How are you paying for SLP graduate school?

[futurespeechie]

Just curious, for those of you who have completed/are currently attending/are planning to attend an SLP graduate program---

 

1. How much does/did your total tuition cost? How much would you be willing to spend on tuition for grad school?

 

2. What sort of financial aid/scholarships/tuition reimbursements/etc. are out there? Basically, what can I do to relieve some of the financial stress and burden of grad school?

 

3. Would you recommend working throughout the program, and if so, how many hours of work would you suggest?

 

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Missthang]

I'm in my first semester of grad school. Our tuition is pretty reasonable (almost $6000 for 4 classes and clinical practicum). I just pay out of pocket because I don't want to have a ton of debt when I graduate, but the majority of my cohort does use loans and financial aid assistance. When we applied and accepted our spots, we were given some forms to fill out if we wanted to be considered for GA/TA positions (I'm a GA and can work up to 10 hrs/wk) and you could also apply for scholarships (I didn't apply bc I didn't like the requirements and stipulations on these scholarships; I can explain more if you're curious as to why). Hope this helps!

[SpeechyK]

1. In state tuition is about $5k per semester, I can't imagine how people pay more. I know they do, I just don't know how they do it.

2. Sign up for GA/TA positions, they are the most lucrative of almost any part time job you can have in school.

3. I would totally recommend not working if you don't have to, but that's not an option for me.  I had a TA position the first two semesters, and I picked up whatever part time work I could find for the past two semesters. I currently do wine/beer/liquor tastings at grocery stores and liquor stores because they are very easy to pick up/not pick up depending on your workload, and they pay about $20 an hour.  I would pull from your existing skillset- childcare, sales, administrative, tutoring, whatever you can to find maximum pay for minimum time.  Time is at a premium for you now, so working somewhere for $9 an hour generally doesn't make any sense if you don't have to do it. 

 

Paying for graduate school is the single most unpleasant part of graduate school.  Good thing we're looking forward to a healthy job market :-)

[caterpillar]

1. It varies depending on his credit load. This term, he's taking 13 units, so it will be the most expensive term, and it came out to about $7200. Next term, it will only be $5600. Once he's in-state, it will drop to about $3100. Our ideal cut-off for tuition prices was "under the maximum federal loan allotment."

 

2. Federal unsub grad loans. Grad PLUS loans. He also was given a small GA that he didn't apply for - it was offered with admission. It is VERY small though (he works 5 hours a week for it) so keep in mind that the stats on Edfind about "how many accepted students were offered financial help" are not indicative of the amount of financial help offered. 

 

3. He works 5 hours a week, which is fine as the position is low stress (and also just not many hours). Many of the second year students work 20 hours a week, so several of his classmates have continued part time jobs as they entered the program, but he's expressed that he would find it very challenging to keep up with the requirements of his coursework and work that many hours a week.