A NONPROFIT Employee Going Back to School

[YikesSchoolAgain]

I am seeking advice on how to pay for my graduate degree in light of my status as a nonprofit employee. I intend to continue working in nonprofit for the entirety of my career.

About me:

Twenty-six years old; Single/no dependents; No student loans from undergrad - put myself through school and had full scholarships; Strong credit history with a score of 770; Full-time Grants Manager for a large nonprofit under a national brand; Salaried at $42K/year with strong benefits package; I have a mortgage and three years left on my car payment; I have a retirement account, HSA, and an emergency fund. After all expenditures, my leftover funds each month totals about $400. 

Professional goal: earn my Master's and eventually work in nonprofit leadership as an Executive Director. 

I was accepted to Vanderbilt Peabody's M.Ed. in Leadership and Organizational Performance. Two-year program, going at night and weekends. Received a 62%/$40K honors scholarship. Will still be on the hook for the remaining $25K. I plan to continue working full time and cover all living expenses as normal with my paycheck. 

If you know of outside scholarships I should be applying for, please leave the link. 

Regarding loans - I am not sure if I should go with a private or federal loan. I will have no problem qualifying for the best interest rates with private loans, so they beat the Direct Unsubsidized's 6.5% plus 1.68% origination fee, but I am also aware of public service student loan forgiveness with federal loans after 10 years of payments. Thinking that if I get on a repayment plan relative to my income, then I could possibly have a good 20% or so of my loan still outstanding after 120 payments (10 years), and get that forgiven (since I'll be working in nonprofit). This would effectively cut my grad school cost to $20K. 

Thoughts? Advice? Thanks. 

[YikesSchoolAgain]

Does anyone know of any scholarships I should be applying for to help cover the tuition gap? Or loan options you'd recommend. 

[E-P]

Your best bet for both is going to be talking to the financial aid office at your school, as well as your department itself.  It's also worth noting that sometimes departments have opportunities for good students to get tuition rebates and whatnot - I think I had 3 classes paid for in my MA, simply because I was a good student and they selected me for various awards.

You also might try posting in the group on here specific to your field.  Many scholarships/grants/etc are field-specific, so you might have better luck than posting in the general "Bank" area.

Good luck!  When I had a similar choice, I decided to apply at a smaller, cheaper institution, and I was able to get through it with just my savings, and no debt - the degree cost $10,000, versus the $20K+ it would have cost at the other option. As a sidenote, will this master's degree result in you being able to get jobs that pay well enough that, over the course of a number of years, you'll have "made back" the money the degree costs?  If so, great!  If not, you may talk with senior members of your company/department to figure out if it's the best path.

That said, if you have your heart/career set on this program, if I were in your shoes I would probably see if I could delay entry for a year, and then work to get as much of the current debt worked off as possible.  With a sound financial plan, you could probably pay off that car loan in a year, for example.  Then you'd have that extra money, and could reduce your insurance.  If you still had to take out loans, you wouldn't have to take out as much, and you could probably get a lower interest rate than your car payment.  It's also worth looking at whether or not you can upgrade your salary, either by moving to a different NFP, or getting a salary increase in your current job.

Finally, be really cautious with the "repayment for public service" loans.  I read frequently about the federal government looking at changing/eliminating that, and the people I know who have gone that route often get screwed out of a few years because the loan servicer doesn't have an incentive to help them figure out the "right" loan category, so their repayments don't count towards the 120 payments required.  I'm specifically thinking about a friend of mine who is an attorney...if he can't figure it out, the average person is going to have a really tough time.

 

 

[YikesSchoolAgain]

Thanks for the advice. 

Already had a meeting with both the academic director and financial aid. That didn't produce anything helpful. I'm already getting a $40,000 scholarship, so the university is not going to give me any more money. I might earn more through awards as I perform well, but that can't be predicted or counted on.

There's not a nonprofit subtopic, else I would post there. 

I'm not willing to delay a year, as it throws off a lot of things in my personal life. And, Vanderbilt has always been a dream of mine, so I get just as much personal satisfaction out of going there as I do professionally. I started at community college and have been working my way up the ranks to finally attend an institution such as that. I had offers from other schools, but once Vanderbilt said yes, my decision was certain. I'm not willing to go anywhere else, so I am okay with the price tag. Just trying to figure out how to mitigate debt as much as possible. 

My car terms are fine at 2.9% interest. I'd be better off keeping that loan and paying extra cash towards school loan interest since that'll be at least 6.5%.

I'm up for salary review in August and will push for a 7% increase based off my performance this year.  

I know half a dozen people who went through this program and are doing very well in their careers. I've done 2 dozen coffee meetings with folks associated with this school and its programs to make certain I was choosing the right degree for what I want to do. I could have gone for the MBA through Vanderbilt Owen. But for nonprofit work, this Leadership and Organizational Performance degree will serve me much better - both in terms of cost and in academic focus. 

