How to choose a grad school while balancing loans, career paths, and a serious relationship?

[sa_rah_rah]

Do I go to grad school, and if so, where? Struggling with the best approach to the decision-making process.

Comments

[winterthunder]

The six figure thing is sobering, but keep in mind that under the recent federal financial aid reform your loan repayments are limited to 10% of your gross income and will be forgiven after 20 years, or ten if you go into the public sector. You're not alone in being unable to find funding for an MPH; we tend to fall into this little black hole of being a "professional" degree that is nonetheless required by most schools if we want to go on to a PhD program. I'm waiting on one more scholarship decision, but I'm starting to brace myself for the idea of taking out $75000 in loans for grad school this fall. Have you looked into whether your company will pay for part of your tuition? It will probably require you to return after you graduate, but some companies will help out if you can demonstrate that it will help you do your job more effectively.

Personally, I think that *if* the program is a good match for you, it's worth paying for the top notch school. At the graduate level, when you're likely to go right into the workforce, you're paying for that network of contacts and it will be worth it.

The job and the boyfriend are decisions you'll have to make on your own. Presumably the economy will have improved by the time you get out of school, and you've said yourself that your options for advancement without a master's degree would be limited. When you balance the potential for learning more from this job with your boyfriend's desire to leave town, what comes out ahead? Also, if you're serious about this relationship and he wants to move to the town with the top notch school, perhaps he would be willing to put some of his income toward repaying your loans and/or keeping your debts down during school? Not sure if you're serious to the point of sharing finances, but it's something to consider.