Is it really worth going into debt

[Pollitopinpin]

Just found out my school would be about 20k a semester vs 20k a year. Boy did i misunderstand my financial aid letter. This has me wanting to give up on school all together. 

[futurespeechpath1]

This worries me too but remember speech-language pathology is one of those career paths where you'll always have a job and be able to pay off those loans. It's scary but if it's what you truly want to do you should do it. It's super expensive and loans are scary, but you'll get a job that pays well enough to pay them off.

[VS-SLP2B]

8 hours ago, Pollitopinpin said:

Just found out my school would be about 20k a semester vs 20k a year. Boy did i misunderstand my financial aid letter. This has me wanting to give up on school all together. 

I agree with the above user! With a job in the field you’ll definitely be able to pay off the loans. 

Personally, I think the biggest factor you should consider is if you have loans from your undergrad. I have a ton of loans from my undergrad so had I been accepted to a school with a 40k a year tuition it definitely would’ve given me pause. But if you have little to no debt from undergrad I think it’s worth it! 

And don’t forget some schools offer more in terms of scholarships and grants once you’re a student. This might be able to help cut the cost at least for the second year. 

Don’t give up, it’ll all be worth it in the end! 

[Bmay80]

8 hours ago, Pollitopinpin said:

Just found out my school would be about 20k a semester vs 20k a year. Boy did i misunderstand my financial aid letter. This has me wanting to give up on school all together. 

Was this the only school you got into? Eighty thousand for grad school would give me pause too. If you don’t have undergrad loans, it would be at the top end of what I would borrow. Any chance you could take a gap year and reapply to schools that are more affordable?

[LaceySpeechie]

That is discouraging! Personally, I chose the cheapest school I got into because I want to avoid any more debt that I need. I think people are right about the fact that there are jobs available (though you might need to be willing to move/take a setting you don't love/etc.) but also consider your own factors. It might be worthwhile to apply again and shoot for cheaper schools! Something that someone said is a good thing to consider; look at how much you can expect to make salary-wise your first year, and aim to take out loans less than or equal to that amount. I am really passionate about this career but I honestly don't think it's worth going into tens of thousands of dollars of debt, if it's avoidable.

[Sigaba]

FWIW...

https://www.meetsummer.org/share/Summer-Student-Debt-Crisis-Buried-in-Debt-Report-Nov-2018.pdf?_t=1541171524

[AlwaysaFalcon]

I personally chose a cheaper state school vs a expensive private university. However, like others stated I also had undergraduate student loan debt so this is one of the reasons I chose the cheaper school, to take out as few loans as possible. The difference was at least $25,000 not including living cost. Personally this was enough of a difference for me to matter.