<p>I am absolutely agonizing over this decision and was hoping I could get some outside perspective... I am a 24-yr old who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. I escaped with a relatively low amount of debt, about 11k, and graduated summa cum laude. I was absolutely devastated when I entered the job market and found that I would have to settle for a mere $11-12/hr if I wanted anything to do with direct patient care. Despite having very minimal living expenses, I found it hard to make my loans payments and decided I needed to quickly make a career change. The one thing I always wanted to do with my life was teach and (unfortunately) I was derailed from the education program once I started taking psychology classes. I found a program at a state college that offers a master's degree in teaching. Upon being accepted I was given 2 options- I can attend full-time and earn my certification within only a year's time or attend part-time. While I would certainly love to jump right into the field, attending full-time would leave me no choice but to pay my living expenses with student loans (as I will be completing 42 grad credits in a year, it is expected in the program that you will do this should you not have a spouse or parent able to support you during this time). Thus I would need to take out about 12k in living expenses alone! The program itself is about 18k including books, so I would be adding 30k to my 11k, leaving me 41,000 in the hole! </p>
<pre><code> My alternative is the part-time program which usually takes 2-3 years. I would work full-time and thus only need to take out loans for my tuition and books (I am going into elementary ed and as it is not seen as a "critical area," it is very difficult to receive scholarships despite one's GPA and test scores. Believe me- I've tried). However, I feel like I am less likely to complete the program this way as life events could easily distract me from my course of study. I also feel like work and grad school is a very heavy load and so it may be better to immerse myself in the one-year program. Ultimately I am wondering if 41k in debt will be worth it. Upon graduation, a teacher in my state with his/her master's earns an average of 43k. Thanks so much!
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<p>Hello hm! I feel your pain. While I don’t know the answer, I will share my experience.</p>
<p>My husband had undergrad loans many years ago. He worked for a couple of years and then went to grad school for business. He chose to give up his job and go full time for 12 months, rather than do the part-time evening or weekend program. It was tough, but the time flew by and it was well worth it.</p>
<p>My son now has the same dilemma as you. He has some undergrad loans. His father died recently and I can no longer afford to help him out financially. The choice was to work full time while taking a course or two in the evening or to take out loans and go to grad school full time. He wants a dual degree MS Engineering/MBA and these degrees are not normally funded the way PhDs are. Like you, he is afraid that he will take a very long time to finish and sometimes life gets in the way of that. I think he is planning to take out loans and bite the bullet.</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision. It is difficult and no two situations are exactily alike.</p>
<p>Ikf… thanks for your advice. I am heavily leaning towards the one-year option and think that it really would be a healthy “investment” in my future. And while the first few years will be tough as a substantial portion of my paycheck will go towards loan payments, I think that once a good portion of the debt is payed down and payments start to decrease I’ll be thrilled with my decision. Thanks so much and congrats to your son!</p>
<p>Hm, do you really want to go into elementary education? No offense, but it’s not exactly a high-paying field. You’ll make more money teaching secondary education (grades 6-12). After 10 years in the field, high school teachers with a master’s degree can easily make over $60,000/annually. Some reach six figures after 20 years of service.</p>
<p>Yikes! I wish you well. In other states, the secondary education teachers definitely earn more money over time than the elementary education teachers.</p>
<p>yeah i’m in an elem ed program and i get emails all the time about scholarships and loans… if you want i can forward any and all of that to you one kid just won $100,000 this year (huge deal).</p>
<p>First off, if you teach, do look for loan forgiveness opportunties</p>
<p>Secondly, if the FT programme is $18k, how much is the PT one? If it is also $18k, then that is an extra $36k paid in tuition in order to attend two more years. If it is something less, like say $12k, then 3x $12k =$36k in money SPENT over time to get your degree. </p>
<p>So, are you really any better off financially by delaying? Plus if you finish sooner and get a job sooner you can start working your way up that union experience scale of wages.</p>
<p>As a person with 30,000 in student loan debt, i would say kill yourself on the front end and find a way to not have to take out loans.
Or if you must take out loans, get set up with a loan forgiveness program. Or go full time and work part time nights to pay the bills…anything but more debt. Mine is just haunting me now and will be forever, it feels like. Like, i’ll be 50 before they are paid off. And that is a daunting weight to carry around when you’re starting a marriage/family, etc. and wanting a house and such.
I would just say from experience…debt just sucks…and there is usually a harder, but ultimately more worthwhile way, to avoid debt or have it forgiven.
Could you try to live for a year on like a very low salary ($10-12,000) and then apply for pell grants… ? I have heard of people doing that in undergrad…</p>
one kid just won $100,000 this year (huge deal).</p>