Can I Afford to Go Back to School?

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Major sucess and scholarship will come if you apply yourself to them. eat more cooked food and buy books from friends and indigent seniros. even textbooks from 1910 can still be used. if you try hard. OMG THE BABES ON THIS WEBSITE SELL TEXBOOKS IN WET TSIRHTS!!

Ryan Colls of OK 11:49PM April 03, 2011

There are multiple ways to save money in university and colleges.

Major sucess and scholarship will come if you apply to enough of them, but start early. Write good scholarship essays and have a check list made for each submission. While is school work on campus, avoid expensive apartments, eat more cooked food and buy books from friends and seniors.

Information is power. Affordtextbooks.com is a great resource used at my university to compare prices and afford textbooks.

Ryan Colls of OK 7:22PM March 20, 2011

If graduate school is in the social services, double check the licensing requirements of ALL the states you want to consider being licensed in. In some fields (like mental health counseling) there are huge discrepancies in requirements from state to state. A program that will provide the necessary coursework/training in one state may not meet the requirements of another state. It's the boat I find myself in....I couldn't find a position in NY and had to move home to NH, where my masters degree is practically useless for licensing purposes...

veronica of NH 3:41PM March 16, 2011

While thinking about the luxury an education affords graduates, I am afraid that i haven't improved very much aside thinking about school. Of the campuses i have seen and have been very interested in; the grants and application assistance i am fed on-line hasn't been resourceful at all. I actually feel scammed by more product information surveying ,it appears, than anything else. My Catholic beliefs have dissipated into a memorial of viewership. My contentment and curiosity have been hurt by tragic and cruel nuclear relationships.

Despite reading, and keeping in touch with, newspapers and commiting myself into a fellowship of assessed and non-graded interaction on websites....my longing and career outlook becomes an educated guess of decades long longevity.

Danton of TX 10:41AM March 16, 2011

education benefits. Some jobs want to keep good employees and offer to help pay for undergrad and graduate studies. Read the fine print when doing this, make sure that you can leave in 3-6 months after the degree without having to pay the workplace back, or that the degree makes sense in the long run.

patty of MD 8:25PM March 15, 2011

Hey Kim, thanks for sharing this article. Deciding on Grad school is no easy task. For some it is perfect, for others it is a waste. My advice; tread carefully.

Debt considerations are a huge issue for grad students. Are they getting back what they put in? The short answer is anyone can afford Grad school with the federal loans offered, but will the career pan out to actually enable loan repayment? Here is another article about grad school.

http://j.mp/bT184W

Kanon of NJ 4:35PM March 15, 2011

Since people often have unrealistic expectations about what returning to school would do for them, my advice is to do a mock job search before you enroll in a degree program. Look at the listings for the type of jobs you'd like to get; this will do three things for you:

1. It will give you an idea of how much of a market there really is for your dream job.

2. By reading the job requirements, you might get a more precise idea of what type and level of degree is needed.

3. The requirements might also help you see whether a degree is the only obstacle in your way, or whether there are other things that would make it difficult for you to pursue the career you have in mind.

Finally, great advice about paying attention to a school's reputation -- I echo your comments, and I'd add that at the very least you should check out a school's accreditation status with the US Department of Education, so you don't waste your time getting a degree from a program without accreditation from a properly recognized authority.

Richard Barrington of NY 4:34PM March 15, 2011

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Alpha Consumer

Kimberly Palmer, senior editor for U.S. News & World Report, writes about making smarter financial decisions. She’s the author of Generation Earn: The Young Professional's Guide to Spending, Investing, and Giving Back.

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