Loans, Work Study, and Living Expenses

FishOutOfWater
Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:24:28 +0000

I know of a MSW/PhD student who lives about 30 minutes away from campus in order to save even more money. Her rent is basically half of where we live for sharing a house. It’s ridiculous. As a grad student, I praise her for going to money-saving route and knowing that as a grad student, she doesn’t really need to be on campus. She calculated that even with gas, it was way cheaper to live at home. The only reason to live on-campus or literally next to it is if you have friends who are in the area.



This is what this MSW student is going to be doing to save money next year. I got an internship 45 minutes away for my 2nd year, and I arranged my classes to only have them one day per week. While that one day a week commute will be a pain, the other three days I’ll be able to walk to my internship. Currently my partner and I are living in a cramped, extremely overpriced one-bedroom walking distance from campus. In the new city we’ll be living in a 2 br / 2 bath in a luxury complex and saving about $1200 - $1300 in rent-related expenses. While we’ll be using more gas it won’t be $1200 worth! You might look into arranging your internship in a cheaper city and commuting and see if it works for you.

As others have said, financial aid outside of loans is not typical in MSW programs, although you can check with your school and see if they offer any stipends or scholarships. (mine has a few.) You may also want to look into internship placements and see if you can find one that pays you or offers some kind of stipend. If you don’t feel like you have enough loans in your package you can also get a Grad PLUS loan. I’d also try to look for a work-study position that’s laid back and will give you time to do your homework. Good luck.