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Hi everyone. I value your opinions and would be grateful for your input with helping my wife and I decide about what we should do in a difficult situation.
My wife and I are trying to balance two careers including my graduate education, when to have our first baby, where to live, and 180K in loan debt. Our plan was derailed when her job out of school became uncertain.
The good thing is we have options. The bad thing is that there are so many variables to consider and unknowns that it's become a big brain-teaser. We've refined our choices down to three options, which I humbly present to you for your opinions
My wife has a great job offer in the San Francisco bay area. She has almost zero chance of getting a similarly paying job elsewhere because of the economy. However, my wife's employer recently contacted her and said "we don't know if we can take you on before Jan 2011. We'd be happy to give you 75k to go work for a nonprofit during the next year and well see you in Jan ‘11."
I am scheduled to begin a clinical psychology PhD at PGSP this September. I am pretty happy about it. I like the program. I have a relatively good fellowship and a plan to pay for it. It is not my top choice, but for all practical purposes it's the only clinical psychology PhD within 300 miles of San Francsico. I am interested in teaching at a non-research-1 college/university, doing a little research, and working in private practice.
Option 1 is my wife takes the offer to work at a nonprofit. I defer graduate school one year. We try to have a baby. The major benefit of this option is that she would have ~9 months off to raise our baby. With both our salaries we can also pay down our loans.
With Option 1, we stay where we are in spite of the fact that we can't wait to get the heck out of here. I defer school even though I'm working in a dead end job which I'm tired of and am I getting kind of old to begin a new career. (I'm 32 and she's 30.).
If we take option 1, we can have a baby and my wife will have about 9 months to take care of it with next to no work responsibilities. The nonprofit job would basically end when she pops. Assuming it takes about an average amount of time, she has about 9 months off at home raising the baby before beginning to work. I know it can take a while to make a baby . We're just planning as best we can here. This is our major motivation for deferring a year.
With option 1 I will also reapply to PhD programs and see if any other opportunities appear. I will widen my focus a bit and apply to programs in other allied areas and other places in the country. If I get accepted somewhere outside the bay area my wife would check out the job opportunities in those areas. I have good stats and experience so getting in to another program is a possibility, especially after finishing a good thesis in my area of research interest and everything I've learned about the process over the past year. Even if we take option 2 or 3 and I begin at PGSP this Fall, I can still reapply to other PhD programs.
Option 2 is she begins working as originally planned and I begin at PGSP. We would try to have a baby 2 years later. Later when we try to have a baby, she would get the standard 4 months of maternity leave. With this option, I get to get on with my education which I would really like to do. We would get to move out to the bay area, a much nicer place then we live now. Our finances would be in a slightly better position than in option 1 (we can pay down the loans more). However, 9 months off raising your child is much better than 4 months.
Option 3: She takes the "nonprofit" offer and I begin school this fall. Our take home would be about 58K. We could live on that and perhaps make the minimum payments on the loans. The interest on 180K of loans would accrue at a pretty alarming rate. We would be the happiest I think, but it would cost us the most.
Le sigh. I hope that's somewhat clear. We are leaning towards option 1 as you may have guessed. Your vote or advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks for your help.
My wife and I are trying to balance two careers including my graduate education, when to have our first baby, where to live, and 180K in loan debt. Our plan was derailed when her job out of school became uncertain.
The good thing is we have options. The bad thing is that there are so many variables to consider and unknowns that it's become a big brain-teaser. We've refined our choices down to three options, which I humbly present to you for your opinions
My wife has a great job offer in the San Francisco bay area. She has almost zero chance of getting a similarly paying job elsewhere because of the economy. However, my wife's employer recently contacted her and said "we don't know if we can take you on before Jan 2011. We'd be happy to give you 75k to go work for a nonprofit during the next year and well see you in Jan ‘11."
I am scheduled to begin a clinical psychology PhD at PGSP this September. I am pretty happy about it. I like the program. I have a relatively good fellowship and a plan to pay for it. It is not my top choice, but for all practical purposes it's the only clinical psychology PhD within 300 miles of San Francsico. I am interested in teaching at a non-research-1 college/university, doing a little research, and working in private practice.
Option 1 is my wife takes the offer to work at a nonprofit. I defer graduate school one year. We try to have a baby. The major benefit of this option is that she would have ~9 months off to raise our baby. With both our salaries we can also pay down our loans.
With Option 1, we stay where we are in spite of the fact that we can't wait to get the heck out of here. I defer school even though I'm working in a dead end job which I'm tired of and am I getting kind of old to begin a new career. (I'm 32 and she's 30.).
If we take option 1, we can have a baby and my wife will have about 9 months to take care of it with next to no work responsibilities. The nonprofit job would basically end when she pops. Assuming it takes about an average amount of time, she has about 9 months off at home raising the baby before beginning to work. I know it can take a while to make a baby . We're just planning as best we can here. This is our major motivation for deferring a year.
With option 1 I will also reapply to PhD programs and see if any other opportunities appear. I will widen my focus a bit and apply to programs in other allied areas and other places in the country. If I get accepted somewhere outside the bay area my wife would check out the job opportunities in those areas. I have good stats and experience so getting in to another program is a possibility, especially after finishing a good thesis in my area of research interest and everything I've learned about the process over the past year. Even if we take option 2 or 3 and I begin at PGSP this Fall, I can still reapply to other PhD programs.
Option 2 is she begins working as originally planned and I begin at PGSP. We would try to have a baby 2 years later. Later when we try to have a baby, she would get the standard 4 months of maternity leave. With this option, I get to get on with my education which I would really like to do. We would get to move out to the bay area, a much nicer place then we live now. Our finances would be in a slightly better position than in option 1 (we can pay down the loans more). However, 9 months off raising your child is much better than 4 months.
Option 3: She takes the "nonprofit" offer and I begin school this fall. Our take home would be about 58K. We could live on that and perhaps make the minimum payments on the loans. The interest on 180K of loans would accrue at a pretty alarming rate. We would be the happiest I think, but it would cost us the most.
Le sigh. I hope that's somewhat clear. We are leaning towards option 1 as you may have guessed. Your vote or advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks for your help.
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