<p>I plan to be a genetic counselor which requires the completion of a 2 year masters program. The average starting salary of a genetic counselor is around 50k, and the median salary is anywhere from 65k-70k. Would 40k in stafford loans be too much for this kind of career?</p>
<p>Do you have any loans now? If so you need to add it to your current loan.</p>
<p>I used the calculator on the finaid site, put $40,000 as loan over 10 years (not sure you can get a Stafford for that amount but assuming you get some loans)</p>
<p>
Being conservative, I would say it would be too much. I would prefer to have smaller loan. Remember you will be paying this amount for 10 years.</p>
<p>I don’t have any college loans right now, and I won’t accumulate any during my undergraduate career. I’m a transfer student and will be applying to colleges soon, and I have two at the top of my list. A more expensive one which I’d prefer to go to, and a cheaper school which would allow me enough money to take out only about 20k in loans. I really like the more expensive school, but I also want to be realistic, so I appreciate your advice :)</p>
<p>If you don’t have ANY debt from undergrad and this school has a really great program for your graduate program then I would consider it. I would do a lot of comparing the two programs and possibly talking to faculty at each school to see if there’s really a lot of difference.</p>
<p>That seems like a very reasonable loan amount to get the needed certification in a growing profession that you enjoy. You should be able to live independently with a 50K salary and make $460 monthly payments if you live frugally your first few years after finishing.</p>
<p>See how much you will earn in this profession. I say that because I knew someone years ago who is a genetic counselor and she was sorry that she studied this because her pay was not very good (this was really surprising to me)! I think that this field is very rewarding, but you might want to leave no stone unturned in investigating salary.</p>