How do people finance grad school?

[Anonymous]

I worked, and found a company that helped pay for most of it. Lots of companies have tuition reimbursement programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two friends that worked for law schools (e.g., Georgetown) and received tuition remission. It took longer to finish law school--5 years vs 3 years--but they graduated with significantly less debt.

Another friend attended med school and had some funding (small scholarship/fellowship). They also had most of their loans forgiven through a state loan forgiveness program.

I was fully funded for my PhD program.

I now advise my undergrad students to find a job at a university with a grad program they are interested in, apply to programs that have assistantships, or consider programs that pay off loans after graduation.

For someone planning to go into Big Law, taking 5 years vs 3 years to graduate really doesn't make financial sense from a opportunity cost perspective. If planning in public interest, this might be a good calculation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Parents here. We told our kids we will pay for everything. college, grad school, med school, law school. We are not rich but we live frugally for our HHI and we can afford it somehow.

You are a great parent! Can you explain the “somehow”? What does your annual saving look like? Do you use 529s or something else?

I don't think it makes you a "great parent" to "live frugally" and pay for your kids' law school and med school. I think it's going overboard. But that's just me.

I think the future is very uncertain for our children. Many of the well-paying medical careers of today could be much less lucrative if progressive policies continue. I want to put my children in the very best possible position for financial freedom. If that means living in a $1.5M home, public school K-12 education and one vacation a year instead of a $2.5M home, private schools and three vacations a year, so be it.

There are Youtube videos by med students who paid off $200,000-$400,000 loans in a matter of 2 or 3 years. Their salary out of school will be $250,000+. Think and live like a resident, living on less than $50,000 per year. Save the difference - approximately $200,000 (before tax). In 2 or 3 years, paying off med school loan is possible. For a large loan, $400,000, the student would have to go into a lucrative subfield, surgery, neurology, dermatology, etc. With an income of some $500,000 per year, living like a resident for the first few years, a $400,000 loan paid off in 2 years is doable.

That's interesting. What if you want to be in a position to buy your own practice or buy into an existing practice? My neighbor has the most amazing lifestyle as a dentist. He had no school debt and could buy his own dental practice from an established retiring dentist 2 years out of school. If he did nor have this freedom, he would have been stuck working for someone else and lining their pockets while drawing a salary.

For women, it also gives them flexibility to plan their family. They can take a lighter load (and smaller salary) during prime pregnancy years.

If you can't save for grad school, that's totally fine and there are lots of good reasons for a student to have “skin in the game”. For us, looking at everything on balance, we have decided to save so that undergrad and grad is totally covered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two friends that worked for law schools (e.g., Georgetown) and received tuition remission. It took longer to finish law school--5 years vs 3 years--but they graduated with significantly less debt.

Another friend attended med school and had some funding (small scholarship/fellowship). They also had most of their loans forgiven through a state loan forgiveness program.

I was fully funded for my PhD program.

I now advise my undergrad students to find a job at a university with a grad program they are interested in, apply to programs that have assistantships, or consider programs that pay off loans after graduation.

For someone planning to go into Big Law, taking 5 years vs 3 years to graduate really doesn't make financial sense from a opportunity cost perspective. If planning in public interest, this might be a good calculation.

OP here: good point. Both friends work in public interest fields. My two friends in Big Law (NYC) took out loans to go to Yale and Stanford. They are doing well considering their starting salaries 15 years ago.

[Anonymous]

My DS graduated from med school and had no loans in undergrad. He has loans from tuition, but I handled all living expenses, saving him about $80-100K. He is a resident now and loan amount is based off his income. He has consistently paid 4X the amount due and has paid all thru the pandemic ( Joe Biden suspended all interest). His plan is to live like a resident until the loan is paid in full. He will get there.

I would love to pay off his loans, but as a parent, you then must consider the other siblings who haven’t opted for a pricey graduate degree. Parenting never ends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This can’t be said enough. If you can’t get the school to fund you in grad school, it’s not a good decision. Seriously, it’s like going to a fir profit college fir undergrad. Don’t do it.

Totally depends what field you are entering. Some pay (like a basic science PhD). Some do not (like law school or a Masters in Public Health).

You still may need the degree for your career path,but it will be difficult to find a school that funds most students.

Perhaps you could find an employer who would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents here. We told our kids we will pay for everything. college, grad school, med school, law school. We are not rich but we live frugally for our HHI and we can afford it somehow.

You are a great parent! Can you explain the “somehow”? What does your annual saving look like? Do you use 529s or something else?

I don't think it makes you a "great parent" to "live frugally" and pay for your kids' law school and med school. I think it's going overboard. But that's just me.

I think the future is very uncertain for our children. Many of the well-paying medical careers of today could be much less lucrative if progressive policies continue. I want to put my children in the very best possible position for financial freedom. If that means living in a $1.5M home, public school K-12 education and one vacation a year instead of a $2.5M home, private schools and three vacations a year, so be it.

There are Youtube videos by med students who paid off $200,000-$400,000 loans in a matter of 2 or 3 years. Their salary out of school will be $250,000+. Think and live like a resident, living on less than $50,000 per year. Save the difference - approximately $200,000 (before tax). In 2 or 3 years, paying off med school loan is possible. For a large loan, $400,000, the student would have to go into a lucrative subfield, surgery, neurology, dermatology, etc. With an income of some $500,000 per year, living like a resident for the first few years, a $400,000 loan paid off in 2 years is doable.

