Here's my situation.
I'm in at two schools: UMass-Amherst (MA/PhD in English) and Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English (MA). UMass probably won't be offering me funding this year but probably will next year; the chair of the department is encouraging me to attend sans first-year funding. I'm afraid, however, to take on $30,000 in debt to cover living expenses, books, etc for the first year, given the gloom-and-doom job market. What if I don't get hired after graduation and I've got all this debt? Plus I'm still paying off last summer's language school tuition. My cat and I need to eat!
Middlebury is offering me about half off of my tuition this summer. However, four years in a program that only runs during the summers kind of locks me into teaching secondary edcuation during that time (what other job will give you summers off to go study literature in Vermont?) and I'm not sure that's really what I want to do. Midd also lacks courses in theory and doesn't offer much in the way of postcolonial lit, either (my specialty), though it has other academic strengths. And I'd still be going into debt, but over a longer period of time and for a Master's degree, not a PhD.
My gut tells me to go to UMass-- that I'll be able to forge connections during my first year and secure funding for the rest of my time there. My parents are telling me not to do either program; they'd like me to wait it out and reapply or defer admission for a year and try again for funding (not even an option, in my view, since I'll be in the same position next year that I am this year). Thoughts? It seems crazy to turn down an offer from a well-respected program like UMass in such a rough year for admissions, especially since I got no other PhD offers this season and it looks like cohort sizes will be slashed even further in the coming years. I just don't want to make a decision that I'm going to end up regretting in a major way twelve months or seven years from now.
Thanks in advance for any advice...