<p>Is it worth the mountain of debt? 100-120k? Lets hear the opinions and cases for or against. I am about to sign my life away to a bank for a student loan that I may never be able to pay off.</p>
<p>I’m in exactly the same situation and emotional state. I would enjoy seeing some opinions here.</p>
<p>for a degree in policy/international affairs? nope.</p>
<p>No way, it screams CASH COW.</p>
<p>Definitely not. Do you have any expectation of being able to make six figures coming out with a degree in IR? No.</p>
<p>$110K in debt, at 10 years repayment with a fixed rate of 6.8%, will cost you almost $1300/month. Even if you spread it out over 30 years, you’re only paying $720/month but your interest will be 1.5 times the amount that you actually borrowed, meaning that you’ll be paying back over twice as much as you borrowed.</p>
<p>And that’s using the public loan calculations. With private loans (and the majority of that will be private - grad students can borrow $20K per year through Stafford which means the remaining $30-40K will be private loans) you’ll likely have variable rates which can mean your loan will cost far more over the long run. They also have less favorable repayment options. For example, the income-based repayment that the Obama administration has proposed, which caps loan payments to 10% of your income and forgives the balance after 25 years (or 10 years if you go into public service), won’t apply to private loans. It may also be more difficult for you to get forbearance or deferment if you run across hard times - some private loan companies also charge you money to defer your loans or put them into forbearance.</p>
<p>I do not understand American UNIS and people who go to these schools…I mean I am going to LSE…I did not even bother applying to American UNI because of the price. I willl pay half of what someone at SAIS would pay and my program in IR is 1 year as opposed to 2 years…I think LSE has a better name then SAIS…but then again thats just me…but to pay 120K for an MA in IR?..for that matter on MA in anything…forget it…i mean its not like your going to Harvard/Yale/Oxbridge…</p>
<p>bump up to the top</p>
<p>If you have less expensive options (among reputable schools), I would recommend against it.</p>
<p>decision day is approaching, any more thoughts?</p>
<p>I agree with Serkan.S. The European schools are the only ones that offered me any financial aid.</p>
<p>No offence, but if you think you’re in line for the same IR jobs as SAIS students are coming out of a Msc program at LSE, you’re dreaming. SAIS is probably the most well respected IR program in the world. Not that LSE is a bad school, it just isn’t SAIS.</p>
<p>That said, I would never take out 100K-120K for a degree in IR. The finances make no sense. Few jobs in IR pay six figures and that’s what you need to be making to pay back those types of loans.</p>
<p>bump to the top</p>
<p>No way. No name is worth that much money for a master’s.</p>