How to support yourself as a graduate school student

[8215S]

How do people support themselves financially as a graduate student especially in expensive places like NYC? I applied for masters programs in mental health counseling and social work. My original plan was to finish my masters in 2 years and then move out from my parent to support myself. Although I think a doctorate may be my end goal. So if I finish the masters and start the doctorate right away without my parent support, how will I support myself in a place like New York City where the cost of living is so high? How does everyone do it??

I also got into a school psychology doctorate program, which is a PsyD and 5 years. My parent would be willing to support me that long, but my interests were never truly about school psychology as far as working in school environment, which I've heard very mixed responses about. How can I support myself in this long journey? 

[PsyDuck90]

I worked full time through my undergrad and masters, living in a cheap, tiny basement studio in the middle of nowhere Queens. I also went to a CUNY for both due to cost. For my doctorate, I only applied to programs with funding and went to a PsyD in NJ at a state school that offered funding through being either a GA or TA and a good research fit with my mentor. Cost is definitely an important factor to consider because some PsyDs can rack up six-figure debt loads which just aren’t justified based on the average salaries of a licensed psychologist. When applying to doctoral programs, I’d also look at PhD programs as those tend to have more funding, and also look at programs outside of the NY metro area. State schools across the country offer great psych training and it is not uncommon for people to move for grad school, internship, or post-doc, or all 3. A balanced PhD program (most of them that aren’t billed as a clinical science program) train future clinicians and any of the reputable PsyDs in clinical psych will have just as much research requirements as those balanced PhD programs. 

[8215S]

@PsyDuck90What a coincidence I'm from Queens too! How was it when you moved to a different state? I'm worried about finding a place and supporting myself. At the current moment I'm between 3 schools: Fordham's MHC, Hunter's MSW, and St. John's School Psychology PsyD.

So if I go for Fordham, I'm looking into the long term future where I may pursue my doctorate after a masters. I can have almost all of the credits transferred from the MHC to their counseling psychology PhD program which fits my well since I wanted to do therapy with adolescents and young adults for day to day issues. Their PhD program is about 6 years and maybe transferring the credits would make it 5 years. But it is a separate application and It is still just as compatible since they only take 1 or 2 sometimes no advanced standing students. The tution for the MHC program is 90,000 but they give you $5000 per semester if you take 15 credits and you can do an assistantship which would give you $5000 to cover 3 credits/1 class.

 

For St. John's School Psychology Psyd, it's a five year program and you learn a lot of doing assessments and report writing for children. I can still work with adolescents too which is good. But you mainly work at a school whereas I see myself at more of a hospital or private practice, but who knows maybe that can change. This program doesn't give any other funding besides assistantships. You can potentially get a full tution remission assistantship plus a stipend or a half GA, but it's competitive since every other students wants that too. 

 

For Hunters MSW program, it is a well known program in NYC, some even value it more than NYU apparently. I got into their clinical track where you do practice therapy and can work with any poupulation you want. The program does have a big emphasis on social justice, which isn't my main interest since I want to focus on mental health and equity. The program is very cheap though for only $30,000 for the two years. I was thinking I could maybe do this program and become an LCSW or go for a doctorate in clinical or counseling psychology later.

 

Now that brings me to my financial situation. So my mom is still helping me out with my living expenses but paying for grad school is all on me which is fair. She told me that if I do a masters I need to work part time and then after I finish I need to go directly into my doctorate program with no gap year if I want her support. I've taken a gap year now to work full time and earn money to support my mom with rent but she doesn't want me to take anymore time off. If I do the PsyD in school psychology she understands that it's a lot of work and says that I don't need to work for the first four years full time, but I'll probably still do something on the side like tutoring for a little money to help her out. But you can't back out from a doctorate once you're in it and I'm not too familiar with school psychology. I've heard that sometimes the graduates don't like the school system and work in a clinic, which is good but that makes me think if it's harder for a school psychologist to get employment in a private practice or hospital compared to a counseling or clinical psychologist. I like the broad curriculum of clinical and counseling psych where I can get a little bit of everything but the PsyD program is a better financial decision and takes the least amount of time if I want a doctorate. I'm not too familiar with social work either but I like that you do mental health and focus on other aspects that affect someone's well being too.

[8215S]

@PsyDuck90How did you plan the move to NJ? Did you have a friend or family to move in with or did you have to search for a place yourself? Isn't the cost of living also high in NJ? Do you dorm for grad school and would you recommend that as an option considering the cost?

I could do my masters and gain good clinical experience to then move out of my parents place to a good college out of state like NJ. I was actually really interested in Rutgers' Clinical Psychology PsyD program but never ended up applying because of the fear of having no place to live in NJ.

[PsyDuck90]

You can find much cheaper places in parts of NJ than you can in NY. I also worked for several years before going back to school for my PsyD, so I had some savings, and my partner and I lived together. There were people in my program who lived together as roommates. I think some schools may have dorms, but that will be school dependent if grad students have access to those.