If you have your masters, a tuition ?

[7costanza]

I’ve been considering going to grad school for something (library science) totally unrelated to my current field (HR) for a few years, but haven’t pursued it seriously because of the cost. I could cash flow some, but would likely need to take out student loans for the majority. As far as I can tell there would be a few small scholarships available to me, but I’m unsure if I would qualify. I’m hoping there are some other options I’m just not thinking of (probably wishful thinking though, lol). If you got your masters after working for some time, how did you pay for it?

[Jalapeñomel]

I did an accelerated program that lowered my tuition, and then took the remainder out of my salary over the two years (I was required to teach full time at the same time).

[wildrice]

Does your job offer any tuition reimbursement? Most employers I've had will give you something, even if the job isn't directly related to your current job. Some places give you less if it's unrelated - a previous employer, IIRC, did 100% reimbursement if you took a class related to your job, and 50% if not.

I'm getting my 2nd master's degree right now and I work for an employer that does tuition remission. I believe if you are doing a degree unrelated to your current job, you have to pay tax on the tuition benefit, but everything else is covered. It's honestly the only reason I'm doing this. Student loans have such high interest rates that I would not consider taking out student loans again unless it was to get a high paying job or unless I felt like I absolutely could not live with myself if I didn't pursue a passion. My loans from my first master's degree have been a significant burden and likely will be for years to come.

[notsopicky]

I just did a grad program for library sciences (2016-2018), and am now in my second year in a librarian position (after 23 years of teaching). My county employer had a MOU w/ a state university for reduced tuition (25% discount); it was one of the reasons I applied to the school I did. The rest of it I paid cash--I used savings, didn't go on any trips, put gift money towards it. Had I been short on funds, I would have taken out a student loan, no question--I knew it was the right field for me and I would explore all options to get there. ETA: My county also currently has tuition-reimbursement, but it was just recently added back in to employee benefits--it was not available when I was in school. That was a bummer, but I was not going to wait for a "maybe" in order to get my MLIS (my employer was considering it in county budgeting when I was in school). 

I will say that since you are coming from a non-teaching field, you will most likely have to get a teaching certificate too, if you want to be a school librarian. That will add credits, which will increase the cost.

I ask the following question with sincerity, not snark: why library sciences (esp. from an HR background)? If you haven't already done so, I'd recommend volunteering at a library (school, public, whatever) to get a feel for the inner-workings of the environment.

I absolutely love it. It's the best job in the whole school.

[litskispeciality]

I worked for a college that paid for the degree. Since you're in HR if you're open to a new job you could see. Higher Ed. in general has some good perks in non-Covid times.

With that being said some schools offer interest free payment plans. There are limited graduate assistantship programs, although the last place I worked you had to work 20 hours a week on campus, which I assume doesn't work for you. Most programs give you 5 or 6 years to finish, so worst case you could take a semester off, "save up" and then take a class without a loan...although make sure it's not a cohort program so you don't get out sequence.

We tell our students to create a free profile on fastweb.com so you can get scholarship alerts. You'll probably have to apply for the individual opportunity, but it does the leg work of sorting which ones you qualify for or don't qualify for.

Some students pay the loans as they go whenever they can save up to keep the balance low. It's not super helpful, but something to think about if you have to take out a loan.

[litskispeciality]

Also to follow up to notsopicky, my limited knowledge of Library Science is that it's more credit intensive than say a MBA. Not to say one's easier than the other, I just think you have to earn more credits/do more classes. You might want to see if the school can send you some info on how long it takes and what the classes are like to make sure it could meet your schedule. Make sure it's not only during the day, or that you have to take so many classes a semester to stay in step. In my area Library Science isn't that easy to find, so you get stuck paying a higher price due to lack of options. I think it would be a cool degree to get/study.

[Gato]

I got a job at the university, which then paid 75% of my tuition.

[shananagins]

I got my Masters in Library Science to be a school librarian. It took 2 years. I took classes while I was teaching full time. I paid for what I could and took out loans for the rest. I probably should have put more effort into looking into scholarships and grants.

