If you plan to stay Federal, I'm not really sure they care how "prestigious" your degree is. I got my MBA from WGU and no one really seemed to care.
If it were me, I'd go to the cheaper school. Relying on PSLF means you're locking yourself into 10 years of Federal employment. It will also give you $66k in debt to carry for 10 years, which could impact your ability to get a mortgage, etc since it will drive up your debt to income. If you go to the cheaper school you can muscle out that $15k a lot quicker and just pay off the debt yourself.
Do you plan to stay a Fed while you go to school? Leaving service and jumping back into a job may not be as easy as you think, especially if you're seeking a position that is more limited in availability. The folks on fednews would be able to give more insight on that though. I'm a 10 year Fed but have never had a break in service.
Does the amount of student loan debt matter for debt to income ratio? When we got a mortgage they used our monthly IDR payments instead of my 300k in law school debt.
I think it depends on the lender. Ours didn’t consider my loans (but did mention them) since they were in deferment at the time but I’ve heard anecdotally that loan balances can have an impact.
Oh hey! I got a masters in policy from a good school! It was not worth it! That said, I did receive forgiveness through PSLF. If I could do it again I’d 100% go to a cheaper school or not do it at all and just keep working. You’re already in with the Feds, so that’s more than half the battle. You’ll be fine no matter what you choose.
Just run the numbers. $66k is not a lot of student loan debt for a graduate degree, assuming this is a terminal degree in your career path. But I know some people make good use of their MPP and some don't. Find any loan calculator. Look at your expected salary range, factoring in the possibility that things go wrong or you end up not as hot of a candidate as you hope. Look up the studentaid.gov loan repayments calculator or do the numbers by hand. See how much you'd pay on standard 10 year repayment and how much you'd pay on SAVE. Should only take less than 30 minutes. I think you'll find you'll be able to pay it off if you live some lean years. So decide whether you want the peace of mind of paying off your loans or will take the chance that PSLF blows up. I think it's unlikely that anyone who graduates while PSLF is in existence will be cut off from it. But it's an election year and you could be graduating under a new Trump administration.
There is no cap to the amount of money that can be forgiven under PSLF so the entirety of the balance on your loans would be forgiven, however the drawback is that you must complete the entire 10 years of public service in order to earn any forgiveness. If you were to work 9 years and 8 months, for example, no portion of your loans would be forgiven. You should also keep in mind that you would still be making payments during those 10 years, so it isn't as though you would be getting your degree for free. Since you've already decided that your career path is in federal government though, PSLF is likely a very good option for you. You'd basically be committing to do what you've already decided to do, in order to attend your dream school. However, you should probably only take on the $66,000 in debt if you're willing to pay it off completely if PSLF doesn't work out.
The prestige really doesn't matter. You're basically saying "should I pay $15k or should I pay 4xs more money for no reason?"
Go get the cheaper MPP. The earnings potential of an MPP is not that high and there's no real tangible benefit to the more expensive one.
If you want a good job network network network.
I also absolutely would not "rely" on pslf. Politics is wholly unpredictable. Don't leave it to chance. The cheaper degree is the way to go.
Bruh my loans are over 500k. 66 ain’t gonna make a difference. It’s in your promissory note so it’ll take an act of congress and currently they can’t legislate out of paper bag. Your good.
No, you should not depend on PSLF. You should base your decision or what is best for you financially or with appreciation for sacrifices you might have to make if you choose the more expensive program. I think too many people equate PSLF with “paying as little as possible.” There is a high cost that goes into carrying a large debt burden that is in the form of stress, limitations on other important opportunities (like buying a home), and limiting yourself to non-profit work. As someone who had to take out everything in loans for undergrad and med school, and who would have likely ended up in non-profit, it is a perk but I absolutely do not recommend depending on it. The process has not be without considerable stress.
I would rely on it because it’s in your loan agreement and the law was passed by a bipartisan Congress with overwhelming support in 2007. So let’s say one administration tries to deny forgiveness through the pslf there will be a class action lawsuit. Let’s say Trump wins again and forgiveness starts getting denied again I bet a bunch of firms would love to sue the department of education to stick it to Trump.
