Graduate School

A devotion to saving 15 percent of pay, a small inheritance and some investment prowess helped Eleanor and Mark Easterlin build a seven-figure portfolio on one military income. And now that Mark Easterlin, 49, has retired from his U.S. Navy career, he has landed a great job with a private military contractor that will bring the couple's annual income to $100,700, including his Navy pension. Despite all that, uncertainty knocks. His new job is financed through a military contract that could end suddenly, and his specialty - military linguistics - could be difficult to translate to the private sector because he lacks an advanced degree.

Like many single parents, Ashby Alexander struggles to balance the financial priorities in his life. He has helped a daughter, Brooke, 25, through college and part of graduate school and wants to do the same for his 10-year-old son, Jordan. "I'm a proud father, and their schooling is paramount to me," the 45-year-old Hampton, Va., resident wrote in a letter requesting a Money Makeover. But there are other priorities: Alexander needs to pick up the pace on his retirement savings, pay off a second mortgage and cut down on overspending.

Editor's note: Marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Workers column offers the last of three accounts from Maryland-based employees who volunteered to respond to the Gulf Coast. Angel Hebert and her husband, Dr. Chad Nelson of Ellicott City have worked for the federal government since graduate school - Hebert eventually landed at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Nelson at the Food and Drug Administration. Acquaintances since age 12, both came from New Orleans to Maryland for graduate school.

AUniversity of Baltimore student was observed asleep last week inside the school's brand-new student center. It thrilled the school's president: Until the spiffy $20 million building was dedicated a week ago, the upper-division and graduate school's students - all commuters, many working and attending parttime - had no place to catnap other than their cars. The center reflects big changes at the often-overlooked school. For the first time in decades, UB will be admitting freshmen and sophomores in the fall of 2007 - part of plans to increase enrollment from about 5,000 to about 7,000 students over the next few years.

My daughter will graduate with a bachelor's degree in May and might go to graduate school. What type of financial aid is available for grad school? Does she fill out a FAFSA or something else? - R.S.F., via the Internet Financial aid for graduate school is different from what you've experienced so far. For graduate programs, the student must apply for financial aid and fill out the complex Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the same form used to determine a family's ability to pay for undergraduate programs.

Is there such a thing as too much education? Victor Torres of Laurel doesn't think so. Torres, 44, has two bachelor's degrees, three master's degrees and two post-master's advanced degree certificates and is working toward his doctorate in electrical engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. And on top of that, he has a full-time job as an optical engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "I always liked going to school," said Torres, who has two children, ages 5 and 9. "I'm one of those weird people who likes going to school."

Laurie Heckman worked as a whitewater rafting guide in Colorado. Steve Wiener has been crisscrossing the country in a large van, taking international tourists to see major cities and national parks. Zach Carson bought a small bus, converted the engine to run on recycled vegetable oil and is touring the country promoting alternative fuels. All are recent college graduates who intend to go on to graduate school, but not yet. Like a growing number of graduates, they are taking time away from school and the vigorous pursuit of a career.

Susan Reimer's column "Survey results put women back at square one" (Oct. 4) was very offensive to mothers who choose to stay at home with their kids. More precisely, she targeted those of us who went to college and chose to stay at home. Ms. Reimer seems to suggest there is something wrong with being a well-educated, stay-at-home mother and refers to those of us who do so as "silly girls" who went to college "to find a husband." I myself went to college to become better educated and to help build the knowledge base and skills I would need to enter a successful and rewarding career.

FOR GRADUATE students, money habitually is in short supply. And by now, the pool of scholarships and grants to help ease that need for next school year largely is drained. According to FindTuition.com, a fee-based scholarship search engine, only about 20 percent of scholarships for graduate students carry deadlines through December. Still, several options exist, even this close to the start of the fall semester: First, if you're working and attending school simultaneously, see if your company offers tuition reimbursement or tuition assistance.

They don't make bumper stickers for scholastic achievers such as 13-year-old David Dalrymple of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Most signage lauding kids his age is for middle school honor rolls or student-of-the-month awards, enabling parents to boast about such accomplishments on cars or refrigerators. If David's parents had such a sticker, it would read: "Our kid graduated from college with two degrees as a teenager." The Columbia resident entered UMBC as its youngest student ever three years ago. Today, he will graduate with degrees in math and computer science.