[okla]

Hi! I have an MLIS degree and work in an academic library after an undergrad and brief career in HR. I had a graduate assistant job that covered my tuition and paid a small amount as well. I did take out loans to cover the rest of my living expenses. Now I'm pursuing a second master's (MBA) at the university where I work and it's completely covered, even though it's not directly related to my job, it's just a benefit of employment.

I don't know all the tax implications and things can vary from organization to organization, but my experience has been different than wildrice in that I am only taxed on the amount of tuition that is paid for me over $5500 per year.

ETA: the public library system in our area offers scholarships to cover tuition for MLS/MLIS degrees. They also have an HR department. So it might be worth looking at jobs in larger library systems in HR to see if they cover tuition. 

[okla]

Apr 15, 2020 15:58:28 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

Also to follow up to notsopicky, my limited knowledge of Library Science is that it's more credit intensive than say a MBA. Not to say one's easier than the other, I just think you have to earn more credits/do more classes. You might want to see if the school can send you some info on how long it takes and what the classes are like to make sure it could meet your schedule. Make sure it's not only during the day, or that you have to take so many classes a semester to stay in step. In my area Library Science isn't that easy to find, so you get stuck paying a higher price due to lack of options. I think it would be a cool degree to get/study.

In my first-hand knowledge of both a MLIS and MBA, this isn't the case. Both were 36 hours. I don't think I could compare the difficulty of the programs, as they were very different. 

There are ton of online-only MLIS programs, including one where I got my in-person degree. Another co-worker completed her degree online very slowly while working FT. 

[Patsy Baloney]

I worked for the university I went to. Grad programs have free tuition, and you only have to pay books (you can get staff scholarships for those) and taxes when you hit a threshold.

I would not have been able to pay for a masters without this. We don’t have the money and I couldn’t take on the debt that would probably take a long time to pay back.

I rec it to anyone who will listen and is in a position for a job change. LOTS of universities have similar deals.

[litskispeciality]

Apr 15, 2020 16:47:28 GMT -5 okla said:

Apr 15, 2020 15:58:28 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

Also to follow up to notsopicky, my limited knowledge of Library Science is that it's more credit intensive than say a MBA. Not to say one's easier than the other, I just think you have to earn more credits/do more classes. You might want to see if the school can send you some info on how long it takes and what the classes are like to make sure it could meet your schedule. Make sure it's not only during the day, or that you have to take so many classes a semester to stay in step. In my area Library Science isn't that easy to find, so you get stuck paying a higher price due to lack of options. I think it would be a cool degree to get/study.

In my first-hand knowledge of both a MLIS and MBA, this isn't the case. Both were 36 hours. I don't think I could compare the difficulty of the programs, as they were very different. 

There are ton of online-only MLIS programs, including one where I got my in-person degree. Another co-worker completed her degree online very slowly while working FT. 

Sorry I didn't mean the coursework involved is easier in one discipline than the other. I thought that Library Science was closer to 60 credits where most MBA's are 30 - 40 credits. Maybe the closer to 60 is a wrap-around if you want to work in a public Pre K - 12 school? I worked with someone who was going for Lib Science, but later dropped, perhaps I misunderstood how much work they had to do?

Any master's degree is really hard, add in working full time and/or accelerated classes that most MBA programs required and forget it, the workload is insane. My friend got her MBA over several years as she took time off each fall to balance her kids sports schedules and work, that was no easier than any other subject.

[RoxMonster]

My job paid for half of it (I'm a teacher), and my university also offered a public school teacher discount, which was 50% off. So my OOP expense was thankfully a fraction of the full tuition.

[wildrice]

Apr 15, 2020 16:44:07 GMT -5 okla said:

Hi! I have an MLIS degree and work in an academic library after an undergrad and brief career in HR. I had a graduate assistant job that covered my tuition and paid a small amount as well. I did take out loans to cover the rest of my living expenses. Now I'm pursuing a second master's (MBA) at the university where I work and it's completely covered, even though it's not directly related to my job, it's just a benefit of employment.

I don't know all the tax implications and things can vary from organization to organization, but my experience has been different than wildrice in that I am only taxed on the amount of tuition that is paid for me over $5500 per year.

ETA: the public library system in our area offers scholarships to cover tuition for MLS/MLIS degrees. They also have an HR department. So it might be worth looking at jobs in larger library systems in HR to see if they cover tuition. 

