Loans

[rack_attack124]

anyone with loans and scared about it? I'm not trying to pay these off the rest of my life. I don't have any right now but I applied to a lot of private schools and even if I went to UNC in-state I still don't have enough money. I'm so bad at saving money. I've had to use every cent I earned on living. 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

1 hour ago, rack_attack124 said:

anyone with loans and scared about it? I'm not trying to pay these off the rest of my life. I don't have any right now but I applied to a lot of private schools and even if I went to UNC in-state I still don't have enough money. I'm so bad at saving money. I've had to use every cent I earned on living. 

I'm sitting on about 40k in loans right now... damn right it scares me!

[rack_attack124]

7 hours ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

I'm sitting on about 40k in loans right now... damn right it scares me!

is that from undergrad? I've only been admitted to one master's program right now. Waitlisted at two. But wow, they're all at private universities, which means taking 60-80,000 in debt! It's hard for me to know if it's worth it because I was checking the loan applications and they give you 10-20 years to pay it off. I'm 25 now and I can't imagine still paying loans off at 45! What's the secret to getting rich quick? :/ 

[kwils76]

I'm just shy of 90k in debt right now; from undergrad and from a masters.

Not thrilling but I've been on gap year this year and have started paying some of it back. It's not as bad as it seems to be that in debt. If you are diligent about payments, and apply for income-based repayment from at least one of your servicing companies, it's very doable. My total payments at the minute are only about $100 a month. not thrilling but not bad at all!

Also helps that I have a very supportive partner who has no debt of his own and is willing to help share some of my debt burden by paying a little extra in bills etc. so that I can make student loan payments.

I felt it was worth it because I had no other way of paying for school!

Also, not sure if this applies to you, but if you are in some sectors, you can get loan forgiveness after 10 years of minimum payments. 

[GradSchoolTruther]

1 hour ago, kwils76 said:

I'm just shy of 90k in debt right now; from undergrad and from a masters.

Not thrilling but I've been on gap year this year and have started paying some of it back. It's not as bad as it seems to be that in debt. If you are diligent about payments, and apply for income-based repayment from at least one of your servicing companies, it's very doable. My total payments at the minute are only about $100 a month. not thrilling but not bad at all!

Also helps that I have a very supportive partner who has no debt of his own and is willing to help share some of my debt burden by paying a little extra in bills etc. so that I can make student loan payments.

I felt it was worth it because I had no other way of paying for school!

Also, not sure if this applies to you, but if you are in some sectors, you can get loan forgiveness after 10 years of minimum payments. 

You'll never pay those loans back at $100/month, which is not a large sum. Better hope forgiveness is still around in 20 years. As for "it was worth it," why is that, besides you have a degree?

Edited April 6, 2016 by GradSchoolTruther

[sjoh197]

No having to take out loans for your masters is obviously favorable to taking them out... but if that is what you have to do in order to pursue the career you want... then so be it. Student loans can cripple some people... but I've found that most people do just fine paying them off. They give you an awfully long time to pay it off. I think I have like 9 grand in student loans and my payment is $90 a month. 

Perhaps reapplying at non-private universities in order to accrue less debt is a possibility. 

[kwils76]

Just now, GradSchoolTruther said:

You'll never pay that loan back at $100/month. Better hope forgiveness is still around in 20 years.

It's income-based, so at current income it's $100/month, which is doable for me.

Presumably at some stage in the future I'll be making more money and will be able to pay it back at a higher rate.

[kwils76]

2 minutes ago, GradSchoolTruther said:

You'll never pay those loans back at $100/month, which is not a large sum. Better hope forgiveness is still around in 20 years. As for "it was worth it," why is that, besides you have a degree?

Because I am going into academia and it's helped me get into a better university for my PhD than I could have done without it, which will increase my job prospects for later on etc. 

"Worth it" is pretty subjective so all I can say is, to me it's worth it.  Can't really help you beyond that....................

