Parents of College Seniors heading to Grad School

<p>My son hopefully will be in grad school this Fall. He is going for masters, which means not a lot of funding. He decided to apply only instate to keep costs down and could commute for two if he wanted too, would have to find housing for others.
This was the first Indepenent Fafsa and much easier, no parent info and he didn’t have to put his assets either. I encouraged him to file early (although I helped) because I know some grants, etc. are first come, first served.
He didn’t go to UG debt free, took stafford’s every year so he wanted to keep the cost of getting his masters down. He has one interview so far but the deadlines for the others are now, so they might be later if forthcoming.</p>

<p>D is in grad school professional degree. we paid all undergrad at private school. very surprised when her grad school asked her to fill out the fasfa and ended up with $15000 merit and need- based a small amount on us and most on her savings (very little). i looked into it then and realized it depends on the school and if they consider all the parents income, some or none. we are on her third year of the same scholarship.</p>

<p>While it is true that most non-sciences masters degrees do not come with funding, and that need-based aid is mostly in the form of loans–there are sometimes other ways to get funding. DD is a master’s student at Harvard–and she has full funding from one of Harvard’s “restrictive” scholarships (she has a high school diploma from a school in the city that the donor specified). You have to apply separately for these restrictive scholarships–but they are wonderful if you can qualify. The criteria vary widely–everything from having the right last name from , as in DD’s case, coming from the right city.</p>

<p>Perhaps master’s merit aid in music/performing arts is different than most others fields.</p>

<p>Schools son applied to for masters do offer merit aid based on audition much like undergrad.
He would not have been able to attend without aid.</p>

<p>It’s important here to understand that the way that parental income/assets willl be viewed (whether the student is “independent” or not) depends entirely on the type of degree program, the specific area of study, and the school.</p>

<p>We had assumed when D went on for a clinical doctorate (a professional degree) that some of her schools DID look at parental income and assets. Others did not. She is not in a degree program that awards TAs, stipends, or even merit aid.</p>

<p>So, as different people are reading this thread, please keep in mind that the mileage will vary widely, depending.<br>
(PS I totally wish she was in a grad program with all those things, but alas!)</p>

<p>I need some independent perspective. I don’t know whether to start a new thread or build on this one. </p>

<p>I’m a class of '11 upperclassmen who is graduating from the school referenced in my “location” with zero debt. ZERO DEBT. I am truly blessed and worked very hard at this school, where one of my parents is a faculty member. Since I am under tuition remission, I have been able to pursue opportunities such as doing new media research as an undergraduate, studying abroad and taking on many unpaid internships. I am definitely going to graduate school for cultural studies/media studies. I love learning and I love writing.</p>

<p>I do not know whether to apply for an MA/PhD program immediately after undergrad, or get an MA and work. Since I do not have any pressing debt, I do not have any loans to worry about making payments on. I have a competitive GPA, stellar recommendations and my advisor says I would be a great candidate for PhD programs. </p>

<p>However, I’m afraid that if I jump into a PhD program at 23 years old, I’ll burn out and regret doing it. I’m also afraid of just doing the MA and squandering the opportunity I’ve been given thus far. I’m also realistic and know the media industry is in flux right now, and many communications majors are scrambling at career fairs for any kind of job right now. </p>

<p>How did your children decide whether to go for an MA or PhD? Did they take time away from academics and work for a while, or did they go straight through? </p>

<p>I know I have a good opportunity here and I’m TERRIFIED of messing it up.</p>

<p>MissAmericanpie,
Every student is different, but your fear about burning out if you go straight through to a PhD without a break is well-founded. You’ve been in school a long time. Why not take a year (or two) off of school completely and work. Then you can apply to PhD programs when you’re ready. They’ll still be there! And don’t worry, your profs will remember you and still recommend you.
I think the MA, especially if you’re paying for it, isn’t worth it if you plan to get a PhD sometime.<br>
My daughter went straight from undergrad to a PhD program in her field, and she really shouldn’t have. She wound up burning out after one semester, took a leave to work, and is now back and making up for lost time, but at least she’s happy now.
The break was what she needed. Had she just taken it first, she would have spared herself a lot of grief.</p>

<p>If you’d like more opinions, you probably should start another thread because your question won’t be seen here.</p>

<p>In your chosen field, I think having some practical experience would be a real advantage when applying to graduate school, so I encourage you to pursue that route if you think you can find meaningful work for a year or two.</p>

<p>^Also keep in mind (and again it depends on chosen field) that a lot of companies are paying for education. I got both my BS and MBA that way, all have been paid by numerous employers, which actually was a reason for me to continue my education.</p>

