<p>I will say this thread has made me feel a little better, though we’ll know how things turn out in due time. D is an "11 graduate, working in the city she went to UG, so getting recs was not a problem. She took the GRE cold, though.</p>
<p>When you received your acceptances did you compare what was offered and also take into consideration of the location of the program… ie, big cities - high rent, etc.</p>
<p>Stipend offers seemed to take that into acct.</p>
<p>*Mom2 - how many schools did your son apply to? Rejected anywhere? Any surprises - higher or lower funding than expected? *</p>
<p>No Rejections. He started with a list of about 15 possible schools to apply to. however, since he was accepted right away to a some schools, he quickly trimmed his app list. He ended up applying to about 8 schools.</p>
<p>The surprises were when he visited the campuses and found out how few were accepted out of the number of apps. We also didn’t realize that every acceptance would come with a fully funded offer…and that the schools would pay for the campus visits.</p>
<p>Nice that your S had such nice results & hope he finds the best match for himself. Always so nice to read/hear good news. A friend’s D applied to the top 3 programs in the nation for her field & was wooed by all 3 of them, which she visited. She eventually chose the one that is #1 & is now happily working on her PhD & creating heart valves.</p>
<p>S is dealing with Law School admissions. He has some great schools to choose from but the question of debt is pretty heavy on his and our minds. He doesn’t have any UG debt, has some savings and there will be some TFA bonus money at the end of school year, but we will not be able to help in any way beyond paying his cell bill and buying him clothes as needed. So loans it will be and the amounts are scary. Once all the decisions are in( he is waiting on 2 more schools which will start announcing their decisions this month) he will have to look very hard at everything, “calculate all the risks” and make a choice.</p>
<p>Thanks Mom2. </p>
<p>When do the kids start grad school. Do they start right after graduation or not till the end of summer?</p>
<p>Para - I’m not sure how anyone makes that decision to take all those loans. It’s scary. My son is going into Chemistry so as far as I can tell, he will be fully funded. His best friend however, has been “pre-admitted” into the Dental school at Tufts. When I looked up the tuition for the Dental school, I seriously almost became ill.</p>
<p>There are less expensive Dental Schools out there. Tufts is def on the higher end.</p>
<p>Does Law school run that way too - some much less expensive than others?</p>
<p>If there are cheaper law schools, we haven’t found any. Some state schools have lower tuition for in-state students, but that’s it, pretty much. There are merit scholarships, but the ones that would cover tuition are few( and sometimes come with very stringent GPA requirements). Loans are pretty much a given, so the question is will you go to a very high-ranked school which doesn’t give merit aid or to a lower ranked one with a half-tuition scholarship, or one below the “magic” t-14 with a full tuition . Plus the CoL matters, it all boggles the mind.</p>
<p>So far grad school application season has been MUCH easier on us than D1’s college app experience. Mainly because D1 is handling it all herself with help from her grad school advisor at college. Plus she is paying the application fees! She has been submitting 5 days or so before deadlines so Penn and Wisconsin were done before the Christmas break. Pitt went out today. John Hopkins goes next, then Case Western Reserve, Notre Dame and…? There are a couple more, but I can’t remember what they are. I would never have said that about college applications.</p>
<p>Back in the late 70s/early 80s, UC law schools were a small fraction of the cost of many other law schools, especially if you were a resident. I believe there is still significant state subsidy of many in-state law schools. I know our tax dollars are heavily funding OUR state law & med schools and their tuition & expenses are many times lower than most for in-state students.</p>
<p>There are some (few) employers who may/will fund all or at least part of grad school, based on conditions. S’s employer (the federal govt) is one of those & we hope he will seriously consider it.</p>
<p>All but 3 of S’s schools gave him waivers, so he applied to 13 without going broke or needing our help. He submitted all his apps by the middle of October( all his schools have rolling admissions). He let us read his PS(made me tear up), but that was the extent of our participation. I can name all the schools on his list in my sleep(darn that OCD) and like getting “I am in at X” texts(one came at 5:30 in the morning, he forgot the time difference). I am scared of all the logistics we will have to deal with this summer, but excited for S’s new chapter nonetheless. :-)</p>
<p>HImom, S can’t wait to get out of the state where he now resides, he dislikes the place. If it weren’t for the job, he would never moved there in the first place. So none of that state’s schools are an option.</p>
<p>I checked quickly on UC Berkeley:Yearly Tuition: $44,244 (resident), $52,244 (non-resident) :-)</p>
<p>When do the kids start grad school. Do they start right after graduation or not till the end of summer?</p>
<p>My son started classes the same day as the undergrads. However, he did need to be there about a week before for some paperwork and some lunches/dinners the dept had scheduled.</p>
<p>*Para - I’m not sure how anyone makes that decision to take all those loans. It’s scary. My son is going into Chemistry so as far as I can tell, he will be fully funded. His best friend however, has been “pre-admitted” into the Dental school at Tufts. When I looked up the tuition for the Dental school, I seriously almost became ill.</p>
<p>There are less expensive Dental Schools out there. Tufts is def on the higher end.*</p>
<p>We’ll be going thru med school apps this summer with S2. Med school prices do vary…privates and OOS publics can be pricey. Instate SOMs can be much cheaper. We’re keeping fingers crossed for an instate public…lol. </p>
<p>The instate COA for our best public SOM is very reasonable…but if you’re OOS, the COA is around $80k per year. Yikes!</p>
<p>*Does Law school run that way too - some much less expensive than others? *</p>
<p>Yes…the prices vary. And some OOS public law schools aren’t too bad price-wise. If you’re OOS for our instate public law school, the tuition is only about $24k per year…and it’s a Tier 1 law school. Not bad at all. It was named a “Best Value” law school.</p>
<p>Most of the state schools beyond t-14 are feeder schools so a person needs to plan on working in the same state after graduating. None of t-14 publics are inexpensive.</p>
