Graduate school can be an amazing opportunity, but it can also be incredibly expensive, depending on what school you plan to attend. Just because grad school can have a high price tag doesn’t mean it isn’t worth the investment, but it does mean you’ll probably have to prepare yourself and budget carefully if you want to attend. Every aspect of your life, from where you live to how you spend your free time, will be affected by the choice to go back to school, especially your finances. If you’re considering applying or attending, read on to learn more about how to financially prepare yourself for grad school.
How can you prepare for the costs of grad school?
While there’s no trick to saving money for graduate school, there are a lot of ways you can better prepare for yourself for the financial reality of pursuing a graduate degree. When it comes to tuition, student loans are the most common solution, in combination with cash earnings and scholarships. However, many types of grad schools subsidize tuition in exchange for performing a job like becoming a teaching assistant.
What type of degree you get matters if you’re weighing how financially prudent it is to go to grad school. Business school is one example of a program typically considered to be a reliable degree, whereas the humanities can provide less of a guarantee of higher salaries in the future than degrees like an MBA. An MBA program will teach you everything from accounting to entrepreneurship to supply chain management. You can do coursework in specializations like business analytics, human resources, or organizational behavior, and find out which part of the business world you’re best suited for.
The program you choose has a lot to do with affordability. Use rankings like the ones in U.S. News and World Report to get a sense of how successful a school’s graduates are. Look for programs that use credit hours efficiently, rather than making you pay for classes you don’t need. One way to save money is to avoid the pricey fees for tests like the GRE or the GMAT and find programs that offer alternatives, like this online MBA no GMAT. Undergraduate GPA, letters of recommendation, work experience, and other factors can be used in place of standardized testing. Online learning in general can be a great way to save money on school, in addition to offering students with job or family commitments a more flexible schedule.
What are the best ways to manage money during school?
Cutting down on your expenses as much as you can before you start school is always a good idea. If you’re taking out loans, talk to a financial advisor about how to ensure you don’t borrow more than you need to or agree to an inflated interest rate. Getting a job while you’re enrolled is a good idea, but think carefully about the commitment before you get one. If you take a job that’s too demanding or that requires too many hours, you might find yourself without time to dedicate to your coursework. While working may help pay your tuition, you’re not getting much for your money if you can’t focus on your studies.
If you’re planning to buy a home, consider your grad school costs when you set your budget. A home loan with manageable monthly payments from a trusted lender can help defray the cost of owning a home and leave you with more liquidity to pay for your school expenses. While you’re completing your degree program, homeowners may even consider the idea of a second mortgage if they want to avoid taking out more student loans and need liquidity for school expenses. You can fulfill your dream of being a homeowner and having a graduate degree; it just takes careful money management.
Grad school can open a lot of doors for you, both in your career and in your personal life, but it can be difficult for most people to manage the expenses associated with school. Whether or not to go to graduate school is a major life decision that should be made carefully. Sit down with your friends and family about what to do before you make a final decision, and reach out to friends who have graduated about how they handled the financial aspect of school. It’s essential that you consider the cost well in advance of deciding to enroll, as preparation and money management are the keys to creating a grad school budget that works for you.