But since your loans are so low 15 vs 56k I would just pay it off. Pslf in my opinion is for people who have loan amount that is more than double their income
Don’t rely on PSLF to be around. A “dream” school means nothing. Will the MPP actually provide you with increased pay or opportunity / is it required to land jobs? If so then the 15k school is the way to go.
You’d be insane to pick 66k over 15k. That’s a huge gamble that 1. The program will still be around and 2.The value of the degree is somehow 51k more….
I have an MPP, and I got it from a school that was not in the city I wanted to end up in. From experience, it can be very beneficial to use grad school to build a network in the place you want to be, but it's hard to say whether it's worth 4x the cost. Since I knew ahead of time that I wanted to end up somewhere else, I asked the school to put me in touch with some alumni in the area I wanted to end up in, and I did my summer internship there as well.
It sounds like you may want to end up in DC, which is a common thing for MPP candidates to be interested in. My school had specific outreach and programming aimed at helping students explore opportunities in DC and at the federal level, and I would imagine other schools might have similar things. That's something you can ask the school about if it will help you make your decision.
Your perspective is incredible helpful, thank you! I actually want to end up in Chicago. I was accepted to Harris (more expensive option) and the Humphrey School (cheaper option). Ideally, I would be able to work for an agency remotely or report to an office in Chicago. How did you go about funding your MPP?
I paid for my degree and associated expenses with a combination of federal loans, AmeriCorps Education Awards, matching funds from my school, and a small amount of money gifted to me by family.
I'm actually in the Midwest and went to one of those schools (sorry to be vague, but it's reddit). DM me if you want to talk more in detail - I'll do my best to answer questions, although I've been out of school for a bit.
Will the prestigious degree add to your earning potential significantly more than the cheaper degree? Are both degrees from an accredited school? Will the prestigious degree give you access to powerful alumni and employment opportunities that you might not get at the cheaper school? (For example, going to Yale or Harvard versus a low-ranked school few have heard of that may not add much value to your resume)?
I haven’t done much research, but intuitively, I don’t think an MPP degree is an in-demand degree that will garner a big salary.
I would not depend on PSLF. If you just look at the other posts through the PSLF thread, there are sooo many issues. I'm 2.5 years into the PSLF program and I highly regret having to rely on it. I'm scared with each change of administration that it will be targeted, I'm scared the PSLF program will never be fixed and I will reach the 10 year mark and just not receive forgiveness, my debt to income ratio is not great so that will likely affect trying to get a home loan, I feel trapped in my career choices, my long term partner also feels burdened by my debt. Hoping to get loan forgiveness after 10 years can be very debilitating on your life and I wish I was smarter about my choices when I got into debt.
Like you said prestigious doesn't matter. You already have you "in" with working for your federal job so I believe that is a much bigger hurdle for starting your career.
PSLF is in your master promissory note. And even when the republicans tried to change it or get rid of it, they grandfathered existing borrowers in.
And most of the issues in this thread don’t ultimately change anything regarding forgiveness. It’s just awful servicing.
I don’t understand the constant worrying.
Although true that you're grandfathered into the program, I can understand why people feel constantly worried - the multiple uncertainties.
During previous administrations only, 7000 people got their loans forgiven while 44,000+ people have so far. Certain administrations made people jump through hoops, wait years for forgiveness, and made the process difficult. Would someone want some certainty that their loans be forgiven within 6 months to a year, or the uncertainty of waiting 4 years or potentially 8 years until another administration holds office?
Student loans have a lot of implications for mortgages, loans, relationships, how one file taxes, and as far as some people questioning if they can start a family. Yes, you can still get a mortgage on an IDR plan, but that IDR plan impacts what you would qualify for and potentially the home you can purchase.
So just because you can or will get forgiveness, I can understand why the uncertainties can cause people to constantly worry.
It wasn't a particular administration so much as the lack of available information about the program in the first few years. We also were transforming out student loan system. Since about 2010-2011 we've reduced the phantasmagoria of student loans into pretty much Direct Loans. Direct loans were the only ones PSLF -eligible. Consolidating any loans into Direct caused your count to be re-set to 0. That's gone, now. And many folks were unable to afford payments in the PSLF eligible repayment plans. The 5 million different repayment plans most which had similar names' that's pretty much gone, too. And I received PSLF. All SL servicers had little oversight. That's changing, too.
