Deciding to go to graduate school can be a huge benefit to one's career, but it can also bring thousands of dollars in debt -- some of which might not be paid off in the near future, or ever.
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According to a study from The HEA Group, the five most popular master's degree programs in the U.S. based on enrollment are business administration, educational administration, registered nursing, social work, and teacher education. The study showed that the most popular doctoral programs are business administration, clinical, counseling or applied psychology, educational administration, registered nursing and rehabilitation and therapeutic professions.
In the study, the debt-to-income ratio after graduation mattered less about which program students pursued and more about where they pursued it. Other than in the nursing field, for-profit universities saddled students with a much higher debt-to-income ratio than public universities.
Nevertheless, debt is debt. Should people pursue graduate programs knowing it can be years before they pay off their student debt? Here's what Ida Salusky, a research associate professor and licensed clinical psychologist at Northwestern University, thinks you should do when considering graduate school.
Salusky said it's important to ask, "How much money do I need to support myself while in school?" This includes tuition, health insurance, housing and everything else that might come up while studying.
"Try to build a small savings prior to entering graduate school. If you can save even a few thousand dollars as a reserve fund, prior to entering graduate school, it can help when emergencies arise so you don't have to fall back on loans," said Salusky.
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A graduate program is not just expensive, it's time-consuming. Salusky said it's best to know before attending if money and time are on your side.
"Do I realistically have five to seven years to invest in being a full-time student 50-60 hours a week, 10 months a year? This is the reality of what doctoral training looks like," she said.
Salusky pointed out that doctoral programs (and specifically those in clinical psychology programs) have different funding structures, some of which can lessen the cost for graduate students.