<p>ok, this rather premature considering that i dont begin undergrad until this august but i was just wondering. How do you possibly pay for grad school on an average (50kish) family income. I estimate that I will graduate from undergrad without about 12-20k in loans and then I would like to go to grad school. So question is, how on earth do you come up with 40k more per year for grad school when you already have 15k in loans? I plan on graduating with a degree in a bio science field (biochem, microbio, etc.) and from what i have been told a graduate degree is almost required to get any job making upwards of 50k. Also, when grad schools consider your status as an in-state applicant does it by A)the state the university you graduated from or B)the state your parents live in... the reason this question is applicable is b/c the university I will attend requires students to live on campus all 4 years and the state that my parents live in (TN) doesnt have any med schools, outside of the insanely expensive vanderbuilt, that i would like to attend while the state my college is in(Indiana) does...</p>
<p>Many graduate programs offer support for their graduate students in the form of research assistantships and teaching assistantships. In fact, in some of them, their enrollment is largely limited by the number of students they can give that kind of support to (that is--if they have 10 assistantships, they won't have more than 10 students in the program).</p>
<p>However, what's covered, and how much of a stipend might be included (to go towards living expenses) varies. There may also be fellowships and other merit money available. Graduate students can qualify for student loans to make up for the difference. If you already have loans from undergrad, then it is probably pretty important that you find a grad school that offers good support so additional loans will be minimal.</p>
<p>If you're talking about professional school (like medical school), it's a different deal. Assistantships aren't the norm. You're looking at Loans, Loans, Loans.</p>
<p>As for residency status, that varies, too. Some schools are pretty strict about it. If you're in Indiana for no other purpose than to go to college there, that may not be enough for Indiana to consider you a resident.</p>
<p>Graduate school and medical school are indeed different beasts.</p>
<p>Medical schools offer little in the way of grants for most students, but do help co-ordinate federal and other low-interest loan programs. You'll be expected to take on significant debt, even if a declared independent student. Most graduating medical students have significant amounts of debt at graduation (moreso for private medical schools that are not subsidized like land-grant state medical schools).</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you are interested in a PhD degree in one of the biomedical sciences, you should enroll only in those programs that offer tuition waivers and small living stipends that come with either TA (teaching assistant) or RA (research assistant) fellowships. Most graduating PhD students in the sciences have low amounts of debt at graduation.</p>
<p>^ I'm making $28k as a first-year biology PhD student next year! :D Livin' the high life.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that all graduate students are considered financially independent, so parents' assets are no longer considered when awarding financial aid to graduate students.</p>
<p>You pay for grad school by doing well as undergrad. DS getting $35K (tuition, OSS, fees, R & B stipend + scholarship) as MEng/Computer candidate but he did extremely well as undergrad.</p>
<p>so basically want im hearing is that if i want to work in research in one of the bio sciences... It would be a much better idea to go to grad school for it and get a PhD rather than a medical school and get an MD</p>
<p>Well, it's a "better idea" in the short term, but over the course of an entire career, an MD will make much more money on average than a PhD. </p>
<p>If you want to go into research specifically, yes, you should get a PhD, but you certainly shouldn't go to graduate school merely because you can get paid to do it.</p>
<p>If you want to go into medical research, there's always MSTP programs (MD/PhD). They're usually fully funded by NSF.</p>
<p>There's a reason people are falling over themselves to get into and go into outrageous debt for med school: the financial returns are fantastic. There's also a reason people often have to get grad school paid for and be paid a stipend on top of that to get a Ph.D: the financial returns are not fantastic.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your fantastic acceptance and stipend, mollieb!</p>
<p>wow, i just checked and the disparity between an md and phd is insane. The top 10% of microbiologists with a PhD is 110k while the top 10% of medical microbiologists(pathologists) make close to 300k</p>
<p>I dont know if this is commonplace, but my mother worked full time as a teacher all through out her grad school so it was fairly easy for her to quickly pay off the undergrad loans and was then able to pay off the grad loans within 5 years or so.</p>
