student loans - yeah or nay

[meemee]

i am trying to figure out which way i should go.

so here is my story.

i plan to go for my ph d. i am 44 right now. starting from scratch. i am single too. by the time i finish i will be close to 60. but it is a field i reallly want to go into. biologist. ecology.

and of course play the age card. should i go to school part time and work part time or should i go through school full time and take out student loans.

i want my time as a parent. my dd is nearly 7.

i am trying to figure out whether to go with student loans or not? i have already taken out one for last year.

i am debating about the following years.

the field i have chosen (i worked backwards, chose the job i wanted to do and then figured out what classes i want to take) will ultimately pay well.

i was wondering what are your loan stories.

i have talked to a lot of my professors. and they all have said dont worry about the finances. just go and take the loans.

[Just Elsa]

Here's what a professor with a PhD told me:

Get the degree because you love it, not because you think it will earn money. As a financial investment, most PhDs are poor returns. As a personal investment, it can be everything. Especially given your age at the end of this, job opportunities will be scarce. The money you spend is unlikely to be recovered and you're seriously impacting your ability to save for retirement.

That isn't necessarily a deal breaker. You know your finances. If you can afford to buy yourself this time and this education without living on a social security check eating cat food later, I say do it. Be honest with yourself, though. This is not a monetary investment that will recoup your initial outlay. Even if you convince someone to give the excellent job with great pay to a 66 year old, how many years will you be able to hold it?

Ultimately, it's worth more than cable tv and a trip to Hawaii but less than knowing you have a roof over your head when you're 80. You figure out if you can afford it in the long term without pre-counting chickens and go from there. I hope you can swing it, because education is a wonderful thing. Which reminds me, my student loan payment is due...

[SweetPotato]

I'm a geologist and my dh is a physicist-- we were both able to go through grad school living on Teaching Assitantships or Research Assistantships- I would expect that biology would be similar. They don't pay a lot- but typically around $13-18K a year plus full tuition remission. I understand that that isn't a lot of money but it can get stretched a long way if you're frugal (obviously depending a lot on the cost of living in your area- I've noticed that grad students tend to get paid similar amounts regardless of location) If your department can't fund you, I'd look into applying to different schools and consider moving where you can get the best stipend/cost of living ratio.

[octobermom]

We have almost $60,000 in loans (about $12,000 are mine the rest are DH..) DH has a PH.D he was sosposed to hav ea great well paying job... Life didn't get the memo we spent the last 5 years living paycheck to pay check and having to differ those dumb loans... I will do anything to avoid my own child needing any.

Deanna

[Dukey25]

Personally I would work part time and not get the student loans. You can't predict the future and I would hate to be drowning in loans. My DH had a lot of student debt, we didn't think it was a big deal since his degree is in computer science but he graduated right as the dot com bubble burst. Everything worked out fine in the end but we had the time to slowly pay them off. You will need to pay off debt and save for retirement in a very short time. I can't see how you can do both.