Is it better to pay the big bucks for grad school or spend it on undergrad

[Anonymous]

And hope they can somehow pay for grad school on their own. How important is it now to have a graduate degree?

[Anonymous]

Don't spend big bucks on either. You can get a good education without spending big bucks. Go to a community college for 2 years and then transfer to a 4-year college.

A graduate degree's importance depends on the work you want to do. Graduate from college and work for a few years before you decide whether a graduate degree is worth it. Some companies will pay for your graduate degree while you work (mine did).

[Anonymous]

Depends entirely on what they want to do. I paid for my MBA myself but had been out of college a few years (as is generally required for the god MBA programs) and had obviously good job prospects coming out of grad school so loans were not a big risk.

[Anonymous]

Depends really on what kind of student you are. I personally would not spend a lot of money on an Ivy or liberal arts school. Go to an in state, 4 year institution. Then spend your money on a prestigious graduate school.

I would avoid going to a community college if you have decent enough grades to get into a 4 year institution. It makes it a bit more difficult to get into a law school or med school IF you plan to do that later on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends really on what kind of student you are. I personally would not spend a lot of money on an Ivy or liberal arts school. Go to an in state, 4 year institution. Then spend your money on a prestigious graduate school.

I would avoid going to a community college if you have decent enough grades to get into a 4 year institution. It makes it a bit more difficult to get into a law school or med school IF you plan to do that later on.

I agree with this 100%

[Anonymous]

It also depends what fields you are looking at. If you're in sciences, you shouldn't be paying for grad school (if you can't get funding for it, you probably aren't good enough to go).

[Anonymous]

I'm not going to weigh in on undergrad, because opinions vary so much.

In terms of grad school, it really depends on what they want to do. If they intend to get a PhD, especially in a STEM field, most likely they will be fully funded (and often fully funded means tuition as well as a stipend). Many masters degrees are more or less like this as well (not all); often tuition and sometimes even living expenses is paid by fellowships/TA/RAships (or you might only need to take out 10-20K to cover the rest of your living expenses). However if you want a professional degree, loans are pretty much necessary unless your parents are helping you out (medical school, MBA, law school). Law school, you can get scholarships with a great LSAT score or if you are going at night sometimes your employer will help pay for it, but if you're aiming for a top 10 school, it's unlikely. Sometimes for med school going in state helps out, but it's still expensive.

So YMMV depending on what career path they decide to take. In many careers a graduate degree is entirely necessary, but the degree to which funding is available is completely field dependent.

[Anonymous]

In less you are going to be a doctor or MBA, I would focus on graduate school and a cheaper undergraduate program. For a doctor, I care and it is important to get into a good medical school but for everyone else, I don't think its worth it anymore.

[Anonymous]

OP Here: Good advice. Trying to figure out how much to save for college for my kids. But I'm sure if I should save for graduate school also. It sounds like College scholarships in undergrad are hard to come by. And maybe Graduate school can be partially funded by a job or through a fellowship if in the STEM field.

[Anonymous]

for any field other than banking, consulting, or trading I would say go to instate flagship public and then spend money on grad school if needed.

If you are dead set on 'fiNNance' (yes i spelled it like that on purpose) or being a strategy consultant at a top firm, then if you get into an ivy or otherwise known 'target' school, it might be worth it to spend on UG.

[Anonymous]

In less you are going to be a doctor or MBA, I would focus on graduate school and a cheaper undergraduate program. For a doctor, I care and it is important to get into a good medical school but for everyone else, I don't think its worth it anymore.

Is this just a personal opinion that you would prefer a doctor who goes to a good medical school? Because among friends of mine who are starting off residency, where you go to medical school is completely unimportant in terms of your ability to be employed in a relatively lucrative position compared to just about any other profession. You can go to a lower ranked medical school and still make a decent living--we need doctors. If you want the most competitive specialty, or want to work at a big hospital like Hopkins or Harvard, ok sure, prestige matters. But getting into medical school and passing the boards is so rigorous that even those who went to state schools get residencies and eventually end up in positions that are secure and pay the bills.

Contrast that to lawyers; there are a lot of under-employed lawyers out there who didn't go to top schools. Most people who land relatively secure jobs come out of Harvard and the like. There are a lot of people who have 200K+ in debt whose earning potential will top out well below 6 figures.

In the finance world, where you went to school really matters. If you want to land an investment banker job or a job with a big consulting firm, often an ivy league degree helps. Definitely is important for MBA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

In less you are going to be a doctor or MBA, I would focus on graduate school and a cheaper undergraduate program. For a doctor, I care and it is important to get into a good medical school but for everyone else, I don't think its worth it anymore.

Is this just a personal opinion that you would prefer a doctor who goes to a good medical school? Because among friends of mine who are starting off residency, where you go to medical school is completely unimportant in terms of your ability to be employed in a relatively lucrative position compared to just about any other profession. You can go to a lower ranked medical school and still make a decent living--we need doctors. If you want the most competitive specialty, or want to work at a big hospital like Hopkins or Harvard, ok sure, prestige matters. But getting into medical school and passing the boards is so rigorous that even those who went to state schools get residencies and eventually end up in positions that are secure and pay the bills.

Contrast that to lawyers; there are a lot of under-employed lawyers out there who didn't go to top schools. Most people who land relatively secure jobs come out of Harvard and the like. There are a lot of people who have 200K+ in debt whose earning potential will top out well below 6 figures.

In the finance world, where you went to school really matters. If you want to land an investment banker job or a job with a big consulting firm, often an ivy league degree helps. Definitely is important for MBA.

this times 1000.

Residency is what matters. you can get ultra elite residencies from even so called 'low' ranked allopathic schools because boards are the great equalizer.