Agree. Whenever I make this point with doctors and lawyers, they get their knickers in a knot, get angry and start yelling.

- If the cost of a program is more than 5 X expected annual salary, it's not worth it. Doesn't matter who's paying for it.
- If you can't apply 50% of your salary towards loan payment, you are a fool.

[Anonymous]

Can't speak to law school or med school - but if getting a Phd, go to the school that will give you a full tuition stipend and will offer teaching assistant or research assistant jobs. I didn't pay a penny to the school for my Ph.D.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two different types of graduate school programs - professional (doctor, lawyer, vet, pharmacist, etc.). These are rarely funded. You take out loans, work, go part time, etc., because you are expected to get a nice salary when you're done.

Then there are the Ph.D. track programs - take a hard look if you're not getting departmental funding.

Then there are more academic with possible professional implications - a master's in statistics, for example. Be careful here, because it may or may not be worth it.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents here. We told our kids we will pay for everything. college, grad school, med school, law school. We are not rich but we live frugally for our HHI and we can afford it somehow.

If you can afford 4 years of a SLAC or OOS and Med School for multiple kids, you're almost certainly rich. Between the two, you're looking at a half million per child, most people can't put that much money aside in addition to saving for retirement

[Anonymous]

Discourage your kids from going to law school. Most lawyers do not make enough money to merit the cost, especially at a lower ranked school. And the type of work that does offer a high enough salary to justify the cost of law school is really not for most people. This is a major reason so many lawyers are unhappy. If they are making decent money, they are often very unhappy in their jobs. If they are happy in their jobs, they are probably struggling under the weight of their debt.

Law school is a bad deal and we should probably totally overhaul legal education in this system. It should be a one year masters program with a required apprenticeship after which you take the bar to fully qualify. This is much closer to what they do in the UK and other countries and it makes more sense. Our current system treats all law students like future corporate attorneys even though only a very small number actually go this route, and even among those that do, the number that will stay in corporate law long enough to justify 100k+ in loans is even smaller.

Also, if your kid is interested in medicine, I highly recommend investigating whether they could be happy as a nurse practitioner or similar. The training is shorter and less expensive, and you can still make very good money while helping people. I think people should only become doctors if they have a very strong motivation to practice in a specific specialty or to specific things that only a doctor can do (like if you want to be a surgeon or go into certain kinds of medical research). The training is incredibly long and if your ultimate goal is simply to have a medical career, there are lots of other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents here. We told our kids we will pay for everything. college, grad school, med school, law school. We are not rich but we live frugally for our HHI and we can afford it somehow.

If you can afford 4 years of a SLAC or OOS and Med School for multiple kids, you're almost certainly rich. Between the two, you're looking at a half million per child, most people can't put that much money aside in addition to saving for retirement

I'm not sure the PP actually has a plan. What is with “somehow”? Are they actually saving for this or do they have an asset (2nd home, etc) that they will sell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Discourage your kids from going to law school. Most lawyers do not make enough money to merit the cost, especially at a lower ranked school. And the type of work that does offer a high enough salary to justify the cost of law school is really not for most people. This is a major reason so many lawyers are unhappy. If they are making decent money, they are often very unhappy in their jobs. If they are happy in their jobs, they are probably struggling under the weight of their debt.

Law school is a bad deal and we should probably totally overhaul legal education in this system. It should be a one year masters program with a required apprenticeship after which you take the bar to fully qualify. This is much closer to what they do in the UK and other countries and it makes more sense. Our current system treats all law students like future corporate attorneys even though only a very small number actually go this route, and even among those that do, the number that will stay in corporate law long enough to justify 100k+ in loans is even smaller.

Also, if your kid is interested in medicine, I highly recommend investigating whether they could be happy as a nurse practitioner or similar. The training is shorter and less expensive, and you can still make very good money while helping people. I think people should only become doctors if they have a very strong motivation to practice in a specific specialty or to specific things that only a doctor can do (like if you want to be a surgeon or go into certain kinds of medical research). The training is incredibly long and if your ultimate goal is simply to have a medical career, there are lots of other options.

Agree on law school.

On medicine, agree if you are talking about primary care. The lifetime earnings for a primary care physician are not all that different from the lifetime earnings of a primary care NP/PA once you take into account schooling and insurance costs.

However, for specialities, the gap in earnings between the MD and NP/PA is astronomical. A urologist in DC can earn well over $500K per year and they reach that quickly. The urology NP's top out at about $100K, sometimes a bit more if they take over the lead for the administration. Over the course of a career, medical school is clearly worth it for many specialists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't speak to law school or med school - but if getting a Phd, go to the school that will give you a full tuition stipend and will offer teaching assistant or research assistant jobs. I didn't pay a penny to the school for my Ph.D.

Yes, definitely true for my humanities field. (And people usually get the M.A. on the way to the Ph.D., rather than seeking an M.A. as a terminal degree.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always read about saving for college... how about graduate studies? Are they less a problem in terms of financing? I am worried that eventually, even if we put money aside for college, the kids will still need to take loans which will be a burden for many years after (if they go to college and continue studying after college). Any views (we did not go to college)?

I had a full ride. DH had GI Bill. My mom took out loans. My brother’s employer paid.

Only my XH’s parents paid for his.

Oldest DD is going to do law school part time with loans and we’ll pay her phone and car insurance.