<p>I was accepted to an out-of-state school to participate in their BS in ChemE program which starts in less than 2 weeks. Tonight, I was getting some financial aid stuff finalized and I realized that the 2.5 years I need to complete the degree is going to cost me about $17k per semester or about $85k when I'm finally finished. This is covering tuition, books, travel, and rent. I didn't get accepted to any nearby engineering schools that were in-state, leaving me with only once option across the river in NJ. </p>
<p>I plan on working a part time job two days a week and devoting most of my breaks to earning more money. How do you guys feel about this? Even if I start making $60K after I graduate will I still be hard pressed to live comfortably and pay the thing off?</p>
<p>Not a good idea. What state are you from and what out of state school are you going to? Actual engineering firms and gov agencies that hire engineers are not snobby at all. They will prefer someone from a top 10 school over someone from a school from 50-100, but it will just be one factor. A student from a weak school with good internships can beat a student from a top school. </p>
<p>What about going to a community college and then transferring to in state engineering schools? That will save lots of money. </p>
<p>I’m sure you can pay off 100k in loans if you get a good job, but it seems like an exceptionally unnecessary burden. You will be much happier and safer without any loans.</p>
<p>See if you can improve your application somehow and try to get into an in-state school. 100K is way too much for an engineering B.S. Not worth it in my opinion.</p>
<p>DS roommates racked up some debt but 1) interest rates were a lot lower then than now, 2)Paying down the principle faster than the scheduled payments (what we did). The more you front end pay, the faster you’ll pay off the loan or a extend the loan on a reduced principle or consolidate to a federal guaranteed loan (what we are doing).</p>
<p>If you are serious about pursuing Engineering, don’t expect to have time to work because you won’t and if you do it will affect your grades. The curriculum is usually around 18 units each semester and these are not easy courses. And you are still expected to be active in school clubs and get an internship in your junior or senior year. You will definitely make the money back after you receive your degree but perhaps attending a CC for a year and then transferring is not such a bad idea.</p>
<p>I’m working in engineering right now, and while I don’t have any debt, my husband does, to the tune of $80K. Minimum payments per month for those student loans is $800. It’s painful to cut out a third of my take-home pay and plunk it towards student debt.</p>
<p>It’s not really fair to include rent and food in the cost of the degree. You’re going to live somewhere and eat regardless of where you go to college.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m returning to college and the minimum time I can finish the curriculum with transfer credits from a previous degree is 2.5 years. What do you guys think of transferring to an in-state after a term? I’m just afraid that it’s going to extend my time in school by a semester or two.</p>
<p>aibarr, if you don’t mind telling, how much does your husband make in a year, gross?</p>
<p>It depends. You have to look at the school you’ll be attending and the schools you want to attend and see what transfers. Some schools are more generous than others in allowing courses to transfer in.</p>
<p>I think what I’ll do is kick ass this next semester then apply to the engineering school at CCNY. I believe a semester for an in-state student is only $2k-$3k. Even if I end up having to stay a student for an extra semester or two, it will be cheaper in the end. I’m glad I posted this thread.</p>
<p>^Just curious, so after you get the degree, do you expect to use it and get a Chemical Engineering role in the same company you’re working for right now?</p>
<p>yg7s7, right now I’m working a thoughtless part time job because I am unable to find a fulltime job in my career field. So, no. However, I do hope to get back into the biotechnology sector, which was what my previous job was in. It’s just very difficult to get a technical position in biotechnology with a BS and no research experience. The only real options are manufacturing, which I tried for two years and did not like, and research, where you are pretty much a PhD’s ***** and have to perform the same techniques over and over. Neither of those jobs pay that great nor do they provide for very much advancement. Since I have no research experience, I would probably have to start as a lab assistant, working for peanuts, if I wanted to do R&D or QC. The only other options are QA or regulatory, which I find to be the epitome of boring.</p>
<p>My husband? He’s a composer. So… not much. We get by on my engineering salary, which has kind of stalled in terms of growth the past few years; I’m 29, and a structural designer and project manager. Still, for a while, you’re not going to bring home much more than a couple of thousand a paycheck, and socking away a quarter of your take-home pay can end up being pretty painful. It’s a tough thing to have to budget for once you get out into the real world, buy a house, buy life insurance, get a 401(k), and realize how useful that eight hundred bucks a month could be if you could use it elsewhere.</p>
<p>And particularly for you, with engineering, where the prestige of your school doesn’t matter all THAT much in terms of job-getting success (it can help, sure, but it’s not the end-all be-all of getting employment with a solid firm), I think you’d kick yourself later if you didn’t pick a more affordable option.</p>
Why don’t you just get a Ph.D in something related to biotechnology? I know that’s not what you were asking, but I’m wondering. The way it works in physics and mathematics (I’m mentioning it since that’s what I know about mostly) is that most students who want to go to graduate school for those subjects almost always get funded and paid a stipend. I’m pretty sure engineering students also benefit from this. If you’re not burned out from that field, I would say that instead of paying for a new bachelor’s degree, you could simply go on to graduate school and do work that you’re [presumably] interested in (unless you don’t like research). In fact, depending on what your BS major was exactly, you might be able to convince a masters program to let you in an engineering program, provided that you have a good undergraduate GPA and could come up with some recommendation letters.</p>
<p>Just a thought, I wasn’t sure if you had considered it or not.</p>