Minimizing your student loan debt balance is crucial and requires (1) open, frank appraisals of future earning capacity against debt loads and (2) academic performance and networking strategies that afford the graduate a broad range of choices to evaluate at the end of each stage of education. It is easier to ask these questions in a systematic way than you might think.
Before you choose, do two things:
I. Understand your costs.
You are essentially wrestling with four distinct tiers of costs: UG, UG+PHD, UG+MA, UG+MA+PHD. ("UG+MA" could mean either working after the MA or continuing to a funded PhD.)
It should be easy to get a handle on these costs. Create a sample budget (SB), add the costs of tuition at the average target institution (T), multiply by the number of years you plan to spend unfunded (Y) and add 30% for inflation and inevitable cost overruns. Y(SB + T) * 1.3
This provides a worst case scenario of your total exposure. You may win scholarships, get jobs or get late funding, but deal with that once you've chosen a path. You should use this number to estimate your monthly payments in each potential future, which will give you and understanding of what type of wage you need to pull down to service the debt and stay comfortable.
II. Examine your opportunities.
The OP's opportunity tiers are much the same, with two major exceptions. One, at any point she could decide between academic careers or professional careers. Second, assuming she chooses an academic path after the MA, her PhD maybe funded or unfunded. Using these pivot points as a guide, map and evaluate your available outcomes, discounting less likely alternatives. You should gather information on these outcomes from two places.
First, examine the target school's placement record and ask faculty and students about the range of occupations graduates aim for and achieve. For MAs, look at percentages that get funded offers.
Second, research the futures revealed by your investigations into placement. Network aggressively with people that hold the jobs you discovered during step one. Find out what those career paths look like financially.
Now you have the information you need to link each cost point with a set of tangible outcomes. How much income will you make? When will you start making it? What opportunities stay open down each path and which close off?
While you will like some outcomes better that others for non-financial reasons, don't count any of them out unless they are clearly not financially viable. Keep an open mind to a wide variety of careers after you:
III. Make your choice and plan for success.
Whether you choose academic or professional life right off the bat, keep in mind that quantitative performance is only half the battle. Networking is extremely important to later success. I will tailor my advice for academic paths, but there are obvious corollaries in the professional world.
Remember all that networking and investigation you did about possible career paths? While you were investigating the financials, you should also have asked about what skills and achievements those employers look for in potential hires. Develop those skills. As many as you can. Give yourself the opportunity to to appeal to a diverse set of employers and don't give that up until success is really assured in one arena or another.
Make and maintain relationships with people that can help you. Professors can and do network eager students in both academia and industry. Your classmates will disperse and work places that will be of interest to your career. The professionals who told you about their careers can continue to advise you and might one day be the hiring manager or internal champion you need to get your foot in the door and firmly planted.
