Nova Southeastern University

[WisNeuro]

Relatively young, I guess. It's still been around for 50 years. As for the debt forgiveness, having to pay that off (even a percentage) for 25 years is less than ideal. Taking on an inordinate amount of debt in the first place shouldn't be an option when so many other options are available. The PhD is a decent program, just make sure you do enough to stand out because the letters of rec we get from there are form letters that are almost exactly the same for every applicant.

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[Therapist4Chnge]

Relatively young, I guess. It's still been around for 50 years. As for the debt forgiveness, having to pay that off (even a percentage) for 25 years is less than ideal. Taking on an inordinate amount of debt in the first place shouldn't be an option when so many other options are available. The PhD is a decent program, just make sure you do enough to stand out because the letters of rec we get from there are form letters that are almost exactly the same for every applicant.

Solid advice.

 

[JeyRo]

Ugh, projectives. What a huge waste of time. So much time spent on very little clinical utility.

I feel vindicated by this comment. I will continue my knee-jerk hatred of projectives for a while longer.

 

[WisNeuro]

I feel vindicated by this comment. I will continue my knee-jerk hatred of projectives for a while longer.

I suggest keeping that knee-jerk response until proponents of projectives actually produce meaningful literature on their usefulness in clinical settings.

 

[ajb1812]

Also, don't forget that the federal government offers an income-repayment plan intended to put a cap on monthly repayment after graduation. Currently the cap is 15% of income and debt remaining after 25 years is forgiven, but in the future the cap will decrease to 10% and debt will be forgiven after 20 years. This is a good option for students who take on inordinate amounts of debt but do not earn high wages right out of school (though you end up paying more interest over time due to the lower monthly premium).

This might be true, but please don't forget that loans don't disappear when they're "forgiven." What this actually means is that the taxpayers ended up footing the bill for the remainder of your loan.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

RE: Debt forgiveness and income-based repayment, please do keep in mind that these programs are always subject to change. Just recently, legislation was proposed that would significantly cap the amount forgiveness allotted to folks using public sector loan forgiveness at ~$50k, for example. Additionally, as far as I know, the amount that's forgiven at 20/25 years via the standard program is taxable as income. Thus, if your income-based repayments don't cover the interest and your total loan amounts are continually increasing, you could very well have to pay a HUGE tax lump sum.

This isn't specific to Nova, mind you. These are things I'd urge pretty much everyone to keep in mind.

Edit: And, as ajb1812 mentioned, some folks may have ethical/moral/personal qualms with the idea of loan forgiveness as well.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Getting partial/full funding is a good first step for NSU's Ph.D. program, but there are still some drawbacks (which I've previously mentioned in this and other threads). There is definitely a fight for resources and variance in the quality of supervisors.

 

[JeyRo]

This might be true, but please don't forget that loans don't disappear when they're "forgiven." What this actually means is that the taxpayers ended up footing the bill for the remainder of your loan.

Aside from the abstract moral issues, you may actually be liable for a very large tax bill at the end of it all. Say you have 300K of loans, you pay 50K over 10 years, the remainder is forgiven - but the forgiven amount is treated as income. So lets say you made 50K the year you got your loans forgiven. Add 250K of income on top of that. Suddenly you're faced with a tax liability of tens of thousands of dollars with no way to pay it.

Of course, tax bills might be dischargeable in bankruptcy - unlike student loans.