Yes, I think this is very organization, or maybe state, dependent. I work at a state university and that's our policy, but at previous employers in another state I don't think the degree program impacted taxes (but may have impacted dollars allowed for reimbursement).

Bottom line, check with your employer for specifics because tuition reimbursement/remission programs are all over the map!

[jg183]

what do you hope to do with it after? k-12 or higher ed? If you hope to go into higher ed, working for the university in HR might be a good alternative while you are taking classes

[notsopicky]

My MLIS degree was 31 credits.

[jigsy]

I'm (hopefully) getting my MBA in the fall. I received a scholarship for 30% of the tuition, and as I am not going to be working, the rest are going to be loans baby! Okay...so I have some savings as well, but mostly loans. I figure I will have student loans for the rest of my life, so, whatever, pile it on. lol

[nsl]

I’m just finishing an MLIS program in school librarianship this summer that I have sloooowly completed while teaching full time. Because I already have my teaching certificate I only had to take 32 hours worth of credits—for those without an education background the program is 38 credits. A 60 credit program sounds like a PhD.

To answer the question asked, my husband’s GI Bill is paying for this degree. My first master’s is in English Literature, and we paid for that one in cash. We took no vacations and only necessary home improvements while I was working on it, and I also was fortunate enough to live near a very cheap state school (UTEP) that had a solid program. I would not have taken out student loans for my MA because it was more a passion degree than one I wanted for specific professional advancement (it has more than paid for itself in unexpected ways, though) but would have taken some out if I’d needed to for my MLIS because I can’t become a school librarian without it.

[melmel48]

I cash flowed some of it, tuition reimbursement from my employer for some and then student loans for the rest.

[Velar Fricative]

I have an MLIS. I did it online from 2007-2009 and since I was already working in a library at the time, they offered tuition assistance and I used SLs for the rest. I’m pretty jealous of people who are in school for this now because there are WAY more affordable options for the MLIS given the growth of online programs (I was only the second cohort for the online MLIS at my university). Look nationally for programs, because sometimes even out-of-state online tuition is less than in-state costs especially if you don’t want to or can’t go to school in person.

[waverly]

I got my grad degree at a college where the tuition is heavily subsidized by the state and the city. I also worked the entire time except for 2 months where I did an internship.

[rupertpenny]

I also have an MLS. I paid for it by getting a graduate assistantship that’s included a tuition waiver plus a 20 hour a week job at fifteen dollars an hour. The waiver was only supposed to be for 9 credits a semester, but I asked and they bumped it up to 12. Because of this I finished the degree in one calendar year which also saved money.

This only works if you live near the school you attend. There are a lot of good online programs, but I don’t think anyone does remote assistantships.

Honestly, although I love my job I would be hesitant to start a library program right now. I work for a university and we have a year long freeze on faculty hiring, and an indeterminate freeze on staff hiring. We probably won’t employ my students at least through the summer, maybe longer. I was in grad school through the Great Recession and the job market in libraries was BRUTAL. I got lucky and found a great job, but it required moving to another continent. I don’t know as much about school or public librarians, but if you want to work in higher ed it helps to have geographic flexibility. And a second masters honestly.

[imojoebunny]

I would not take out loans for Library right now. I know two people who went to school for a masters in it recently, one was a lawyer before, and the other worked on Wall Street, after getting her MBA from Yale, not to dissuade you from your dreams, but you can make more doing pretty much anything else. They really wanted to pursue this field, and the money and the school payments were not things that concerned them, having had lucrative other careers for many years, but I think, even they are shell shocked by the options and the low pay.

I got my MBA by going to the cheapest/best school I could get in to. I got into a top 20 program, but they would only give me about 1/2 of tuition. By choosing my State Universities program, I got full tuition, and had an assistantship that gave me rent and a lot of living cost for 13 hours a week of being a TA.

[toepick]

What type of librarian do you want to be? I’m also not sure this is the best time to do it unless someone else is paying. I used tuition reimbursement from a previous employer that mostly covered tuition

I work in an academic library and have a total hiring freeze for the foreseeable future. We will likely have zero graduate assistants next year. State budgets are going to be hit hard and private colleges will have financial trouble too. And public libraries are in a shitload of trouble as well.