[rack_attack124]

1 minute ago, sjoh197 said:

No having to take out loans for your masters is obviously favorable to taking them out... but if that is what you have to do in order to pursue the career you want... then so be it. Student loans can cripple some people... but I've found that most people do just fine paying them off. They give you an awfully long time to pay it off. I think I have like 9 grand in student loans and my payment is $90 a month. 

Perhaps reapplying at non-private universities in order to accrue less debt is a possibility. 

yeah, that's something to consider. That's why I applied to UNC because I'm a resident so I get in-state tuition. Still the in-state tuition is $16,000. I haven't been working much and I have no savings so I still have to borrow that. Living in Chapel Hill is cheap compared to cities but I would have to borrow living expenses too. And yeah it might be what I have to do to get any jobs because I found out the hard way that BS in psych isn't the best for finding jobs. wompppp 

[Neist]

11 minutes ago, GradSchoolTruther said:

You'll never pay those loans back at $100/month, which is not a large sum. Better hope forgiveness is still around in 20 years. As for "it was worth it," why is that, besides you have a degree?

I don't think there's a huge fear that normal student loan debt forgiveness, such as that which forgives after 20-25 years, is going away. The public service one is that is facing an a bit of opposition, and that's the only one that's all that nice, anyway.

Normal loan forgiveness, after the 20-25 years, counts as income. So if you have 100k excused, your income for that year will appear to be insanely elevated. 

Personal note: I'll be at around 40k in debt after grad school, and I'm not horrendously worried. I should be able to at the very least pay interest, and if I can manage that, I'll have about a 10k lump sum due in additional taxes at the end of 20-25 years, gauged at current 2016 tax rates and potential earnings, which will certainly be different thanks to inflation in 25+ years. That's only about 500 dollars a year for 20 years with an additional monthly payments of around $100-150 on REPAYE and its interest subsidy plan (yay for interest subsidies!). 

Edited April 6, 2016 by Neist
Added a bit.

[toxicdevil]

In my field starting salaries are easily 75k+ (full packages including bonus, stocks etc often reach ~170k for top companies [which are obv. difficult to get into]).

For mid range universities living costs + intl/out of state tuition is around 45*2 years = 90k for the complete MS degree.

If you dont change your standard of living drastically after graduating I think most people would be able to pay their loans in around 3 years.(or earlier if you take into account salary bumps over time) 

 

Right??

[rack_attack124]

6 hours ago, toxicdevil said:

In my field starting salaries are easily 75k+ (full packages including bonus, stocks etc often reach ~170k for top companies [which are obv. difficult to get into]).

For mid range universities living costs + intl/out of state tuition is around 45*2 years = 90k for the complete MS degree.

If you dont change your standard of living drastically after graduating I think most people would be able to pay their loans in around 3 years.(or earlier if you take into account salary bumps over time) 

 

Right??

I am not sure. I didn't calculate cost of attendance for UNC. I know I do get the in-state tuition. Don't know much about salary for health informatics but I believed it would be 60-100. Maybe I could pay the debt off pretty fast but i'm not admitted yet. just submitted app this week. I'm working in a restaurant right now so I might save up some money but I'm also trying to pay other shit all the time like car insurance or orthodontic treatment that I'm about to start. I literally dread opening my mailbox because people only ever send me bills. why do poor people even have to pay bills? seriously favorite childhood memory was no bills. I want to be a millionaire fast  

[kbui]

@rack_attack124 Your situation right now will not be solved with a masters program (in health informatics). If you want to get out of debt, there are other ways to do it besides getting into more debt. I'm not sure which types of programs have deadlines this late into the year, but if it's a for-profit school, an online college, or if the school has low admissions standards, that may actually even work against you [1][2]. If you are looking to "be a millionaire," working in a job will not get you there. You have to ask yourself what value you can give people--may that be entertainment, advice, products, skills, services, anything else that you think people will spend their hard-earned money to receive.

