Cost Dilemma

mackinaw
Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:54:46 +0000

@freethinker127: If you go into a PhD program, you are highly likely to have your expenses covered by fellowships and assistantships (research or teaching). This assumes you’re really good at math and that you get into one of the better-ranked math doctoral programs.

If, on the other hand, your graduate school study is at the level of a masters or professional (e.g., law, business, medicine) degree, then you’re very likely to need to take on more loans, since it’s pretty rare to get full financial assistance for this kind of program.

I recall telling my son that if he chose to go into a PhD program I wouldn’t support him at all, because if he was any good in his field he’d get a free ride (just as I did when I earned my PhD – after graduating from Reed). He decided for other reasons to stop his education with a BA. But I know from experience as a parent that professional schools (not doctoral programs) can cost a mint – and my daughter is now burdened with quite a lot of loans from an MBA program (though we helped with her costs in part), even though she got through her bachelors degree with no debt.