The world is a big scary place with lots of money worries. After you finish college, all those loans will eventually start being collected after your six-month grace period ends. Isn’t that worrisome? Starting off in a bad, job-scarce economy with $10 thousand to $20 thousand needing to be repaid? There are also housing costs, bills gas, taxes and food to pay for. The "real world” is expensive. If that expense has you shivering in terror, then maybe you should consider avoiding the real world and fleeing to the safe haven of graduate studies.
Graduate school does occasionally mean more loans, but not always, and students who go straight on to graduate school can avoid paying on their student loans from their bachelor’s. According to Staffordloan.com, Stafford, Perkins and Parent Loans can all be deferred under several circumstances:
“Principal and interest payments may be deferred while the borrower is: Attending school at least halftime . . . Unemployed (up to three years) . . . Studying in an approved graduate fellowship or rehabilitation program for the disabled . . . Experiencing economic hardship (up to three years).”
Of course, who really wants to go out into the world and have to put off repaying loans for up to three years because he or she is either really poor or can’t even find a job. Live in your parents’ basement and fritter away your deferment period if you want to, but if you don’t know what you want to do with your degree and are worried about real-world survival, staying in school seems like a good plan.
If you keep on with the education, you will have a better chance at gainful employment upon entry into the job market. Yes, you may accumulate more debt, but your ability to pay it off also rises as you qualify yourself for a higher income bracket, and if you are a smarty, then you might even get fully funded in your graduate studies. You won’t get rich, but at least you will be doing something productive while you avoid repaying your loans.
However, graduate studies are not for everyone. You might hate school. In that case, don’t think that the job market is too ferocious a beast for you to best with only a bachelor’s. Take the bear market by the horns wait till it turns into a bull. You’ll survive somehow.
Hilary Dickinson of mndaily.com wrote recently that, “While some people have speculated that the master's degree has become the new bachelor's - meaning people need more education to succeed at the level the bachelor's degree previously set - that's not always the case, according to many academic officials.”
You don’t need a master’s or a doctorate to get by or even to do well if you have enough tenacity, and if you are going to graduate school just to avoid the bad job market, then you might be making a wrong choice personally. Two to six years of intensive graduate work will exclude a lot of other opportunities from your life. If, however, you are wanting to go to grad school but also thinking about just starting a career, then remember that putting off your career for a few years to continue studying could be a wise investment, financially and personally.
Swayne is an opinions columnist and a senior majoring in English. Comments can be sent to josh.swayne@whitworthian.com.
The Whitworthian > Special Features > Cost of College
OPINION: Grad school can be your haven from the collections monster
Published: Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Updated: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 23:03
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