I've heard back from 4 of the 8 schools I applied to, and been rejected from 3. The fourth, which was intended as my safety school, has not offered me any sort of fellowship or teaching position or anything; they want me to pay them around $9,000 a semester and find my own room and board. I was expecting grad school to support me and, if I was particularly frugal, let me start paying off my student loans. I certainly wasn't expecting to take out more.
If I don't get in anywhere else, should I go? I've been told, mostly by people who haven't interacted with a graduate admissions board in decades, that if they don't offer me money, they don't really want me. I've also heard from some (but not all, nor even a majority, iirc) of my peers that getting into grad school and getting funded is a lot harder than they expected.
So what do you think?