…and happy with it:
Grad school became a financial burden after I took my full-time job in industry. Although my salary tripled and I’m a frugal and financially responsible person, my school expenses became too much for me to handle without taking on student loans, something I hadn’t done since undergrad. I managed to avoid student loans by depleting my savings.
After I left my university department’s employment as a graduate research assistant, I was responsible for my tuition payments. I was only enrolled in 3 credits per semester for a doctoral research course, basically, a symbolic class for the privilege of calling myself a doctoral student. Unfortunately, once I left my department’s protection, the university saw me as a dollar sign instead of a person. They used a loophole to unfairly charge me over triple the tuition rate, and even my protest to the university president landed on deaf ears because universities are all about profit (and I attended a public university!).
Had I been charged a fair tuition rate, I would have been able to afford to stay enrolled in grad school indefinitely and may have eventually finished. The greed of the university forced me to make my decision to quit when I did, which may have been a good thing in the long run because I didn’t drag it out too long. To this day, I regret paying that last semester’s tuition, as that money would have served me much better in my savings account.
The current higher-educational system, fueled by the student-loan system, has become, with exceptions, a massive scam.
The title can be important for some things. It’s fine if she doesn’t feel like she needs it.
I do not know the specifics about her University but in her case I think she would have been better off asking for a leave of absence from the PhD program once she started her full-time work.
This would have given her more time to write her dissertation and would saved her from paying a lot of tuition costs.
That’s assuming writing the dissertation was all she needed. She could have also tried asking her supervisor at NASA to give her some time to finish writing her thesis. I doubt an organization like that wouldn’t be supportive. I’m just saying some things she could have tried. There are more options that what I read in there.
I am glad she found the position she wanted.
Sometimes people think they can do everything at the same time but things are not that easy. Graduate studies are a full-time occupation. That’s why her advisor told her to quit. He should have given other options though.
He should have given other options though.
What makes you think he didn’t? I agree he should have given other options, and he likely did.
I would like more info on why the tuition tripled. That part makes no sense at a public university. Also, you only have a certain amount of time to complete your graduate studies so her path does not seem to lead to a PhD. I could be mistaken but….
She sounds like she is happy, so who cares about the rest!
From what she said she only had the dissertation left to do. It is true that a lot of PhD programs have a time limit to finish the program but I have hear of limits from 7 to 9 years and more. So the time shouldn’t be an issue.
My guess is that they started charging her the out of state rate.
Some Universities have different in-state and out-of-state rates, but many also have different rates for those who stay as a grad assistant. Based on my own grad school experience, it may have gone something like this:
Grad/research assistant: Tuition reimbursement – 75% (it’s now 100%), Stipend – $2,000/mo
Non-grad assistant: Tuition Reimbursement – 0%, Stipend – $0
Applied to her case, not being a grad assistant would “more than triple” her tuition (it would actually quadruple it), and a Full-time NewSpace job could very well triple her salary ($6,000/mo).
Now, she actually said that she wasn’t paying any tuition as a research assistant, and she said that she was paying “over triple the rate” for her 3 credits. I would imagine that the loophole in this case is either out-of-state tuition, or some other sort of loophole that charges full-time tuition to part-time students (minimum 10 hours), just because they’re seeking a doctorate.
Now that I look at the UCF website, they have the same “rate” for out-of-state tuition, but they charge a “non-resident fee” per credit hour to out-of-state students that raises tuition by 272%. She took a job at CASIS, and Melbourne isn’t anywhere near Georgia or Alabama, so I would imagine it was a “minimum full-time tuition” loophole, unless they used some back-door policy to claim that she spent more time traveling out-of-state than in-state, even though her residence and permanent address were in Florida (and that would be one hell of a loophole, since even the IRS doesn’t use that sort of rule).
Makes sense.
Geez though, if all I had to do was the dissertation…..
I know, writing like that is a blood sport….
Just a bit more information from the UCF Pricing Website:
3 credit hours:
In-state total (without other fees): $1,108.95
Non-resident total: $3,582.15
10 credit hours:
In-state total (without other fees): $3,696.50
Non-resident total: $11,940.50
Another caveat: “Students enrolled in zero-hour courses are assessed one credit hour at the Florida Resident Tuition rate at the course level for which the student is registered.”
And from the Physics Department’s Graduate Handbook: “Doctoral students who have finished all of their coursework and passed their candidacy exam. These students are considered full-time for fellowships, employment and tuition waiver purposes if they enroll in 3 hours of Dissertation or Doctoral Research (PHY 7980 and PHY 7919, respectively) for each term until degree requirements are completed, unless they are receiving federal loans.”
“All graduate students with an assistantship and full-time status are considered in-state students. If a student does not maintain full-time status out-of state fees will not be waived.”
And, finally, “A student may be held to other enrollment requirements, as defined by financial awards, veteran status, employment, or other outside agencies.”
Residency requirements for UCF: “To qualify as a Florida resident for tuition purposes, the student (dependent or independent) must be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident alien, or a legal alien granted indefinite stay by U.S. Immigration, and must have established physical and legal residence in Florida for a least one year.”
It doesn’t look like they could have loopholed her into paying 9 or 10 semester hours, since they only require 3 SH for Dissertation. I would imagine that they somehow considered her a non-resident for some reason, which would have tripled her expected tuition costs to around $3,600 per “semester” (Summer is counted as a “semester”), bringing her annual total to $10,746 instead of $3,326. Eleven grand a year isn’t exactly peanuts.
Without specific details, this is all just speculation, based on research of the UCF website.
This is what she should have asked for:
https://www.students.graduate.ucf.edu/policy_special_leave_of_absence/
But I wouldn’t be surprised if no one remembered mentioning it to her.
I would like more info on why the tuition tripled.
Sounds like she might not have had residency. A number of graduate student jobs at public universities waive out of state markups. She would have lost that protection if she had left that job.