Before taking on a mountain of debt and thinking that you can "pay the debt off pretty fast," I would highly recommend reading the posts on the Student Debt Crisis website. They really opened my eyes to the world of student debt and how many, many people regret it. We too often hear the side of admissions and their job placement rates and their student ambassadors, but we rarely see the truth and reality for a great number of people.

[rack_attack124]

2 hours ago, kbui said:

@rack_attack124 Your situation right now will not be solved with a masters program (in health informatics). If you want to get out of debt, there are other ways to do it besides getting into more debt. I'm not sure which types of programs have deadlines this late into the year, but if it's a for-profit school, an online college, or if the school has low admissions standards, that may actually even work against you [1][2]. If you are looking to "be a millionaire," working in a job will not get you there. You have to ask yourself what value you can give people--may that be entertainment, advice, products, skills, services, anything else that you think people will spend their hard-earned money to receive.

Before taking on a mountain of debt and thinking that you can "pay the debt off pretty fast," I would highly recommend reading the posts on the Student Debt Crisis website. They really opened my eyes to the world of student debt and how many, many people regret it. We too often hear the side of admissions and their job placement rates and their student ambassadors, but we rarely see the truth and reality for a great number of people.

Yeah no one wants to pay debt but do you think I'm gonna work in a restaurant the rest of my life? Hell tf no. The point of pursuing graduate study is to get a better job than I can right now. And if I have to take debt to do that then that's what I would do. I don't set the tuition of universities but most kids have to take loans to pay for grad school. UNC is the most affordable option that I will have if I'm admitted. I don't think you fully understand my circumstances and also maybe you didn't realize that I was being facetious about being a millionaire. 

[kbui]

It seemed like you were worried about student loans from the original post, but now it very much looks like you've justified the possibility of loans for your masters program. I wish you the best of luck with your future endeavors.

[Haunted]

@rackattack124: There is what schools cost, and there is what they are going to charge YOU. Are you/your parent Veterans? Have you overcome challenges or trauma or a learning disability? Figure out how your unique history fits into that school's mission statement and SELL THAT NARRATIVE to get some funding so you can do this.

Apply to some state schools and some private ones, some privates schools offer great finaid packages so you end up paying less to go somewhere fancy than you would for a state school. I did grad and undergrad in social work, so I knew going in I wasn't going to be making a pile of money at some later point,  which made it easy to look at a 35-50K a year tuition (before any living expenses/loans for living expenses) and say "screw that." I went to the State U. 

I got all Federal Loans (no Grad Plus loans), and I managed to get a bunch of scholarships, plus work study and I worked P/T. I am coming out of this with debt, but I think all things considered, for undergrad+ grad these days I am coming out of this looking pretty good.

Being broke and living like an animal is routine by now, I'll keep doing it until I break these debt shackles. I'm not interested in income based repayment, I sleep better at night knowing my interest won't add on half again what I took out.

If you find work at a non-profit or at a human services agency, you can consolidate, get an income based repayment, and have it forgiven after 10 years. My friend got her PsyD which ended up being over 200K, and all of her classmates were going to work in Medically Underserved Areas, for example on tribal lands, to get debt forgiveness. If you are interested in psychology or medical anything, working in prisons or juvenile detention facilities could be a decently paying weekend/night job to help you afford school. Being a direct medical provider is sexy and all, but you are right that someone has to do QA, audit things and count the beans for the whole thing to happen. Look at econ departments, because there might be really good funding and access to all the classes you need to do what you want to do with out paying higher tuitions associated with health care technology programs.

[rising_star]

1 hour ago, rack_attack124 said:

I don't set the tuition of universities but most kids have to take loans to pay for grad school. 

I actually don't think this is true. Among my friends in grad school, those who took out loans were the ones who needed to buy things like a car or who had serious health issues which required expensive treatment. The rest didn't take out any loans to pay for graduate school because we were receiving a tuition waiver and a stipend.

