Ecstatic about Unexpected Study Grants!

Today Duarte got news that he is getting $6,300 worth of grants to cover his education for the next academic year! Yes, grants, not loans, which means we don’t have to pay them back. As the in-state tuition and fees at the local college is about $2674 per semester for 18 credits ($5348 for the whole year), he’ll even have plenty to spare for books.

We were totally not expecting it, and we had to read the grant letter over and over to believe it! We are so excited, because since I won’t be able to start a degree program until next fall, all the courses I need to take this year we’ll have to pay out of pocket. We were worried about how we’d pay for both of us to go to school full time, since we certainly haven’t saved anything while working in Pakistan.

When we filed our FAFSAs, our incomes were incredibly low based on the US dollar since we’ve been earning in rupees. I think the FAFSA estimated that we could each afford about $345 towards our education fees. I guess the financial aid office took that seriously, and we’re glad they did!

Will I End up Being a ‘Really Smart Sucker?’

I’ve gotten myself into a bit of a funk after doing some research into grad schools. With so many interests and a love of teaching, study and research, I found myself dallying between applying for several different types of programs: MA in Journalism, MFA in Creative Writing, MA in Middle Eastern Studies, or the big time consuming one, a PhD in Anthropology. At the same time I’m trying to figure out the most cost-effective and time-effective way to get my teacher certification in Secondary English.

I was getting exciting looking into grad school and thinking about getting back to studies, and then I started reading about the problem of PhD overproduction.

Wanted: Really Smart Suckers

This opened up a whole can of worms and has consumed the better part of my Sunday. I’ve been reading about the problem of PhD over-production and about how tenure-track professor positions are decreasing by the year. I feel a bit stuck now, wondering if 8-10 years on a PhD (plus the thousands of dollars in loans and living on a shoe-string, delaying having children) is really all it’s cracked up to be if the job competition is so fierce. One blogger, a PhD herself, said she didn’t feel it was ethically right to encourage students to pursue PhD’s, knowing that it was such a high risk path.

Check out the article and let me know your thoughts.