[TR]

I am going to a state school with a large merit scholarship program so of my $35,000 MBA tuition, I’ll pay $5,000. I’m adding on an additional semester to get my MS as well and that’s not covered so that’s another $10,000. I won’t qualify for need-based aid so it is what it is.

[rupertpenny]

Apr 15, 2020 20:27:21 GMT -5 imojoebunny said:

not to dissuade you from your dreams, but you can make more doing pretty much anything else.

This isn’t really true. Some librarians are very underpaid, but I make a good living and have amazing benefits. Honestly I probably make more than a lot of lawyers.

[7costanza]

Apr 15, 2020 15:48:57 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Does your job offer any tuition reimbursement? Most employers I've had will give you something, even if the job isn't directly related to your current job. Some places give you less if it's unrelated - a previous employer, IIRC, did 100% reimbursement if you took a class related to your job, and 50% if not.

I'm getting my 2nd master's degree right now and I work for an employer that does tuition remission. I believe if you are doing a degree unrelated to your current job, you have to pay tax on the tuition benefit, but everything else is covered. It's honestly the only reason I'm doing this. Student loans have such high interest rates that I would not consider taking out student loans again unless it was to get a high paying job or unless I felt like I absolutely could not live with myself if I didn't pursue a passion. My loans from my first master's degree have been a significant burden and likely will be for years to come.

No tuition reimbursement, except in very specific cases that I don’t qualify for. If I do end up switching careers to librarian it would almost certainly be a pay cut, so I’m hesitant to take on high interest student loans too.

[7costanza]

Apr 15, 2020 15:53:24 GMT -5 notsopicky said:

I ask the following question with sincerity, not snark: why library sciences (esp. from an HR background)? If you haven't already done so, I'd recommend volunteering at a library (school, public, whatever) to get a feel for the inner-workings of the environment.

I absolutely love it. It's the best job in the whole school.

I have always wanted to be a librarian, but was so burned out on school once I finally finished my undergrad at 25 that I took a couple years to work, and then life just happened. I really don’t like HR and need to make some kind of change. I worked at a library for a few years in high school and college, and now volunteer on the board of my local very small suburban library, so I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the environment.

[7costanza]

Apr 15, 2020 16:44:07 GMT -5 okla said:

Hi! I have an MLIS degree and work in an academic library after an undergrad and brief career in HR. I had a graduate assistant job that covered my tuition and paid a small amount as well. I did take out loans to cover the rest of my living expenses. Now I'm pursuing a second master's (MBA) at the university where I work and it's completely covered, even though it's not directly related to my job, it's just a benefit of employment.

I don't know all the tax implications and things can vary from organization to organization, but my experience has been different than wildrice in that I am only taxed on the amount of tuition that is paid for me over $5500 per year.

ETA: the public library system in our area offers scholarships to cover tuition for MLS/MLIS degrees. They also have an HR department. So it might be worth looking at jobs in larger library systems in HR to see if they cover tuition. 

I hadn’t thought to check my local library system for scholarships! I have been keeping an eye out for HR job openings there and in neighboring systems, but hiring is on hold for now due to covid closures, and jobs openings are rare.

[wildrice]

Another thought - depending on how quickly you want to complete the degree (and your HHI), you might be able to cash flow a greater portion of it if you go to a state school. I'm taking 2 graduate classes right now and I think the total for the 6 credits this semester, including fees, was right around 4k. Which is not cheap by any means, but there are payment plans available so if I had to pay full price and took 1 class per semester, I think I'd be looking at around $500 a month in payments - which is not much different than a lot of student loan payments. In fact, I've been paying $350 a month for the last 12 years to pay for my first master's degree, and I'm not even 1/4 of the way done paying off my loans due to crazy interest rates. Had I just put that $350 toward paying cash toward taking courses slowly, I would have graduated 6-8 years ago with hardly any debt and very likely would have long paid it off. Instead I'm looking at another 18 years of payments (unless I get PSLF, which is truly what I'm hoping for).

So... if there is any way you can do a slow cash flow instead of putting off the payments until after graduation and paying loans, you'd be so much better off IMO.