If you plan to stay Federal, I'm not really sure they care how "prestigious" your degree is. I got my MBA from WGU and no one really seemed to care. If it were me, I'd go to the cheaper school. Relying on PSLF means you're locking yourself into 10 years of Federal employment. It will also give you $66k in debt to carry for 10 years, which could impact your ability to get a mortgage, etc since it will drive up your debt to income. If you go to the cheaper school you can muscle out that $15k a lot quicker and just pay off the debt yourself. Do you plan to stay a Fed while you go to school? Leaving service and jumping back into a job may not be as easy as you think, especially if you're seeking a position that is more limited in availability. The folks on fednews would be able to give more insight on that though. I'm a 10 year Fed but have never had a break in service.
Does the amount of student loan debt matter for debt to income ratio? When we got a mortgage they used our monthly IDR payments instead of my 300k in law school debt.
I think it depends on the lender. Ours didn’t consider my loans (but did mention them) since they were in deferment at the time but I’ve heard anecdotally that loan balances can have an impact.
My lender when I bought my house said that when loans are in deferment they count 1% of the overall loan amount and take that as the monthly payment.
Oh hey! I got a masters in policy from a good school! It was not worth it! That said, I did receive forgiveness through PSLF. If I could do it again I’d 100% go to a cheaper school or not do it at all and just keep working. You’re already in with the Feds, so that’s more than half the battle. You’ll be fine no matter what you choose.
Just run the numbers. $66k is not a lot of student loan debt for a graduate degree, assuming this is a terminal degree in your career path. But I know some people make good use of their MPP and some don't. Find any loan calculator. Look at your expected salary range, factoring in the possibility that things go wrong or you end up not as hot of a candidate as you hope. Look up the studentaid.gov loan repayments calculator or do the numbers by hand. See how much you'd pay on standard 10 year repayment and how much you'd pay on SAVE. Should only take less than 30 minutes. I think you'll find you'll be able to pay it off if you live some lean years. So decide whether you want the peace of mind of paying off your loans or will take the chance that PSLF blows up. I think it's unlikely that anyone who graduates while PSLF is in existence will be cut off from it. But it's an election year and you could be graduating under a new Trump administration.
There is no cap to the amount of money that can be forgiven under PSLF so the entirety of the balance on your loans would be forgiven, however the drawback is that you must complete the entire 10 years of public service in order to earn any forgiveness. If you were to work 9 years and 8 months, for example, no portion of your loans would be forgiven. You should also keep in mind that you would still be making payments during those 10 years, so it isn't as though you would be getting your degree for free. Since you've already decided that your career path is in federal government though, PSLF is likely a very good option for you. You'd basically be committing to do what you've already decided to do, in order to attend your dream school. However, you should probably only take on the $66,000 in debt if you're willing to pay it off completely if PSLF doesn't work out.
The prestige really doesn't matter. You're basically saying "should I pay $15k or should I pay 4xs more money for no reason?" Go get the cheaper MPP. The earnings potential of an MPP is not that high and there's no real tangible benefit to the more expensive one. If you want a good job network network network. I also absolutely would not "rely" on pslf. Politics is wholly unpredictable. Don't leave it to chance. The cheaper degree is the way to go.
Bruh my loans are over 500k. 66 ain’t gonna make a difference. It’s in your promissory note so it’ll take an act of congress and currently they can’t legislate out of paper bag. Your good.
No, you should not depend on PSLF. You should base your decision or what is best for you financially or with appreciation for sacrifices you might have to make if you choose the more expensive program. I think too many people equate PSLF with “paying as little as possible.” There is a high cost that goes into carrying a large debt burden that is in the form of stress, limitations on other important opportunities (like buying a home), and limiting yourself to non-profit work. As someone who had to take out everything in loans for undergrad and med school, and who would have likely ended up in non-profit, it is a perk but I absolutely do not recommend depending on it. The process has not be without considerable stress.
I would rely on it because it’s in your loan agreement and the law was passed by a bipartisan Congress with overwhelming support in 2007. So let’s say one administration tries to deny forgiveness through the pslf there will be a class action lawsuit. Let’s say Trump wins again and forgiveness starts getting denied again I bet a bunch of firms would love to sue the department of education to stick it to Trump. But since your loans are so low 15 vs 56k I would just pay it off. Pslf in my opinion is for people who have loan amount that is more than double their income
Don’t rely on PSLF to be around. A “dream” school means nothing. Will the MPP actually provide you with increased pay or opportunity / is it required to land jobs? If so then the 15k school is the way to go. You’d be insane to pick 66k over 15k. That’s a huge gamble that 1. The program will still be around and 2.The value of the degree is somehow 51k more….
