Funding after Financial Aid has RUN OUT!
Targeted towards: Professional Licensed Counselors & Social Workers, on the M.S or M.A. Level. Mid Career Adults returning to School. ***Please note that everything on this site is opinion and the information is accurate to the best of my knowledge, at the time of this writing. Always, conduct your own research, investigate, and check with several States including your own before making any decisions. The easiest option is to take out a "Graduate Loan Plus" through Sallie May. It does, however, depend on good credit. Other ways: The following information is for everyday students that don't have Graduate Loan Plus or Full-Ride Scholarships as an option. 1: This is just for folks with a PhD in Psychology (non clinical). You can earn a re-certification through Fielding University (Distributed Learning) its APA approved and can be done in (3- 5 years - 71 credits). It's extremely expensive and requires cross-country travel annually. If you have the financial resources and job flexibility it may be worth it to you. 2: I'm in CA where American Psychological Association (APA) rules and this is why I decided to go for the Masters- Counseling –CACREP accredited –Walden University. 3: The Following are examples some in which I have learned the hard way. Some I actually did and others I regret not having had done. I hope that you find this page helpful. 4: Earn your Associates degree through a Community College. Use your guidance counselor early on in order to take the correct courses. Always, do general ed required courses FIRST. In case, you do decide to switch majors. 5: If you know that you are going for your PhD do not go to the “fancy” school. Go with the accredited school that offers the cheapest price in the quickest time. The first two suggestions are designed to help you save Financial Aid for your PhD years so that you don’t run out. Get it? 6: Most schools (Including Walden) have Master degrees that lead into PhD's. Always go this route. It's quicker and faster. 7: Make payments as early as possible in your academic career. Federal Loans will give back what you have repaid after you have run out of F.A. on the Doctorates level. 8: Ask your Academic Advisor about their Masters - PhD programs. It’s normally referred to as a “Stepping Stone” Master – PhD program. Sometimes the choices are not obvious. For example, the M.S. in Mental Health Counseling is a stepping stone to the PhD in Counselor Supervision and Education. That’s pretty easy to figure. However, it requires more "Supervised hours" and may take 4 years to complete. 9: What I didn’t know (until recently) was that the Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling (M.S.M.H.C.) also leads into the PhD in Health Psychology. In fact, I can earn the PhD quicker (within 2 years flat) and do not have to satisfy supervised hour requirements because I will have already satisfied this requirement on the Masters Counseling level. I may not earn as much money in Hospitals but I would be expected to charge higher rates for personal and consultant work. 10: Never switch majors at any level. It costs more money and time. I learned this one the hard way. 11: When a school says check with your State for licensing information. Do it! Also, search jobs through/ Indeed.com. Read the job requirements for several States. You'll get the idea of what the jobs require from the candidates education. Check competing schools out and notice what they are hyping such advantages as APA accreditation and/or CACREP... Research why these accreditation could be very important in order to sit for your license or apply for future positions. Do not assume anything. I just got off of the phone with a client/student that is earning her PhD in clinical psychology. The school is not APA approved and she cannot even sit for her license in her State. She will not be able to work as a Psychologist or a Counselor. Her Financial Aid has run out and she has about 2 more years left to finish her degree. She may have opportunities as a coach. consultant, or teacher. She will be able to add PhD to her name and call herself a Doctor. However, she will not be able to start a business working as a counselor, accept insurance, or become employed as a counselor. She's just absolutely devastated and this is one the reasons that I felt compelled to share this information today. This students dream was to gain licensure and work as a practicing Psychologist. If this is her dream she'll have to find a way to relocate to a State that doesn't require APA approval or earn a re-certification from an APA approved school. This is all without anymore Financial Aid. I believe that every American student is awarded $130,000 dollars in F/A. This includes the Bachelors level through PhD. Obviously, it is distributed per semester and normally only pays for two courses at a time. All of Financial Aid assumes right off the top that you will make a personal or family contribution each year of at least $5,000.00. I believe that's the number. I'll change it if this is incorrect. It may be $3,000.00 but it is an assumed contribution that cannot be changed even if you are below the poverty level. When students start out they often think $130,000 that's amazing. I can easily get through school. Too many find out at the PhD level how quickly it runs out. For those, that spent an enormous amount per credit at the Bachelors level it's fairly certain that there will not be enough F/A to cover a PhD. Do you think that you can get out of paying these loans back if you are not able to complete your PhD? The answer is NOPE! Even if the government acknowledges that you had to quit school for lack of F/A a year or two before graduating, you are technically still a Masters or worse a Bachelors degree earner (depending on your school) and in addition you have to begin making payments within 6 months of dropping out. I would advise to make sure that you are earning a Terminal Master Degree and not a program that really doesn't offer a terminal Masters but awards it half way through. If you sign up for a 5 year program that is a PhD program that awards a non-terminal Masters and drop out say in the second, third, even fifth year. Guess what this makes you? A student at the Bachelors level. Check out teaching positions that offer jobs at the Masters level. It will read "Terminal Masters Degree" 12: I'll add that if you want to work in counseling you'd better learn Spanish in many States. This country is "Unofficially" a Bilingual English/Spanish language country. We're not even declared "English" for business. 13: Even if you are going for the PhD in psychology, I would suggest, breaking it up with the counseling degree. Students may even decide to earn their license on the Masters level and earn the PhD without doing the supervised hours or earning a license at the PhD level. Companies will pay you according to the Masters level trends but you can charge more in your private and consulting practice. This break may be more urgent for mid career folks such as myself. 