School and Student Loans

[Stiganator]

I have roughly 10K of low interest student loans and then a 15K 9.75 % loan that is killing me. I can graduate this fall semester. But I am still up in the air about going to grad school, law school, or med school. If I was going to continue I would try not to graduate this fall in order to stay a degree seeking student. Otherwise I could get a job and see how things go come winter time. One of my friends is a PhD student and he said just power through.

What are your thoughts?

Cliffs
A)Continue on with post B.S. schooling
B) Get a job
C)Something cool I don't even know about


Edit: I am worried about this being too much. Is this pretty average? I also don't live in a terribly expensive city, I have a few reoccurring costs every month of around 700 per month+food and others.

 

[Tiamat]

Go to grad school, pay off your high interest loan with the 8.5K$/year Federal subsidized Stafford loan you will most likely be "awarded". Differ your low interest loan.

Punch right through is my advice.

Edit: don't go to grad school immediately if you have to pay a penny. You should be getting paid to go to grad school assuming you are going for a technical degree.

 

[Stiganator]

Tiamat, did you or are you doing that? It has worked out well for you?

 

[chambersc]

FWIW, I plan on going to law school (currently sitting on about $7.5k undergrad loans and still 1.5yrs left) and my theory seems to be the ongoing consensus ... punch right through and keep going. I'm sure there are charts and sound economic advice that will show you the cost-benefit for persuing a higher education as it relates to potential money down the road but I'm too lazy to google search it.

 

[Modular]

25k is certainly average. I wouldn't worry about paying that off at all. They give you at least 10 years anyways and on top of that its the best investment you'll ever make.

I'll owe 30k when I'm done. People buy cars for twice that every day, just to put it in perspective.

 

[chambersc]

Originally posted by: Modular
25k is certainly average. I wouldn't worry about paying that off at all. They give you at least 10 years anyways and on top of that its the best investment you'll ever make.

I'll owe 30k when I'm done. People buy cars for twice that every day, just to put it in perspective.

Are you sure it's only around 10? I was under the assumption you have at least 30years to pay off undergrad loans so I would assume grad. loans would be something comparable to that.

 

[Modular]

Originally posted by: chambersc

Originally posted by: Modular
25k is certainly average. I wouldn't worry about paying that off at all. They give you at least 10 years anyways and on top of that its the best investment you'll ever make.

I'll owe 30k when I'm done. People buy cars for twice that every day, just to put it in perspective.

Are you sure it's only around 10? I was under the assumption you have at least 30years to pay off undergrad loans so I would assume grad. loans would be something comparable to that.

Well it depends on the lender. IIRC the Federal loans are 10 years (Stafford etc). The loans that I have beyond that (Wachovia) are 25 year loans, but at 9.75% on 15k of loans his payments would be like $100 a month. He would pay like 25,000 worth of finance fees on a 15k loan. I plan on paying all mine off in 10 or less...

 

[Dirigible]

It all depends on what you want to do. If you want to get a grad degree, go for it. If you don't, or don't right away, there's no harm in taking some time off and going back to school later.

My undergrad loans were ~$17k (took five years to graduate). After some time off working I piled on a bunch more when I went back for law school. Whether a loan is too much depends on what you'll be doing later on and how much you think you'll make. For me, the loans were a good investment that have paid off (and are now paid off).

You really should think through what you'll be doing and how much you'll make. Too many people just borrow money for school with no thought to how they'll be able to pay it off. Not all school debt is good debt.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: Stiganator
Tiamat, did you or are you doing that? It has worked out well for you?

I am in the process of doing that. I dont have the high interest loan you do, so I am just taking the loan and putting it into ING CDs, then after 2 years, I will give back the loans and keep the ING interest made off of it ~$1k free.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

If you want to go to law school, the first thing is to get your LSAT score. Basically, if you get a high enough score to get into a top 25 law school, then it will probably pay off. If you cannot get into a top 25 school, then there is a chance that you will just get really big loans (law school costs as much as 40k a year) and won't even get a high paying job. Some lawyers only make about 50k a year.

I go to a top 20 school and even I am not sure to get a 6 figure salary.

If you want to talk more about this, please respond in this thread because I am full on my PMs.

 

[Stiganator]

That's the other thing how do you know what you want to do, I want to do a lot of different things. Here are my initial thoughts on what I'd like to do.

I have a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering.

1)grad school - master's in computer science or MBA, I would like to have my own business/website.

2) Law school so I can get involved in changing laws of this country since they don't make sense anymore

3) Med School - get my MD but don't practice, do research for NSA at their uber R&D facility in fort meade.

I would like to get a relatively high paying job that is not boring and is rewarding (not necessarily warm fuzzy, being a doctor or a weapon designer is rewarding when you complete a big task).

If anyone can put forth their two sense on what I should do to help make up my mind that would be great.

Cheers