I have access to payroll info at my current company and know I can expect a $25K/year increase 2 years from now when I have my Master's and my supervisor retires. They're grooming me for his role, so if I decide to stay here then I can expect enough increase in salary to justify this degree in the first year alone. Many of the director level folks have Master's at my company, not to mention my own peers, who I must remain competitive with. 

I will heed your advice on the loan forgiveness. Will not count on that. 

Another thought occured to me - I have equity in my home. I might be able to pull that out to pay for school. When I sell the house in two years (part of the master plan, mind you), I can pay all of it off and be done with it. Since my home appreciates at 4%/year, I know the equity will be better put to use paying down higher interest student loan debt. 

[YikesSchoolAgain]

Checking again to see if anyone has any advice on funding my education. 

[rising_star]

There aren't a lot of outside scholarships for MA programs unfortunately. Good luck!

[ExponentialDecay]

I'm not sure why your status as a nonprofit employee would matter for paying for school. afaik nonprofit employees don't get any special benefits.

[YikesSchoolAgain]

On 6/4/2018 at 1:53 PM, ExponentialDecay said:

I'm not sure why your status as a nonprofit employee would matter for paying for school. afaik nonprofit employees don't get any special benefits.

On the contrary, I know multiple people who have received scholarships for school in virtue of their working for a nonprofit. For instance, recently a colleague received a full scholarship to Vanderbilt Owen School of Management to earn the MBA. The scholarship was in conjunction with the Center for Nonprofit Management and is awarded to a nonprofit employee applicant showing merit. 

[iwearflowers]

If you haven't done so already, I would actually talk to the nonprofit you work for and see if they have any thoughts. Also, take a look at the CVs of people in the kinds of positions you're interested in and see if they list any funding sources or scholarships. Finally, if you are part of any professional organizations, they may have fellowships or scholarships available.

[Sigaba]

On 5/21/2018 at 9:27 AM, E-P said:

Finally, be really cautious with the "repayment for public service" loans.  I read frequently about the federal government looking at changing/eliminating that, and the people I know who have gone that route often get screwed out of a few years because the loan servicer doesn't have an incentive to help them figure out the "right" loan category, so their repayments don't count towards the 120 payments required.  I'm specifically thinking about a friend of mine who is an attorney...if he can't figure it out, the average person is going to have a really tough time.

 

 

To E-P's point, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/your-money/paying-for-college/student-loan-payments.html

[ExponentialDecay]

You don't know multiple people, you know one guy. But sure, there are all sorts of scholarships for all sorts of weird things, both national and institutional, and sure you should apply for those. I'd also see if you have any minority angles or specifics of the work you do that could earn you money. 

[YikesSchoolAgain]

1 hour ago, ExponentialDecay said:

You don't know multiple people, you know one guy. But sure, there are all sorts of scholarships for all sorts of weird things, both national and institutional, and sure you should apply for those. I'd also see if you have any minority angles or specifics of the work you do that could earn you money. 

I take offense to your comment on two points. First, nonprofit is not weird. It is a legitimate sector of the economy and an important field to be in. Second, just because I provided one example of my point, that does not mean I only have one example. Your comment was uninformed and dismissive. 

[ExponentialDecay]

ok good luck

[AnUglyBoringNerd]

Hi there, I have also been working in the non-profit sector. I agree with ExponentialDecay, being a non-profit employee wouldn't get you special treatments at graduate school. That said, I don't know which specific issue area is your focus, but if your work pertains to human rights, inclusive/sustainable development, democracy etc, you might be able to find grants created to support specific research/advocacy projects and/or individual researchers. Maybe you can combine what you are gonna study during your Master's program with your current nonprofit work, and try applying for this kind of grants? You mentioned that you work for a nonprofit under a big national brand, so maybe you'd want to talk with your colleagues who do outreach work and have more connections for information about this kind of outside funding opportunities.  In short, there might be more funding opportunities for you from the non-profit sector than from graduate school/academia. 

Just my two cents.

[YikesSchoolAgain]

1 hour ago, AnUglyBoringNerd said:

Hi there, I have also been working in the non-profit sector. I agree with ExponentialDecay, being a non-profit employee wouldn't get you special treatments at graduate school. That said, I don't know which specific issue area is your focus, but if your work pertains to human rights, inclusive/sustainable development, democracy etc, you might be able to find grants created to support specific research/advocacy projects and/or individual researchers. Maybe you can combine what you are gonna study during your Master's program with your current nonprofit work, and try applying for this kind of grants? You mentioned that you work for a nonprofit under a big national brand, so maybe you'd want to talk with your colleagues who do outreach work and have more connections for information about this kind of outside funding opportunities.  In short, there might be more funding opportunities for you from the non-profit sector than from graduate school/academia. 

Just my two cents.

Thank you for your cents! You make some good points. I hadn't thought of looking for research grants. Also, now I'm thinking my company may provide a tuition reimbursement program at the national level. Going to look into it!