Loans, Work Study, and Living Expenses

nodisrespect
Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:39:18 +0000

So I’m having a bit of trouble getting my mind wrapped around all the financial hoo-ha associated with grad school. Mostly I feel a bit like with grad school they throw as much loan money at you that you want and I don’t want to go into a bunch of debt without really thinking about it. So I have a couple of questions (they are kind of extended so any help offered would be much appreciated):

is it normal to receive funding for masters’ programs? I am going for the MSW and I want to look into tuition scholarships, or I guess any fellowship(?) or what have you.

My financial aid package included a summer work study (even though I’m not enrolled for summer). I am having a hard time finding a work study position (and plus I’m really lazy and depressed and honestly just haven’t been looking) so I am trying to find out about converting work study to a loan. Since it’s only for the summer semester, will they give me the full amount? Will it be totally separate from the rest of my aid or will it somehow come out of other loan money? What are the pros and cons of work study vs converting work study to a loan?

I could live at home and commute every day but really I’d like to just live on campus and get it over with. However, if I stayed at home that’d put a lot of money in my pocket. Do you think it’s better to live on campus in a better environment or stay home only to save? I think I would probably have enough refund money that I could live on a tight budget without having to get a job (other than work study, I suppose) but I did want to have some kind of regular job. Is it recommended to work during grad school just for extra income? And how does that affect the fafsa for next year, if at all?

Are there any secret money loopholes that I just don’t know about or how to access? For example, I read some things on my school’s website that they offer extra loans for things like computers and even have an “emergency” loan where you can just go to the bursar and get 200$.

Mostly I’m just becoming a little overwhelmed with how to manage the financial aspects, plus make decisions on things like living expenses. I feel kind of guilty just accepting all this money (even though I know it isn’t free cuz I’ll have to pay it back later, lol) so I WANT to cut corners/work independently but I don’t know how reasonable or likely these things are.