[rack_attack124]

1 minute ago, rising_star said:

I actually don't think this is true. Among my friends in grad school, those who took out loans were the ones who needed to buy things like a car or who had serious health issues which required expensive treatment. The rest didn't take out any loans to pay for graduate school because we were receiving a tuition waiver and a stipend.

Maybe you're in a different program but you haven't been talking to the schools that I applied to and they told me that most people pay with loans. Masters are not funded so that's why people have to take out loans. I don't have serious health issues and I'm not buying a car. People do have to take out loans to pay for it. 

[rack_attack124]

26 minutes ago, Haunted said:

@rackattack124: There is what schools cost, and there is what they are going to charge YOU. Are you/your parent Veterans? Have you overcome challenges or trauma or a learning disability? Figure out how your unique history fits into that school's mission statement and SELL THAT NARRATIVE to get some funding so you can do this.

Apply to some state schools and some private ones, some privates schools offer great finaid packages so you end up paying less to go somewhere fancy than you would for a state school. I did grad and undergrad in social work, so I knew going in I wasn't going to be making a pile of money at some later point,  which made it easy to look at a 35-50K a year tuition (before any living expenses/loans for living expenses) and say "screw that." I went to the State U. 

I got all Federal Loans (no Grad Plus loans), and I managed to get a bunch of scholarships, plus work study and I worked P/T. I am coming out of this with debt, but I think all things considered, for undergrad+ grad these days I am coming out of this looking pretty good.

Being broke and living like an animal is routine by now, I'll keep doing it until I break these debt shackles. I'm not interested in income based repayment, I sleep better at night knowing my interest won't add on half again what I took out.

If you find work at a non-profit or at a human services agency, you can consolidate, get an income based repayment, and have it forgiven after 10 years. My friend got her PsyD which ended up being over 200K, and all of her classmates were going to work in Medically Underserved Areas, for example on tribal lands, to get debt forgiveness. If you are interested in psychology or medical anything, working in prisons or juvenile detention facilities could be a decently paying weekend/night job to help you afford school. Being a direct medical provider is sexy and all, but you are right that someone has to do QA, audit things and count the beans for the whole thing to happen. Look at econ departments, because there might be really good funding and access to all the classes you need to do what you want to do with out paying higher tuitions associated with health care technology programs.

No my parents are not veterans and I will say this again most masters are not funded. Maybe you guys are all talking about PhD which is funded I know. I have not gotten anything I want with a psychology degree which is why I want a master's because if I study the right thing there will be better job prospects and the debt will be less than the salary I get when I'm out. UNC is $13,000 in tuition that's why it is a good place to apply. Chapel hill is a lot cheaper than NYC. I don't think I can justify $87,000 in debt from Columbia unless I'm going to make more than $87,000 after graduation...

[rising_star]

14 minutes ago, rack_attack124 said:

Maybe you're in a different program but you haven't been talking to the schools that I applied to and they told me that most people pay with loans. Masters are not funded so that's why people have to take out loans. 

Two things.

1) I didn't say that people don't take loans. I'm taking with issue with your statement that most people take out loans. Do you have any data to support this? 

2) Master's degrees are funded in a number of fields. There are many posts here where people ask about them, list programs that offer funding, etc. So, your blanket statement isn't applicable to all fields though it may be applicable to some of yours. 

In general, my point is that you shouldn't make such broad, sweeping statements. I applied to a master's program at UNC years ago that fully funded those admitted (tuition waiver plus stipend). Obviously this isn't the same field as yours but, it supports my point that there are master's students at UNC who aren't taking out loans.

If you did want to avoid debt, you could try to get a job at a college or university which provides tuition benefits to employees and then use that to pursue your master's part-time.