14: It looks similar to: Stacey McCall, M.S. M.H.C., LPCC, PhD. Health Psychology. Again, if you know that you are going to obtain your PhD (from the beginning) I suggest earning an M.S. degree and NOT the M.A. degree. M.S. usually indicates that the student did not write a thesis. M.A. usually indicates that the student did write a thesis and that it was approved by a committee. If you decide to go for your PhD you'll have to write a new thesis. Uuguhh! It normally just doesn’t make sense financially or time wise to write a thesis at the Masters level. A PhD indicates that you have indeed written a thesis and that it was approved by the committee as a graduating requirement. In fact, you may run out of Financial Aid before or during your dissertation thesis and there are funds for this situation. It’s better to have F/A during your required class work. 15: Never worry about the differences between PhD and PYSD. PhD is traditionally desired by Academics and Researchers and the PSYD is normally sought after by scholar practitioners that want to focus more on working with clients. A thesis is required by both degrees however, less weight is put on the thesis with a PSYD. This debate is only important for Clinical Psychologists and not counselors. 16: The debate between which is better Social Workers or Counselors are usually worthless as well. From what I've seen they are pretty much interchangeable. It really depends on which school offers what you need. Hiring People are human and if they have had great experiences with SW's that's probably what they are going to hire again. If they had a better experience with a Counselor that's what they will most likely hire a again. Social Workers have more emphasis on directing discharged patients to social programs and Counselors have more emphasis on counseling. Make sense? 17: I have watched several PSYD’s go into Research and PhD’s work with patients. That is an old debate that it pretty much over. They PSYD stands for Doctorate of Psychology and the PhD is the Doctorates of Philosophy with a Clinical Specialization. 18: Some students are putting the the acronym ABD after their name. This stands for All But the Dissertation. Technically the person did not earn the PhD if this was not completed. However, If the person did (ABD) I'm sure they still have a lot of knowledge and expertise to share. In fact, I'll most likely use this acronym myself after I've completed all of the classes and working through the supervised hours. I do think it's only fair to make this distinction clear to the prospective client. 19: Why Earn a PhD? The main reason to earn a PhD is in order to add significant research to a body of knowledge. If this is not your intention or interest then it's probably not worth the debt or effort. In fact, some PhD graduates claim that these initials hurt their chances for work especially if it was an opportunity outside of Academia or Research (Science). A PhD basically means that you have the skills to research, perform tests and evaluate statistics, and present the information within the proper standards. It requires a lot of statistics no matter what concentration you decide to study. 20: I have read that many PhD students do not incur more debt because they teach at the undergraduate level. Upon more research I discovered that this is mainly worked out for Ivy League students such as Berkley or Stanford University. Some online and distance schools do offer some discounts for teaching at the Undergrad level but (from my research) it's an insignificant amount. Another idea may be to work as an enrollment counselor if you live in the same city as your school. You may be able to take free or heavily discounted classes. Albeit, this is a "sales" job with sales quotas to reach each month. Sales jobs normally have high turnover rates. More Funding Ideas when F/A has run out. Aeiorg.com Forgivestudentdebt.com Consumer.gov Annualcreditreport.com Creditkarma.com Studentloan.org (Links coming soon) What you like to discuss? For more information on Loan Forgiveness and School for the PhD after F/A has run out visit our Creativity in Education page.
Newly Discovered Links to Help Complete Your PhD after F/A has Run Out!Foundation Center's website (www.foundationcenter.org) www.tuitionpay.com http://www.salliemae.com/site/tuitionpay/tuitionpay.htm?dtd_cell=TA_TP1&TA_PROMO=TA_TP1 One student complained that while Tuitionpay.com is good that he still had problem with the Bursar holding up his classes due to classes not being paid. Graduate Loan Plus through Well's Fargo Bank will pay the balance of your PhD program (I think) but you have to be denied F/A first. I've heard that it's almost impossible to land even with superior credit. Federal Plus Loans. If all else fails, you may have to, ask your school what the lowest payment plans are offered. I'm actually asking Fielding U about this now and will update. I know that my F/A will not last through a PhD especially at Fielding. On a good note, I'm hoping to discover that the payments will be somewhat reasonable and that at the very least I will not have to make payments on my loans until I complete the PhD. We'll see. Lastly, another student suggested considering whether or not you truly want to go for your PhD. It adds an incredible amount of debt and more often than not you'll have to take a cut in salary at the PhD level. Albeit, the cut may still be higher depending on where you are working. Another piece of advice that I picked up was this. If you are a student (like me) going straight through your Masters and PhD without little experience, the PhD is not going to garner us entrance as a Scientist. Especially if you did not graduate from a top-tiered school. On the other hand, if you have worked your way up in the field and then add your PhD (No matter where it is from) then it's icing on the cake and will mostly likely help. The military has a very impressive way of calculating "Experience" and "Education." You may want to check it out. For example, my nephew David doesn't even have an associates degree however, he's brilliant and has always had a top-notch work ethic. He's earning $80K a year, manages people all over the country, has full benefits, and has a great pension to look forward to. In my opinion, he has a PhD in his industry. My husbands, father, became a millionaire and never even finished high-school. Don't despair if you cannot finish your PhD. I may not be able to complete mine either but it's not the end of the world and you might discover that it's not really necessary for what you want to actually accomplish. I do think that online degrees are beneficial if you have the experience to back it up (At least by the time that you graduate) but if you do not have true "Experience" you may have a hard time holding onto the job. This is one reason why I'm glad that 1,000 hours of supervised training is required within the counseling program. Hopefully, I'll have the experience of what the job "really requires" and will have great success on the job. I say "Really requires" because many times school requirements are not the same as "job requirements" such as paperwork, charts, and Insurance agencies. School is very broad based and you usually find your narrow niche on the job. Good luck, Stacey |
