How do you afford it? Graduate or continuing ed... financial aide?

Is there such thing as graduate school financial aid?

I read that most graduate students don't qualify for Pell grants.

Does your employer give you tuition benefits?

Do you fork over the money in whole? Do you save up money for it?

Do you get private student loans? Do you get person loans?

A lot of the programs I've looked at cost quite a penny. Even $10,000 a year is a lot these days for a "non-essential" expense. How do you handle this?

 

I have some employee benefits. I save.

 

I used employer tuition reimbursement for my masters degree. 8500 per year so I spread the classes over 4 calendar years to avoid paying a significant portion out of pocket.

 

I work at the University I attend, I pay 10% of tuition for my degree. HES is only $40 a course for employees. I used loans for my MBA. About $10k in personal loans beyond my minimal scholarship and what I could borrow from the government. That's essentially paid off, I'll be paying uncle same for the next 5-10 years depending on my career trajectory. Most employers don't allow more that $5,200/year IF they offer any benefit at all.

 

I chose the most affordable program I could find that was still regionally accredited and offers to let me break the tuition into several payments. My entire MA should be around $7000 give or take.

Best deal seems to be go work for Harvard and get an ALM for around $400 plus books.....thats amazing AuTiger00!

 

A Harvard education at a 90% discount? I'm trying not to hate you. :smile:

 

I used tuition assistance and covered the rest in cash. My MS from Touro was $6,750 and only about $1,100 of that was out of pocket. My PhD was about $3K out of pocket.

 

It is a pretty good deal. Classes at the school of education, Kennedy School of Gov't, Divinity School, Public Health and the Design School cost 10% of typical tuition for employees, about $300-$400/class. The only ones you can complete degrees at part-time are the school of education and the Kennedy School (and it's almost unheard of for an employee to get into a program at HKS, about 2 people a year).

Statistically, it's actually easier to gain admittance to Harvard as a student (around 6%) than it is to get a job here (around 3% of applicants), but if you do it's definitely worth getting a degree, I've never understood why more employees don't do it.

 

My employer, a large one you know of, offers 7500 per year for graduate education. It is only available to those employees that receive good reviews. The rest of it is out of pocket.

 

I was going to get both of my Master's degrees for free. Troy via GI Bill and University of Oklahoma via a Naval program that all I pay for is books. But I chose to give my GI Bill to my wife so she could get her BS in Information Technology so I will be covering Troy with a Govt. backed Education Loan. 2nd MA will still be free lol. I do not rellish the idea of owing uncle Sam money for the next 10 years but so long as I keep a job and do not spend the money on things other than my education I will end up only owing around 8500 so hopefully it all works out.

 

I've had tuition reimbursement available from employers to one degree or another most of the time I've been employed. Problem is, since about 2000, most employers ask you to agree to a year of employment with the firm before they assist you. While I understand the issue of employees getting an education and jumping ship, I also think those agreements are a form of indentured servitude. I believe the employers who don't have their employees sign such agreements (the few that still exist) are demonstrating some extra faith and trust in their employees that usually gets rewarded. Given all this, I'm self-funded lately on the college education front. Unfortunately, though, this means no Tier 1 or 2 schools on the CV for a bit.

 

While on active duty I used Tuition Assistance. Now I use the Post 9/11 GI Bill and Dependent Education Assistance Program.

 

I pay for everything out of pocket. It's the main reason it is taking me so long to actually finish my degree.

 

When the Heriot-Watt MBA had a partnership with Financial Times, towards the end of the year FT would offer "Buy 2 get one free" and other deals on the courses. Between those, being able to buy some courses off eBay (which you can't do anymore), and what used to be a very good exchange rate between the USD and GBP, I paid around $6,000 for the EBS MBA. That included spending almost a year on campus in Edinburgh!

I had an assitantship for my UF MS/PhD which covered tuition, plus paid a (very small) salary. When I was ABD I started working for a biotech startup that was spinoff the university. Because of that relationship, they could offer 6 credits a semester for free. I didn't take any classes, but it covered research hours to maintain my status as a doctoral student.

My current employer offers tuition assistance, but it is very small compared to what Penn State charges, so I'm only taking a class whenever I have some spare change and time.

 

I hear ya. That's what I did. Keep at it broheim! ZERO student loan.



Abner :smile:

 

No student loan, but a line of credit.. I can write off the interest paid and claim the tuition paid on my income tax.. I get about half back, so it still makes it affordable... one course at a time

 

I used my GI Bill benefits, TA from the military, assistance from the American Indian College Fund (I'm not Native American, but used to work for a tribal college), and borrowed money.

Assuming I keep teaching, my loan balance will be forgiven in 8 years.

 

There is grad school financial aid. Im getting my undergrad degree with financial aid and then I will get my 1 or 2 masters degrees with it.l Here's the link that shows you what you can get and for how long:

Student Aid on the Web

 

Most on this board eschew heavy debt loads caused by the loan programs you linked to. You should seriously consider the full implications of the kind of debt you are considering. if your career plans don't go as planned you still have to pay it back...you can't even discharge the debt in bankruptcy. How will you repay a loan from Schiller or UofA at $30-50K, plus a graduate degree in the same ballpark if your employment plans fail?

When I ask myself that question I changed my plans.

 

If I dont use financial aid, I have absolutely no way to go to school at all. We live on less than $1800 per month for a family of 4. My son has autism and I homeschool him. My husband works from home and we both do fulltime online school. I hate to have all that debt, but at the end of the day, there's absolutely no way possible for me to afford to do ANY schooling if I dont get pell and take loans.