that’s a bit over $800 a month, which is barely enough to pay rent. I think it is more realistic to budget at least $20,000 in living expenses if you have no other outside income. So assuming that you have to borrow just $5,500 for tuition and $20,000 in living expenses per year, that’s $50,000 in debt, which is not so bad for a master’s degree honestly. Your total debt will be about $63,000.</p>

<p>UNCG is, on the other hand, paying you to be there. You will take on zero additional debt and just be left with $13,000.</p>

<p>I find it interesting that you described WFU as a “great private university” while UNC-G is a “state school.” Great and state school are not mutually exclusive, and UNC-G is a great public university. A general program is not necessarily a bad thing, and at the master’s level you do not need a specific faculty member in your field unless you are interested in doing research on sports marketing. UNCG also may have just as many available internships on campus - have you looked there, or have you focused on WFU because that is the dream?</p>

<p>This is a very individualized decision. I will comment that the lower debt burden at UNCG will leave you with more freedom to take lower-paying jobs, which may be especially important in a field like sports management/PR. I can’t imagine that sports management jobs are well-paid in the beginning - it’s one of those fields where you kind of have to work your way up to the better-paying/reputed positions. If you’re offered the PERFECT position for you but it only pays $40,000, you may not be able to afford to take it if you go to Wake, whereas if you go to UNCG your debt burden is so small that it won’t make a difference. Personally, assuming that there aren’t huge differences in the post-graduate employment, I would choose UNCG.</p>

<p>On the other hand, it really depends on whether rankings matter in your field and whether WFU is THAT much more of a better ranked program than UNCG. In some fields, like law or business, it’s so much more worth it to take on the massive debt because the highest-paying jobs go to graduates of the best schools. However, fields like that are far and few in between. So I would really, honestly consider whether 1) Wake Forest is actually perceived as THAT much better than UNCG in your field and 2) whether that actually makes a difference in hiring.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for your input! To clarify a little bit more, I am going into a communications program. I want to use this comm. degree to get me into PR, since I have an undergrad business degree already. </p>

<p>Now the difference with the program is that at Wake, I would be doing research with a Professor who is well connected with sports PR in the state and does interviews for big sports agencies, including ESPN. Since it is a smaller private school with a prestigious name, the alumni is well connected and honestly, a degree from Wake Forest (with the proper work and experience behind it) is more impressive than a degree from UNCG.</p>

<p>But backing up from the prestige part, UNCG is still a good school. However, my major concern with it is that it has no courses in PR and no faculty connected in any kind of sports/ PR field at all. I would be getting basic communications knowledge, but without that specialization that I would get a Wake Forest and without those connections. The only thing keeping UNCG in the running is the fact that I would get to go there for free.</p>

<p>As for the costs of Wake Forest, I have calculated my expenses over the year. Believe it or not, $800 a month is enough to pay rent, bills, and food (I’ve been supporting myself for 3 years now). I also have a small emergency savings fund. So I would probably end up taking out $30,000 in loans over 2 years. However, if I get an assistant ship at Wake next year, it would only be 15,000. </p>

<p>So the basic decision comes down to either going into the perfect program for me and graduating with some debt, or going into a good program without debt but not tailored to fit my needs (I still have the potential to get into the field I want with it, but maybe not as easy as I would at Wake). Is it a head over heart decision or would Wake be the right choice despite the debt?</p>

5

<p>You already know what you want your decision to be. The question is how much risk you’re willing to take financially for it, and for how long you’d be willing to live with that decision should things not work in your favor.</p>

<p>The benefits of the well-connected professor at Wake Forest could very well pay off - but if they don’t, do you have a back-up plan to earn an extra income or cut down on expenses if you do in fact need to take a lower paying job upon graduation? Are you okay with living paycheck to paycheck for a while to pay off loans should it come to that, or do you want to live comfortably with less debt and more flexibility to relocate, vacation, etc.? How soon would you like to own a home or start a family, and how might additional debt affect that? Are you familiar with the student loan repayment process, how much your payments will be, options for consolidation, etc.?</p>

<p>Now, $43,000 in debt would not stop you from owning a home or starting a family, assuming you are able to find reasonable employment and budget carefully. But it will make things more stressful for a little while unless you find a financially stable spouse. How do you handle financial stress? You say you’ve been supporting yourself for 3 years…what are the most difficult times you’ve been through, how did you feel during those times, and are you comfortable doing it again if it meant pursing your dream school - even if the degree didn’t immediately lead to a well paying job?</p>

<p>So…how do you feel right now? If you are sitting there feeling worried and unsure of yourself as you read these responses, then it sounds like UNCG will provide you more ease so you can focus on your education. But if you are sitting there already crafting back-up plans and detailed budgets in case you don’t land a big job upon graduation, then you are up for the challenge WFU may (…or may not) offer you. </p>

<p>If you do choose WFU then be sure to plan early and re-evaluate your budget often. </p>