[ClassApp]

You seem pretty uninformed about this topic. First of all, a 2 second Google search told me that the average salary for a "health informatics specialist" is $61,000/yr. So $60,000 is standard, not on the lowest end like you guessed. If you are really interested in pursuing a career this way, it would behoove you to do some research about both the job market and the job itself. Second, there actually are a lot of funded masters programs in general. I'm not sure about your field, but you seem to be making these vast statements that aren't really true. Third, there are pretty much always some ways of keeping costs low, like merit-based fellowships/grants/aid, research assistantships, or other scholarships. If you are not really competitive for these awards, it's going to be a lot harder. I would advise that you really start doing some research about your options--just posting about not liking loans isn't really going to be very helpful for you.

 

Edit: LOL downvoting everyone who disagrees with you or points out problems isn't going to fix anything! 

Edited April 11, 2016 by ClassApp

[rack_attack124]

8 minutes ago, ClassApp said:

You seem pretty uninformed about this topic. First of all, a 2 second Google search told me that the average salary for a "health informatics specialist" is $61,000/yr. So $60,000 is standard, not on the lowest end like you guessed. If you are really interested in pursuing a career this way, it would behoove you to do some research about both the job market and the job itself. Second, there actually are a lot of funded masters programs in general. I'm not sure about your field, but you seem to be making these vast statements that aren't really true. Third, there are pretty much always some ways of keeping costs low, like merit-based fellowships/grants/aid, research assistantships, or other scholarships. If you are not really competitive for these awards, it's going to be a lot harder. I would advise that you really start doing some research about your options--just posting about not liking loans isn't really going to be very helpful for you.

And you seem pretty rude. It's pretty ridiculous for you to accuse me of not doing research. I thought this forum would be a supportive environment but I see now that it is not. 

[ClassApp]

9 minutes ago, rack_attack124 said:

And you seem pretty rude. It's pretty ridiculous for you to accuse me of not doing research. I thought this forum would be a supportive environment but I see now that it is not. 

What were you expecting? Honestly, what answer did you expect to hear? 

I'm sorry that no one had easy ways to become a millionaire or get rich quick as you may have wanted, but I actually do think that the people here have been very helpful to you--an honest forum that's realistic about grad school is ultimately a hundred times better than fluffed up comments that don't reflect reality. It may be time for you to really consider your options. You're right that taking out giant loans is a very scary prospect, and I genuinely hope that you are able to find the information you need before you make a big decision like that because the only school you can get into costs $80-90,000/yr (not sure if that even includes living expenses in NYC of all places). I'm sure you're going to downvote me again because this isn't "pleasant" but if I were you, I'd rather be hearing unpleasant but honest feedback than pleasant but dishonest. To each his own, I guess.

Edited April 11, 2016 by ClassApp

[GradSchoolTruther]

The OP and others are being sold on the notion that a graduate degree will lead to a magical new career. Wondering why the bachelor's degree wasn't good enough? 

[Sketchitar]

Waiting tables is the secret to getting rich quick.

Not really, but it's extremely flexible (much more so than retail), easy to trade shifts when you need it, and you leave with cash in your pocket every night. I work at a dying restaurant and if I work two doubles and Friday night I can pull down $300-$400 easy. In New York, you could be pulling that a day.

There are some pretty easy to find resources on learning how to save money, just Goggle around and they'll find you. I do it by putting no more than $75 in my wallet to spend from my tips every weekend. Everything else goes into an envelope that goes to the bank every two weeks, and I don't touch that money for anything but school expenses. If I have a surplus (birthday, holiday, Grandma sends money) it goes straight into savings. I work every shift that I can reasonable manage which is weekends right now. In two weeks I'll likely be working five or six shifts a week with at least 2 doubles.

I'm going to a public school and living with my parents because that's an option for me. Get room mates or move back home if you can. Work your butt off every hour that you can manage. Working in a restaurant for two months, two years or even two decades isn't shameful. It's an honest living. My grandfather was a short order cook for 40 years with little education outside of the army--he and his wife raised 7 children while they were dirt floor poor. All of those children have jobs and an education. One even got his PhD and now his daughters are planning on getting theirs after they do their master's. Mine will be funded in part by working in a restaurant.