Grad School Add-Up

One of the goals I’ve listed in the sidebar is returning to grad school. The problem is this isn’t exactly a long-term goal. I’m planning to apply next summer and begin in the fall of 2009. The long-term payout makes sense, but these loans are going to be a staggering amount to stomach. Right now, I’m pretty ignorant on how to go about securing the right loans and the right financial aid, but hopefully I’ll round up the right advice before then and wade through it here. I’ve also put together a financial evaluation of the top 6 schools I’m looking at – not to influence my decision, but just to get a sense of how much money we’re really talking about when it comes down to each one:

[Tuition, Room & Board, Books, Living Expenses, Mandatory Fees for 2 years]
- Stanford $150,814
- Harvard $146,600
- Columbia $144,128
- NYU $142,488
- Northwestern $137,252
- Duke $122,416

All of the cost estimates are given by the schools’ websites, so you’ve got to imagine they’re low-balling just a little. I’ll take a ballpark average of $145,000 for two-years. Hopefully I’ll cover half of those costs with pure financial aid. That comes down to $72,500. If I want to minimize the amount of loans I take out to be only about a third of my total cost, then I’m going to need about $50,000 on the first day of classes. Right.