<p>If your S is willing to become a resident & work for a year (or more) BEFORE starting law school, he may have less expensive options. All states have public law schools and the prices vary considerably, I believe. You are right that it can help to attend law school where the individual plans to settle & work. That is why my niece returned to HI & went to law school there as a resident instead of going to a private or OOS. It worked very well for her–VERY low tuition & she got great internships & a fabulous job when she graduated. She has no regrets.</p>
<p>Our S is considering grad school or law school. His employer (fed govt) has indicated on its website that it MAY pay for grad school of its employees. I expect he’ll inquire & see how it goes. He did well on the GRE & LSAT which he took in 2009.</p>
<p>S will be out of UG 2 years this fall, he really wants to go back to school . He feels that unlike his UG, when he was very cautious in his choices, this is the time to take a risk and go big. He doesn’t want affordable, he wants spectacular, and in the end it’s his choice, not ours. :-)</p>
<p>One of the more recent interesting threads about the consequences of significant debt is this thread below. Please look it over & see if it may be relevant for any conversation or to refer your S to consider any of the points in it. HUGE debt can really limit options and needs to be CAREFULLY considered. Spectacular debt is not pretty to most of us.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/451672-if-you-cant-do-time-dont-do-crime-cautionary-tale-about-debt-14.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/451672-if-you-cant-do-time-dont-do-crime-cautionary-tale-about-debt-14.html</a></p>
<p>We talked it over, and talked it over, and read the articles, and talked it over again. He is 24 years old and has been working full time and completely independent for the last year and a half. He has been to the real world and knows it first hand. Unfortunately spectacular education may require spectacular debt. He wants to take the risk. I can only support him and trust his judgement at this point.</p>
<p>Well, I wish you & him the best. I know A LOT of burned out attorneys & many making $50K or less. I also know many who struggled to get jobs–any job. I also know a PD or prosecutor who appeared in my court during the day & waited my table that night (paying off ed loans). It’s challenging! </p>
<p>This is not to say that there aren’t some who do just fine, like a loved one & her H – both working in the profession (tho he graduated with a 6-figure ed loan & she with none since they went to in-state law school with very low tuition, while she lived with her family at home). They both love their jobs & the lovely house they bought on mostly her higher income. Unfortunately, for the most part, they’re the exception even among their law school alum friends.</p>
<p>Well, thank you, I guess.</p>
<p>Good luck! Hope things work as he envisions!</p>
<p>I’m currently a graduate student who stumbled upon this thread. I just want to chime in and say that for me graduate applications were much worse than undergraduate applications. </p>
<p>Some context to explain why: I was doing my BS in Chemical Engineer at Stanford when I decided that I also wanted to do a PhD. My grades were not the highest in the class but I was above average. Of course, this being a class of some of the smartest people I’ve ever known I was perfectly content with my status and assumed graduate schools would be as well. I had done quite a bit of undergraduate research and had a good relation with one of my professors. </p>
<p>I’m going to be very honest from the beginning and say that definitely a lot of the stress I felt came from being at a place like Stanford and feeling the pressure of continuously excelling. There’s a reason so many students at HYPSM go to consulting and investment banking; they’re afraid of being seen as failures and so often they gravitate towards things that also seem ‘prestigious’ (Teach for America, Investment Banking, Law School etc). </p>
<p>Applying for graduate schools I definitely also felt the pressure. I needed to get in to a great program and show everyone that I was going to excel after college. So I filled out my applications and sent them off to the best schools in my program. I did not apply to any safety schools and after consulting my professors they assured me that I didn’t need to because they figured my stats were good enough to get me in.</p>
<p>Well I got rejected to every school I applied to. It was drawn out too. For over 2 months I would get one rejection every couple of weeks and it would just devastate me. I was unused to rejection and I was crushed. Later on I found out that graduate schools in my field had seen a 100% increase in applications that year. I had applied in late 2009 and the economic market had just taken a sharp downturn. Not that that really helped me feel any better to be completely honest. </p>
<p>As these things often work out to be, those rejections were a blessing in disguise. I had an amazing year after that ordeal and reapplied to graduate schools. I was accepted to a great program at a great school and I’m very happy. </p>
<p>The reason I’m sharing this is just to give some insights from someone who has been there before. Students applying to graduate degrees are often extremely motivated and smart but are frequently unused to rejection and carry good amount of pride. They’ve worked hard throughout their undergraduate career and to some extent it feels like they’re back to square one when they apply for graduate programs. As the parents of these students all I can suggest is to be understanding and to try and paint a bigger picture. It won’t be the end of the world if they do not get into their top choice (or any choice!) but tunnel vision in these cases is sadly extremely common. Anyways good luck!</p>
<p>parabella,
One link that I found useful is ([Should</a> You Go to Law School? | Ivey Files](<a href=“http://www.annaivey.com/iveyfiles/2011/11/should_you_go_to_law_school]Should”>http://www.annaivey.com/iveyfiles/2011/11/should_you_go_to_law_school)). Honestly, if your son goes to one of the top 14 law schools or so and does decently well then hopefully coming out of law school he should be ok. Sadly however, even law students at great schools not far lower in ranking often face difficulties in finding high paying jobs. I’ve talked to several law students and law school graduates who have agreed with this statement (I know more than one stanford law student for example who is making over $160k out of law school. It would be exponentially more difficult to do so at a lower ranked school). However best of luck and I really hope everything works out for the best!</p>