A former colleague of mine reached out to me about my
thoughts on looking for programs and paying for post-graduate education. Being
on my third Master’s program, I wanted to share what I know, and I thought that
it might be of more general use:
Hi Edgar. I haven't spoken
to you for some time, but I wanted to ask you if you know of scholarships or
funding for masters programs. You are always in school! I'd like to go but want
to pay as little as possible.
Howdy! Cost is a huge consideration in graduate school.
Depending on what you're looking at doing, there are different ways to fund it.
It will depend on the course of study or the institution though. When I first
went to grad school at Kansas State for English, they offered a funding package
in exchange for teaching a couple classes. I received a tuition waiver and a
stipend of 8000 a year. It wasn't enough to live on, and when the roommate I
had in my shitty basement apartment moved out, I had to borrow money to live.
There was a huge gap in the time commitment and the compensation, but for
someone who was young and just out of undergrad it wasn't an issue. The best
situation was career tech, but that probably won't be replicated any time soon,
and I do wish that I came out with credentials from an institution with a
better reputation than DeVry. (On a side note, I'm not sure how many of our
peers ended up with a job in any way connected to the industry we trained for.
I myself only got lucky with the agency I interned at). For more education
post-career tech, I was really conscious of how much it would cost because I
was still paying off the loans of about 10K I took to get through my funded
grad school program in English. The first classes I took were at the city
colleges, and then when I moved closer to work, at the community college. These
are great deals and I had good teachers. The books for a couple of classes cost
more than the class itself.
For master’s work, the consideration is different. I went
looking for business oriented classes that had an emphasis on nonprofits. There
are a lot of degrees that hit on this - MPA, MNA, etc. I was attracted to
schools using the MBA with a nonprofit concentration if I ever wanted to move
away from nonprofit work. One of the things that attracted me to Concordia was
its sticker price. It was less than 30K for the whole degree, and there were
low barriers to entry in terms of testing. I hadn't taken the GMAT and I hadn't
taken the GRE since 2003. Other schools had much higher sticker prices. For
example, De Paul's school of business was 80K. But the important thing to know
is that schools are in competition for students. I talked to the admissions
folk, and talked about how price sensitive I was, and they offered 20% off, so
it would be ONLY 60K. Which was still too much. I wanted a better name than Concordia,
but it wasn't worth doubling the price for me.
The same thing is happening with Roosevelt. Based on
previous work, I got something like a 2000 / semester scholarship. The problem
is that it only applies to full time work.
Some people have funding options, such as a program through
work. I have a buddy where his work paid his whole MBA. If you're going for a
doctorate, then in a lot of fields you can get more robust funding than I did
for K-State, you immerse yourself in the life of scholarship.
A lot of doctorates don't give you any funding, and you end
up paying for them wither through loans or out of pocket. I would do a lot of
research on the job market and the utility of those degrees before I went that
route - making sure that it was needed in industry. One of the main reasons I
didn't continue on in English was that it was very narrow. The PhD just made
you qualified to teach English, and there are very few of those positions relative
to the number of terminal degrees granted.
I myself have relied on borrowing. Right now, I have about
26K of loans outstanding. But my wife and I both have professional jobs where
we're able to pay that down faster than the normal repayment schedule. I have
something like 250-300 credits, and my wife has taken post-grad classes, so
though I am price-conscious, it has been a huge benefit to our personal
finances.
That said, it is not all costs. As much as I like learning
for learning's sake, more education has helped me professionally, as has my
wife's. The main difference is that being a bit older with more financial
burdens, the education I do undertake is more targeted towards an end goal that
is instrumental in that it will be useful in terms of a job.
I am looking at moving on to my PhD in a couple of years, as
that is a personal goal, but I won't do it unless I'm funded, and that's a big
commitment.
If you have any questions, let me know. And good luck!
Edgar! Thanks so much
for your message. I was wondering of it mattered if I went with a cheaper
option. I finished the program and am now an RHIA, CPC, and CPMA. I am working
in compliance for a health system. I'm a senior auditor but I think I may need
a masters to move to the level of leadership i aspire to. I was considering a
program at Benedictine, which is about the same price as a lot of programs.
Have you known anyone to go there? I am going to check out Concordia.
The answer is "It depends" because so much of it
is who you know and your credentials are secondary as long as you have them for
most jobs and organizations. Like, I'll have that MBA behind my name forever,
and where I got it is less important than that I have it (barring exceptions at
the really elite levels where you'll get judged for not having gone to a top 10
school). Just make sure the school and the program have the proper
accreditation for what you want to do. Otherwise, going cheaper won't really
hurt. The big thing is that your programs will be an introduction to others in
your field locally, so it increases the circle of people you know.
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