<p>Alright, so today I got to thinking about how much debt I'll truly rack up at the end of 4 (well, planning on 3) years of undergrad. My plan is to apply as a Ph.D student in physics, although I know it's an early decision and it's definitely possible that it might change over the course of the next few years. I know that most students in the sciences that have considerable research experience and high GPA's can get fully funded, so I'm aiming for something like that.</p>
<p>I live in GA so with the HOPE scholarship my tuition is paid for. However, I'll have other costs that may total to something probably less than $20K but probably more than $15K. My question is, when I'm in graduate school, how will I be able to pay off these loans if they begin to require payments immediately after my schooling is done? Even if I get a fellowship, the stipend is only enough for living costs, and not everyone is able to do this. What do people do in this sort of situation?</p>
<p>Agreed. I don’t know if many people purely work on their PHd with no employment whatsoever, the entire time. There’s always something you can do, and that is not a large amount of debt.</p>
<p>Aren’t loan payments deferred as long as you’re enrolled in school? In other words, the undergrad loan won’t come due until you’re done with grad school. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong …</p>
<p>Is this the same with all federal loans? Also, is it true that interest accrues on subsidized loans only after school is finished? If it’s true that the loans are deferred, I suppose it’s logical to think that interest would also be deferred (if that’s even true of course).</p>
<p>Also, I’m planning on doing summer classes and research during the summers, I’m pretty sure a summer job wouldn’t work out so well since I’m attempting to graduate early.</p>
<p>Another possibility is to spend a year or two working before starting your PhD. You could build up some savings and pay down some debt. Check your loan terms to see if you can defer loan payments when you return to school. If you can get a job with a company that helps pay for graduate degrees, it might really be worth taking off some time. </p>
<p>Finishing a Physics undergrad degree in three years is tough, since so many courses are sequential. You’ll also be taking the Physics GRE with fewer courses under your belt, so expect a lower score.</p>
<p>If you are thinking you will need to borrow 15-20K per year, you need to reexamine your costs. If tuition is covered, that is a high cost for room/board/personal expenses. </p>
<p>Did you apply for financial aid? were you awarded anything other than the stafford loans? Are you parents going to contribute something?</p>
<p>if you are offered subsidized loans (or think you might be) you could very well qualify for pell grants or other “free” money from the school.</p>
<p>graduating early (college in three years) will be very costly if it means you can’t do summer employment and interferes with holding down a job during school. You might rethink that – plus, summer paid research internships might be very important in acceptance to a phd program and/or fellowship, etc.</p>
<p>I would advise:</p>
<p>*talking to your parents and figuring how what amount they can contribute
*applying for financial aid
*taking 4 years to complete college
*working full-time each summer
*working during the school year
*taking out minimal loans</p>
<p>hadsed - think carefully whether completing your physics BS in 3 years with the hope to move on to a PhD is the best route. Getting into a top physics PhD program is very competitive where the top applicants have good grades across a broad range of physics classes (often including 1-2 graduate level classes), good GRE scores (both the general GRE and the physics GRE), and good research experience. That is a lot to get done in three years even if you are placing out of a lot of freshman classes with AP/IB credits.</p>
<p>Also wrt summer jobs, often summer research programs in physics (REUs) will pay you $4-5000 for the summer.</p>
You can at least look for an on-campus job for during the school year and you may still be able to do one in the summer. Campus jobs are ideal since you can usually work a reasonable number of hours (i.e. not too many) and they’re flexible for things like exams. People manage to do on-campus jobs with very rigorous engineering programs, more rigorous than a physics major, and the amount of money made from the jobs adds up. It also has other benefits of making one more connected on campus, able to meet faculty on a different level, helps one manage their time better, etc. It’s something to consider for at least after the first semester/quarter.</p>
<p>My daughter’s a physics major at MIT. A rising senior, she’s worked ever since arriving on the campus, so here are some things I’d like to share:</p>
<p>You can get a simple desk job during freshman year, around 9-12 hours a week. Science and engineering students can often work on homework problem sets with that sort of job, especially if it’s in one of the campus libraries. Kill two birds with one stone. </p>
