As part of the stimulus package, they are going to expand student loans and probably ease the interest rates as well.

You can spend the downturn in Grad School and be well trained and ready to go when things start turning. Resume will be showing recent studies in relevant topics.

Or you can spend the downturn trying to stay alive in Iraq. Resume shows stale experience as undergrad. Won't be great way to get a job on the rebound.

Might not be an issue, because they are likely to stop-loss you until you are 40 anyway.

But hey, I hear the military is a great place to meet women. Or was that grad school...

See, this is an immature way of looking at it. I'm sorry.

But half the people I know plan to ride out the recession in grad school- it's going to be a very competitive time.

It's never a bad idea to pick up a marketable skill or two, pay down some debt, figure out exactly what you want from life. Talk to other people who've done it- it may be right for you. And who's to say a teacher and leader shouldn't have some experience with the culture of the military before teaching and leading? Maybe you'll learn some new tricks- maybe you'll be better able to sympathize with other returning students. Do more research- possibly at your local VFW Hall.

I'm a bleeding-heart liberal in the U.S. Army. There are probably more of us in the military than you'd think, especially after this last 8 year Republican fiasco. There are plenty of conservatives, but one thing about the military is that it throws lots of people from different walks of life together and forces them to work together. Some of my best friends are hard-line Rush Limbaugh-worshipping conservatives, but all that means to me is some spirited political discussion. I don't think that should be a deal-breaker on whether or not to join the military.

And if you think about it, the odds of coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan alive are about 99.99999% in your favor. Of all the hundreds of thousands, if not by now millions, of troops we've sent over, we've lost around 4500. Which is still a terrible number, but I'm saying your individual chances are pretty decent, and that's coming from someone who lost a dear friend in Iraq.

I know the military has plenty of detractors, and lots of people just don't understand it, and it has been used wrong as a matter of policy, but there are honestly things you can see and do in the miltiary that you can't get anywhere else. It's not for everyone, but it is good experience.

Are you on fire to join the military? Is it something you dream about, are driven by, have planned your life around?

If the answer is a resounding yes, go for it and good fortune to you!

If the answer is anything less than a resounding yes, it is probably not a good idea. Joining the military just to pay off your debts is not a source for the type of inspiration the military requires these days.

The military and graduate school both are crazy places. Neither is what it's cracked up to be.

That said, we need many more people such as you to serve as military officers. I mean actual Americans, rather than people from our right-wing bad-grammar military class. The US military used to reflect the USA. Now we are developing a Prussian-style closed military society.

Good luck, whichever way you go.

You are an intellectual. Read All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. It is 10th grade reading, so it should be a breeze to finish it over a couple days, max. It should tell you everything you need to know about how you, as an intellectual, would do as a soldier.

Judging only by what you said in your letter, I think you would be 100% miserable at war. And you don't strike me as someone motivated by naive sentiments of patriotism or a desire to make some sacrifice for the benefit of the rest of us-- you are looking for the payout. Do you really envision yourself a mercenary? Do you want to kill or be killed for money?

All that being said, as someone who began my adult life with $140K in student loan debt, I can tell you honestly the more student loans you have to repay in your adult life, the more you will spend your working life feeling like an indentured servant. Yet, even as an indentured servant, you still have significantly more freedoms than you would as an enlisted officer in the military.

Be more creative. Are you applying for PhD programs at state schools rather than pricy Ivy League or private universities? Are you applying for TA positions or RA positions or other jobs that will possibly grant you tuition credits as compensation? Can you work your way through a PhD program on a part time basis to minimize your loans?

For the field you plan to study-- what is the compensation for adjuncts, associate professors and full tenured professors? If you are pursuing engineering or dermatology, you could easily pay off your loans once you secure a position as an associate professor. If you are pursuing Art History, you may never be able to afford to work as a professor and still make the minimum payments on your loans.

Student loans are not compromised of free money. The interest rate is lower, but the trade off is your loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy if you go broke.

So look for work-study, grants, part time, state tuition over private. Wait tables if you must.

Don't go to war. And don't believe the recruiter who is promising you that because of your degree you won't go to war, because you will most likely go to war no matter what the recruiter says.

Would your parents be willing and able to let you live with them rent-free or for low rent while you pay off your loans? If you can manage to get an entry level job that pays $30k and are frugal, you could pay off a sizeable chunk of your loans in two years--and then decide where to go from there, without the pressure of $50k+ in debt hanging over your head. You can assess the economic outlook at that point.