<story><title>I cannot afford to go back to engineering school</title><url>https://medium.com/p/4ee09a99696e</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rayiner</author><text>I agree with the ultimate sentiment, which is that it&amp;#x27;s generally inadvisable to try and pay your way through school these days. The federal government will let you and your parents borrow as much as you need to pay for school, and you&amp;#x27;ll make more money after you finish your degree, so your efforts are better spent trying to finish in as few semesters as possible to minimize the amount of money you need to borrow instead of trying to pay for things as you go.&lt;p&gt;This is an area, unfortunately, where kids from wealthier families have a huge advantage. Even if your parents aren&amp;#x27;t willing to pay for college for you, they are much less likely to be hesitant to take PLUS loans on your behalf that they expect you to pay back. And as a general matter, people who came from wealthier backgrounds are much less afraid of debt and leverage.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not saying that it&amp;#x27;s the most desirable state of affairs. My total cost of attendance in the early 2000&amp;#x27;s at Georgia Tech (in-state) was only $10-12k (including housing and food, tuition was just a few thousand) which I could make during the summer. But that&amp;#x27;s increasingly something that&amp;#x27;s not possible, even at state schools. And under the new paradigm, debt is the way to go. Especially with the new PAY-E repayment terms.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fixxer</author><text>It gets stranger with graduate school.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m currently a PhD student. I quit a fairly lucrative trading career in 2010 and went back to school without any intention of doing a GRA (I was fine with self-funding; to be honest, I wanted to not have a boss for a while)... that lasted one semester.&lt;p&gt;My adviser realized she liked the idea of paying 1&amp;#x2F;10 my old salary and getting an actual software engineer on her staff. I&amp;#x27;m not one to complain or turn down money, so I took the gig and I&amp;#x27;m near finished with the degree.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Moral of the story #1: Go back to school for a PhD with a boat load of cash in your pocket, legitimate skills and solid work experience. You won&amp;#x27;t have to pay tuition.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;My wife and also decided to start a family during this time. We paid for her insurance out of pocket. Once the little guy came into the world, we started getting pamphlets in the mail from the state (aka the broke state of Illinois) regarding free programs (health insurance, food and formula vouchers) that we qualified for due to my lowly GRA salary (my wife is a stay-at-home mom). They don&amp;#x27;t care about or penalize high savings; these program managers just want to get as many qualified participants on the dole as possible to justify their existence. &amp;quot;Need&amp;quot; is not important; quotas are.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Moral of the story #2: Quit producing taxable income, go back to school, breed like a rabbit. The state will provide.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I realize this may sound harsh to those students currently getting by thanks to federal grants, but if you want to fix the problem, we need to get rid of these fucking programs. Prices will drop. All these loans accomplish is artificially inflating demand and putting graduates deep in debt. It&amp;#x27;ll be messy, sure, but the system is not sustainable in current form.</text></comment>
<story><title>I cannot afford to go back to engineering school</title><url>https://medium.com/p/4ee09a99696e</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rayiner</author><text>I agree with the ultimate sentiment, which is that it&amp;#x27;s generally inadvisable to try and pay your way through school these days. The federal government will let you and your parents borrow as much as you need to pay for school, and you&amp;#x27;ll make more money after you finish your degree, so your efforts are better spent trying to finish in as few semesters as possible to minimize the amount of money you need to borrow instead of trying to pay for things as you go.&lt;p&gt;This is an area, unfortunately, where kids from wealthier families have a huge advantage. Even if your parents aren&amp;#x27;t willing to pay for college for you, they are much less likely to be hesitant to take PLUS loans on your behalf that they expect you to pay back. And as a general matter, people who came from wealthier backgrounds are much less afraid of debt and leverage.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not saying that it&amp;#x27;s the most desirable state of affairs. My total cost of attendance in the early 2000&amp;#x27;s at Georgia Tech (in-state) was only $10-12k (including housing and food, tuition was just a few thousand) which I could make during the summer. But that&amp;#x27;s increasingly something that&amp;#x27;s not possible, even at state schools. And under the new paradigm, debt is the way to go. Especially with the new PAY-E repayment terms.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>anigbrowl</author><text>&lt;i&gt;as a general matter, people who came from wealthier backgrounds are much less afraid of debt and leverage.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;True, the debt seems a lot smaller in that context. I&amp;#x27;m (very slightly) optimistic that the new rules which cap student loan payments as a % of income and also subsidize public service work will make this burden a little lighter and less intimidating.&lt;p&gt;But at bottom, it&amp;#x27;s still a terrible problem. Not everyone is a financial wizard, and after an unpleasant brush with debt as a youth I&amp;#x27;ve been largely allergic to it since. It&amp;#x27;s disappointing that people who want to take a fiscally conservative approach and pay up front or as they go are finding that becoming ever more impractical, thereby limiting their economic opportunity and productivity. Although many schools offer scholarships and suchlike, they&amp;#x27;re far from transparent.</text></comment>