essendoubleop

For the past 4 years, I have been contained entirely within a tunnel headed for graduate school to the near-exclusion of everything else in my life. Early in my college career, I had it instilled in me that a BA in Psychology was essentially worthless and to strive for at least a MA if I wanted to do anything with it. Now that time is quickly approaching. I was accepted into multiple MA programs in Psychology and have made my choice entirely based on a promise that there is a CHANCE I can get my out-of-state tuition waived. However, assuming that falls through, I will owe $50,000+ in loans at the end of 7 years in college and graduate school and I feel no better off in my chances of getting a job than if I would have spent those 7 years earning and collecting money.

I honestly am really scared for the first time in my life that I will be making a dire mistake that will be a significant financial burden to overcome. I loathe the idea of loans and going into debt and having to play catchup with your life. It wouldn't be so bad if I were on a set career track where I would be guaranteed a position as a Physician or Surgeon after spending so much time and money, but I highly doubt I will head into a higher-earning position after plunking down so much on the fuzzy ambiguity that follows graduate school.

I always appreciate advice and listening to as many different perspectives as I can, but especially now as I think this will be the biggest decision of my life (certainly up to now). I suppose $50,000 isn't so much when you look at it over the grand scale of 40+ years of earnings, but I am less convinced that doing so will improve my life much if I choose not to.