Reeling from the cost of graduate school x_x

[Authorization]

After signing up for classes I came to the rather unfortunate realization that my grad school classes cost twice as much as the undergraduate classes that I took at the same university… and found myself pretty damn shocked.

 

Anyone else in a similar position?

[MsDarjeeling]

I wouldn't say I was shocked at all.  I knew grad school classes cost a lot more than undergrad ones, hence one of the reasons not everyone goes.  Determining how to pay for grad school is a huge barrier for lots of people.

[Canis]

MA programs exist (mostly) to fund PhDs and other programs. That's why they don't give funding to a majority of MA students. That's also why they are 2x as expensive.

 

An MA pursued on its own is meant to be a terminal degree for professionals who want to use it so they can further a career, a paying job-like career - not a flip-a-coin-and-hope-for-tenure academic career. So, it's a big investment. Which is why most advisors will tell talented academic-leaning undergrads to go straight to PhD programs.

 

Sadly, without one of the few fellowships out there, an MA means taking out giant loans. It's worth it if it helps you get closer to another goal - so be sure that you're on the way to your goal and that going into debt for this MA will help you get there!

Edited December 21, 2013 by Canis

[anthropologygeek]

Canis- I totally disagree with you. Most schools in my subfield require a masters at a different uni before they will accept you and this is common practice by many university. Also, my phd uni fund their master students as well as us phd students. I also had full funding at my master university so in all I disagree that MA is meant to fund the phd program

[smootie]

Graduate tuition at my school is about 30% more than undergraduate tuition, but many (if not most) of the students in STEM grad programs are hired as TAs or GAs so they get tuition waivers and a stipend, so they actually get paid to go to grad school.

 

My program is a professional one so no waiver/stipend for me

[danieleWrites]

I wasn't reeling. I refused to go to any school without at least enough funding from the school to waiver tuition, even if that meant that I wouldn't get a PhD. I do roll my eyes at graduate tuition rates, though, particularly when I have undergraduates in some of my classes. If they're gonna get the same course, they should pay the same rates, trot on in with the same expectations of baseline knowledge, or GTFO. A combined course with two sections and two separate sets of major projects does not a different course make. What it makes is a bunch of undergraduates looking glassy-eyed and lost when the PhD students talk, or the PhD students dumbing it down so the undergrads can participate. Yes, I did take up this whine with the DGS who chalked it up to university politics, and then we started a lengthy bitchfest about the idiocy of the paradigm of the university as a vo-tech, and now I'm going to wander off and quit griping.

[Canis]

Canis- I totally disagree with you. Most schools in my subfield require a masters at a different uni before they will accept you and this is common practice by many university. Also, my phd uni fund their master students as well as us phd students. I also had full funding at my master university so in all I disagree that MA is meant to fund the phd program

 

Are you doing physical, biological, or archaeology? OR, is this outside the US? Most PhD programs outside the US require an MA first. But US schools don't and they use their MA programs to fund their PhD programs. Of course if you're doing something STEM-like, you can get funding for your MA.

[DCguy]

I went to the same school for my MA as I did my BA. It is a smaller school with no PhD programs. My courses cost as much as a grad and undergrad. maybe if you found a smaller school to do your MA you can find it cheaper?

[MsDarjeeling]

I think it also depends on if you're at a public or private school.  I'm doing my MA at a small private school and yeah the tuition is much higher than at any of the larger public schools.  Despite the cost it was the right decision for me, but I would certainly understand if some students dropped out or transferred elsewhere.

[PsychGirl1]

Yeah... I did my master's at a private university, but I lived at home and commuted, and worked during the program (in the dept as well as a TA). I graduated from a 2-year program with about $25k in loans. I was okay with that, since I didn't have any ugrad loans, I was continuing in a funded PhD program and could defer my payments, and my parents offered to help me pay some of it back over time. The master's program and my mentor were also instrumental to helping me get into a PhD program, so I felt like it was really worth it- and it also gave me a great foundation. Just gotta weigh the pros/cons and find a way to make it work, even if it means sacrifices for a year or two.