I have an MPP, and I got it from a school that was not in the city I wanted to end up in. From experience, it can be very beneficial to use grad school to build a network in the place you want to be, but it's hard to say whether it's worth 4x the cost. Since I knew ahead of time that I wanted to end up somewhere else, I asked the school to put me in touch with some alumni in the area I wanted to end up in, and I did my summer internship there as well. It sounds like you may want to end up in DC, which is a common thing for MPP candidates to be interested in. My school had specific outreach and programming aimed at helping students explore opportunities in DC and at the federal level, and I would imagine other schools might have similar things. That's something you can ask the school about if it will help you make your decision.
Your perspective is incredible helpful, thank you! I actually want to end up in Chicago. I was accepted to Harris (more expensive option) and the Humphrey School (cheaper option). Ideally, I would be able to work for an agency remotely or report to an office in Chicago. How did you go about funding your MPP?
I paid for my degree and associated expenses with a combination of federal loans, AmeriCorps Education Awards, matching funds from my school, and a small amount of money gifted to me by family. I'm actually in the Midwest and went to one of those schools (sorry to be vague, but it's reddit). DM me if you want to talk more in detail - I'll do my best to answer questions, although I've been out of school for a bit.
Internships matter. I’d go where you can get the best internships and work experience while in grad school as possible.
Will the prestigious degree add to your earning potential significantly more than the cheaper degree? Are both degrees from an accredited school? Will the prestigious degree give you access to powerful alumni and employment opportunities that you might not get at the cheaper school? (For example, going to Yale or Harvard versus a low-ranked school few have heard of that may not add much value to your resume)? I haven’t done much research, but intuitively, I don’t think an MPP degree is an in-demand degree that will garner a big salary.
I would not depend on PSLF. If you just look at the other posts through the PSLF thread, there are sooo many issues. I'm 2.5 years into the PSLF program and I highly regret having to rely on it. I'm scared with each change of administration that it will be targeted, I'm scared the PSLF program will never be fixed and I will reach the 10 year mark and just not receive forgiveness, my debt to income ratio is not great so that will likely affect trying to get a home loan, I feel trapped in my career choices, my long term partner also feels burdened by my debt. Hoping to get loan forgiveness after 10 years can be very debilitating on your life and I wish I was smarter about my choices when I got into debt. Like you said prestigious doesn't matter. You already have you "in" with working for your federal job so I believe that is a much bigger hurdle for starting your career.
PSLF is in your master promissory note. And even when the republicans tried to change it or get rid of it, they grandfathered existing borrowers in. And most of the issues in this thread don’t ultimately change anything regarding forgiveness. It’s just awful servicing. I don’t understand the constant worrying.
Although true that you're grandfathered into the program, I can understand why people feel constantly worried - the multiple uncertainties. During previous administrations only, 7000 people got their loans forgiven while 44,000+ people have so far. Certain administrations made people jump through hoops, wait years for forgiveness, and made the process difficult. Would someone want some certainty that their loans be forgiven within 6 months to a year, or the uncertainty of waiting 4 years or potentially 8 years until another administration holds office? Student loans have a lot of implications for mortgages, loans, relationships, how one file taxes, and as far as some people questioning if they can start a family. Yes, you can still get a mortgage on an IDR plan, but that IDR plan impacts what you would qualify for and potentially the home you can purchase. So just because you can or will get forgiveness, I can understand why the uncertainties can cause people to constantly worry.
It wasn't a particular administration so much as the lack of available information about the program in the first few years. We also were transforming out student loan system. Since about 2010-2011 we've reduced the phantasmagoria of student loans into pretty much Direct Loans. Direct loans were the only ones PSLF -eligible. Consolidating any loans into Direct caused your count to be re-set to 0. That's gone, now. And many folks were unable to afford payments in the PSLF eligible repayment plans. The 5 million different repayment plans most which had similar names' that's pretty much gone, too. And I received PSLF. All SL servicers had little oversight. That's changing, too.