<p>My plan back in the day was to get my B.S., work two years, then go to grad school (undecided at the time whether it’d be M.S. or PhD.), and that’s exactly what I ended up doing. (BTW–I was in a more math-y field. Decided M.S. was what I wanted since it was more applied in nature. PhDs did a lot more theoretical work, which was never my cup of tea. Also, most of my grad school classmates who got PhDs ended up in academia, which was not what I was thinking about.) It worked really well for me. A look at the working world was great (and made me appreciate that annual cycle of 16-week semesters, month off at Christmas, non-stressful summer job!). We also heard back then that a lot of graduate schools liked to see work experience on the applications.</p>

<p>And that’s true about many employers helping to pay for grad school (although maybe not as many currently?). It sounds to me like you’d appreciate and benefit from a break from school.</p>

<p>MissAP,
I am definitely in favor of taking time off–either 1 or 2 years. The year gives you a chance to work in your field, narrows your focus, helps with the burn-out. Also, applying to grad school is exhausting. Then, depending on your field, there can be interviews. My S has been flying across the country every week doing interviews, twice getting caught in long delays.
I also think his time working in a lab led to stronger recommendations and the experience to let grad schools know he could handle the work. Several of his friends did the same.
Of course, much of this depends on your field.</p>

<p>Great thread, thanks for all the input. S is an '11. He wants to work after graduation for a year or before even thinking about an advanced degree.
Should he take GRE, GMAT, LSAT soon? Maybe just GRE? I would imagine LSAT and perhaps GMAT require significant prep. Any advice??</p>

<p>You can register for the GRE online and take it any time, if there is space at the testing center. I THINK the other exams are only given a few times a year. Take that into consideration. The GRE scores are also only ‘valid’ for a number of years after the student takes the exam.</p>

<p>Woody,
My S thought about applying last year, so reviewed for GRE for a week and took exam. He didn’t retake, 'cuz he nailed 2 sections and just didn’t feel like redoing. Others waited until after graduation, took their time, the took exam. It helps to not be a student while studying and writing application.</p>

<p>Woody,
" would imagine LSAT and perhaps GMAT require significant prep. Any advice?? "</p>

<p>I have taken GMAT (I mentioned that I have MBA). It depends where you are going to Grad. School. Since I was planning to go to our local college and continue working full time and it was not really that important to me if I get accepted or not and I had high UG GPA, for all above reasons, I took GMAT without any preparation whatsoever, have never looked at it, was not familiar with format, zero. I got in, based on combo GPA+MCAT. It was over 20 years ago. As far as I remember, math portion was exceptionally easy (basically your elementary/middle school material), while reading portion was exceptionally hard, I basically was filling bubbles almost without any clue.</p>

<p>

As moonchild said, everyone is different. I’m one of two people out of all the new art history and history grad students (~30 total) at my university who came directly from undergrad, and I’ve adapted perfectly well; some of the older students have been burning out. I also have friends at other universities where the opposite is true. I think it depends to a very large degree on your disposition, the quality of life in the department, and how well you take care of yourself. </p>

<p>That said, I’m going to disagree with the others and recommend considering applying to at least a couple PhD programs this upcoming year. If you get in and decide you don’t want to go, you can often defer for a year. </p>

<p>Graduate admissions is very, very competitive nowadays (well, much less so in the sciences). Many parents and professors have lost sight of this because they went through the process so long ago. If you take a year off and then apply to programs, you still run into the very real risk of being rejected everywhere. Then you’d have to take yet another year off from school, which starts to lead to all sorts of problems (getting LORs, for one). You have nothing to lose from applying to at least a couple programs this year (the time it takes to fill out a strong application is vastly overstated) except a bit of time and money, and it’s potentially worth both. A lot of people take gap years after graduation, and it works out perfectly fine – the experiences are wonderful, and they get into great grad schools. An equal number end up never going back to school – which is perfectly fine and perhaps even pragmatic, but this should be noted.</p>

<p>Thanks for all your responses!</p>

<p>There are a couple of problems with applying to schools with the hope of deferring a year. First, not all schools will let you defer. Because there are so many applicants for each spot, some faculty want to fill their spot while they have the funding. (My Ds department had 3 spots, total )
The other issue is psychological. If you get into “dream grad program” this year, it will be very hard to turn down precisely because you know that next year there are no guarantees. That’s pretty much what happened to my kid.
I can’t help but think if you sense that you’d benefit from a break, you most likely will. Life is not a race. </p>

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<p>I very much agree with this. I might also add, if your last semester in college was very demanding academically- such as writing a thesis as well as taking difficult graduate level courses, you may just need a chance to take a breath.</p>