Back to College? Six Smart Ways to Cut Costs on a New Degree
You’d think that a guy with a Ph.D. wouldn’t need to go back to school. But Mark Spencer, 53, wanted to quit his photography business and return to the tech world. And despite his doctorate (in chemistry), Spencer figured employers wouldn’t take him seriously without more, and current, schooling. So he took the quick-education route last year, enrolling in MIT’s Career Reengineering Program. After one semester, he snagged a job as director of technology at Agiltron, a photonics company in Woburn, Mass. “The work I do is absolutely great,” Spencer says. “I love it.”
Given that job security is a rare commodity right now, it’s a good time to consider going back to college — if only for a week — to make yourself more employable. An extra diploma or even a short program that teaches you new skills can lead to higher income and better career opportunities. You just have to consider the ROI: How quickly will this investment pay off? The average cost of a master’s degree, after all, is $34,700 at private colleges and $28,400 at public schools. A Harvard MBA: $46,150 for tuition; $76,600 once you add in related fees.
But returning to campus doesn’t require you to relive those undergrad days of eating Cheerios for dinner. Whether you head back to school full- or part-time, these six tips can help you slash the cost.
1. Get the Boss to Pay
“A lot of people neglect to look at their employer reimbursement plan [to subsidize college costs],” says Gabe DeGabriele, founder of the Association of Non-Traditional Students in Higher Education. “There is a lot of money out there.”
The number of workplaces willing to help employees pay for college is surprisingly high. Nearly 90 percent of large employers will reimburse workers for at least some of their educational costs, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid. And Uncle Sam lends a hand too: The first $5,250 a year in employer education assistance is tax-free.
2. Go for an Executive Program or a Certificate
Top schools such as Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management offer three- to four-week executive education programs for middle management and senior executives eager to learn new skills. There’s even a one-day executive education course on how to create a culture of innovation. University extension certificate programs, like the one Spencer enrolled in, are a great resource for professionals eager to burnish their resumes. A professional certificate can be a fraction of the cost of a master’s degree and require far less time. It can also be taken part-time and sometimes even online. “Certificate programs can often be completed in one year, and many employers will look at these certificates as very valuable,” says David Payne, vice president at Educational Testing Service, which administers the Graduate Record Examinations.
The University of California at Los Angeles, for instance, offers more than 100 certificates in fields such as international trade, government contract management, and the music business. The most popular certificate programs at the University of California at San Diego include clinical trials design and management and sustainable (green) business practices. Enrollment at UC San Diego has jumped 53 percent over the past two years.
3. Scour the Web for Special Scholarships
Teenagers aren’t the only ones who can bag college cash. Some scholarships are specifically earmarked for so-called nontraditional students who are older than typical undergrads. Gabe Lerman, 34, a third-year student at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, captured about $6,000 in scholarships by spending five to six hours a semester searching online. That’s a nice chunk off the annual $24,000 tab for tuition and fees. “If a lecture is boring, I’ll jump on the Net to look for more scholarships,” he says.
FastWeb, a scholarship database, lists roughly 1,800 scholarships with no age restriction and about 230 are targeted at students over 25. These scholarships are very competitive and are offered mostly through private foundations and corporations. Some are available for people getting trained in a different field.
4. Look for Low-Cost, Federal Financial Aid
The U.S. government can help you get tuition loans now and pay back interest later. To qualify, you must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Unlike private loans, federal loans have fixed payments, so you don’t need to worry about your interest rate rising. And they come with favorable terms, giving you 10 years (sometimes longer) to pay them off. Grad students can borrow through the federal Stafford loan and PLUS Loans for Graduate and Professional Degree Students programs.
The annual ceiling for a graduate Stafford loan is $20,500. The interest rate is 6.8 percent, but if you demonstrate enough financial need to qualify for a subsidized Stafford, it’s 5.6 percent. For more college cash, a 7.9 percent PLUS loan lets you borrow up to the cost of attendance minus any other federal loans.
5. Hunt Down Generous Schools
More than one in five students pursuing a master’s degree get grants from their colleges, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and this money doesn’t need to be repaid.
Grad students pursuing one of the STEM majors — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — gobble up most of these institutional grants.
When evaluating grant opportunities, don’t look only at the financial aid office. You may want to check in with individual academic departments to assess what type of assistance is available.
6. Investigate Online Options
A growing number of legitimate graduate programs from top colleges have gone virtual, letting you take their classes from a home computer wherever you live. The University of Maryland University College and Penn State are known for their extensive online graduate programs. An online graduate degree won’t necessarily be cheaper than one earned in an actual classroom. But the convenience could shorten the time you’ll need to complete a degree and save you the cost of child care for the time you’d be in lecture halls.
Don’t worry about online courses being inferior to ones taught in person. And the stigma is gone, thanks in part to a federal report released this summer that concluded that students who took all or part of their classes online typically performed better than those sitting in classrooms.
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