<p>molliebat's point about student's independence is true...to a point. i'm going to law school next year, and while i'm financially independent for federal stafford loans, my parents' income is still considered for everything else...and when tuition is over $36k and the maximum stafford loan package is $18500, private/institutional grants and loans are crucial. the age at which law schools consider students independent varies, but can be as high as 30 (!)</p>
<p>so for professional school (med, law, business, nursing, etc.) there are some grants for exceptional students at each school, but mostly you take out tons and tons of loans. then, you hopefully get a high-paying job that enables you to pay them back in a few years if you live moderately, or 10 years if you live luxuriously. some schools also have loan repayment programs for people in low-paying public service jobs...but there are a lot of 'catches' in them (after all, they were designed by attorneys ;)</p>
<p>
[quote]
the age at which law schools consider students independent varies, but can be as high as 30
[/quote]
That is insane.</p>
<p>Actually, it might even be worse than that. One of my best friends is graduating from Tufts next month with her masters in IR. She's 38. When she applied to grad school (two years ago at age 35/36), to Georgetown, Tufts, and Princeton, she still had to include her parent's income on the FAFSA, or whatever documents the financial aid portion of her applications required. </p>
<p>I don't know quite why, but, she got NO financial aid from any school - perhaps it's because she graduated from Georgetown with a 3.0 ten years prior; perhaps it's because she had been in the workforce all that time and owns a home with significant equity, and has a very, very nice investment portfolio, so, she didn't "need" any help - she could literally write a check to Tufts for the full two years. </p>
<p>But I remember hanging out at her house one morning while she was on the phone to her parents explaining that she needed the figures for their income, and being amazed.</p>
<p>What can they possibly be thinking??? </p>
<p>I'm irked as it is that my 23 year old son can't be designated "independent" when he's been living on his own for almost 3 years. They could easily verify his independent status by checking his tax returns -- the earned income clearly comes from full time employment, and I haven't been claiming him as a dependent. </p>
<p>I mean -- is college supposed to be some sort of agonizingly prolonged childhood? </p>
<p>I'd note that it must be the CSS/profile or the college's own forms that require that -- the FAFSA cuts off asking questions about parental income the year the person turns 24.</p>
<p>Someone has the wrong info here.
For FAFSA purposes, a student is independent when they have been awarded their first bachelor's degree.
D graduated,had >1500 income of her own and our income had NO consideration on her FAFSA app for her first year of Grad School.The school did not require CSS Profile however.</p>
<p>myheartisinohio--------</p>
<p>I would call and talk to the schools in Indiana you might be interested in attending and see what they say about residency.</p>
<p>momoffive</p>
<p>
[quote]
Someone has the wrong info here.
For FAFSA purposes, a student is independent when they have been awarded their first bachelor's degree.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>But to be clear, professional schools have a different view.</p>
<p>Schools do vary--our law school generally assumes parental resources are also available to help with the expense of law school. However, they only ask students to submit parent information if they are applying for something other than Stafford or private loans. Also, there is a cutoff--if you were not declared a dependent in any of the last five years, then you're also not required to submit info on parent resources. This appears to be different from the case cited earlier, where the student in her late 30s was asked to submit it.</p>
<p>Medical school here requires parent information unless you're applying only for the Ford Federal Direct Loan programs. FAFSA requirements don't matter..."parental data is required even though you are considered an independent student. This may seem contrary to the basic FAFSA instructions, but is mandatory....."</p>
<p>So-it appears to be a great deal of sleuthing is needed to determine the fine print involved in each program.
So, the thread starter (excuse my lack of recall) is the smart one in asking this question 4 years in advance. It can affect choices for undergrad based on what you can or cannot expect for post grad support.</p>
<p>How you pay for it depends on what kind of degree your talking about. As they said, medical school is a different thing, but also masters vs. ph.d programs are often different. Ph.D programs usually offer good funding, masters programs usually don't. That said, I think the funding is better for masters in the sciences. Me, I'm in IR, so I will paying lots of grad school loans for the rest of my life.</p>