30 November 2007 2 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

Paying for schooling can be tough. I’m in the middle of the application process for grad school, and every other thought circles around to how I’m going to manage to pay for it. There’s no arguing how useful a bachelors or an advanced degree is — if, for instance, you work for Uncle Sam, your pay scale increases immediately for each degree you have (even if it isn’t precisely relevant). Higher education, though, is very expensive.

I’m hoping to get through grad school without taking out any loans and I’ll share my list of how I’m planning to do so.

Work full time: I’m only take one or two classes per semester. It will take me a little longer to complete my degree, but it will allow me to earn my tuition while I attend.

Scholarships: There aren’t as many scholarships for grad school as there are for students working towards their undergraduate degree, but I’m chasing those that are available. And not just the big ones. I’ll take $250 here and there, too. There are a few grants that might be available, as well.

In-state tuition: I’m right on the border of being a state resident, for the purposes of reduced tuition. I intend to argue until I’m red in the face for that tuition, and if I don’t get it, I’ll request it again at the end of the semester. There are rules allowing for reclassification of students at the end of term at the school I will be attending.

Fees: By attending an information session, I avoided my application fee. I can avoid others too: my school charges a fee for lab use outside of class hours — if I don’t pay it, I can’t use the lab, but I’ve got a relatively new computer with all the same software,  so I’m not going to pay.

There are a couple of things I’m not going to do, though. I did work study all through my undergraduate program, and I’ve decided against that option for grad school. The pay is just about minimum wage, and I could be making significantly more by spending that time freelancing. I’m also refusing help from my family: if I can’t afford tuition for a semester, I simply will take that semester off.

I’ve been asked why I am so set on getting my masters, if it’s so obviously expensive. When I graduated from college, I thought long and hard about how I was going to be successful on a writer’s salary. After all, the average freelance writer makes around $12,000 a year. That’s not enough to support me, let alone any part of a family. I made set goals, but I was concerned about how I could reach them. As a freelance writer, it can be hard to advance your career. You can only chase clients so many hours and you can only take on so many projects, so if you want to expand your business, you have to come up with something creative.

I decided that one of the best steps I could take would be to go straight back to college, for a master’s degree. With an MA, I would have the credentials to take advantage of a number of opportunities related to writing: teaching, consulting, etc. While the degree isn’t absolutely necessary, it does make things easier.