<p>You can try for a paid research position over the summer. These are ample at MIT, less available elsewhere, but still definitely worth a shot. You’re going to need substantial research experience if you want to go to grad school.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what your housing situation is, but if you can do your own cooking you can save a TON of money. Buy books used and online, rather than in the campus bookstore. I really doubt you will need the amount of money you seem to think you will need.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, none of the physics majors my daughter knows at MIT are planning to finish in 3 years, even though they ALL came in as freshmen with at least a full year of advanced standing. So listen to the posters who’ve recommended you re-think the “three year idea.” You’ll probably need a full 4 years to get all the research experience you’ll need and to come to know professors well enough to obtain really strong letters. Of course, if you publish an article or two in a refereed journal, this may not be the case.</p>
<p>Wow, this is great. Thank you to everyone who posted advice.</p>
<p>What I meant by the initial numbers was definitely not per year, I think that’s the range it should be at the end of undergrad. I did think of the research opportunities that could be lost by finishing a year too early, so that’s something that I’m not quite sure about yet. I think I can still handle the course material well enough, and I definitely want to take atleast half a semesters worth (two 4-hour classes you could say) during the summers because I end up reading and studying math and physics in my free time anyway (high school gave me a lot of free time…).</p>
<p>With regards to research, are most research internships on campus paid? I know it varies from place to place, but is this generally true? And can students get research internships during the school year? I found that coupled with the summer semester I’m taking now and with my AP credits, by next year I can take third year physics classes. With another summer of two classes or so, I’d have all the courses I need under my belt. I did this while looking at the normal schedule for physics majors (at GaTech) and it seems doable (though it is GT… but their rigor primarily lies with engineering, haven’t heard so much about physics). I’m not sure if graduate classes are even allowed (are they?) if I happen to finish up undergrad classes. However, if it’s possible that I could do research during the fall/spring, does it seem more reasonable to work hard in classes and maybe take fewer classes towards the end of the four years and concentrate more on research?</p>
<p>I’ve just realized how much I don’t know about all of this… thanks to everyone again for posting advice.</p>
<p>I can make-do with general answers, any information I can find out other ways. I ask here so I don’t look so foolish when emailing professors wanting to do things that aren’t even very common, regardless of institution.</p>
<p>Any personal experiences would be appreciated as well.</p>
<p>hadsed - the best answers will come from the physics undergrad advisors at GT (hopefully Tech has better advising than when I went there decades ago ). Go to the physics department web page and seek them out. My daughter is a physics major at Harvard and she was able to start doing research in the spring semester of her freshman year. She looked at the research links to all the physics profs web pages over winter break and e-mailed the prof she was most interested in working for. This probably would work for you at GT, but the advisors can give you better insights. If you are ahead of schedule with your physics classes you probably will do better in grad school admissions to do your degree in four years and do a lot of research while you at at Tech. Also, you may be surprised at the difficulty of the higher level physics classes. The research you do there could be for class credit or you could get paid to do it. At my daughter’s school she can only do two semesters of research for class credit. She will probably end up doing research for seven semesters (plus two summers), so most of it will be for pay (however, GT profs may not have as much funding to pay undergrads as at Harvard).</p>
<p>While it is still very early for you, you should check out [Physics</a> GRE Discussion Forums](<a href=“http://www.physicsgre.com/]Physics”>http://www.physicsgre.com/) to learn more about applying to grad school in physics. It is like CC.</p>
<p>cltdad took the words out of my mouth. Talk to advisors at GT. </p>
<p>Note, also, that you’ll be competing for grad school admission against students like cltdad’s and Calmom’s daughters, who’ve taken four years of physics major coursework at absolutely top-notch schools, with research experience to boot. If your long-term goal is to get into the best possible physics grad school, cutting your undergrad experience to three years might be counterproductive.</p>
). Go to the physics department web page and seek them out. My daughter is a physics major at Harvard and she was able to start doing research in the spring semester of her freshman year. She looked at the research links to all the physics profs web pages over winter break and e-mailed the prof she was most interested in working for. This probably would work for you at GT, but the advisors can give you better insights. If you are ahead of schedule with your physics classes you probably will do better in grad school admissions to do your degree in four years and do a lot of research while you at at Tech. Also, you may be surprised at the difficulty of the higher level physics classes. The research you do there could be for class credit or you could get paid to do it. At my daughter’s school she can only do two semesters of research for class credit. She will probably end up doing research for seven semesters (plus two summers), so most of it will be for pay (however, GT profs may not have as much funding to pay undergrads as at Harvard).</p>