Federal Student Loans Made Going Back to School for Social Work Possible

At 45 years old, I made the decision to go back and earn my MSW. My children were growing up, and I had been out of the professional workforce for almost twenty years.

Even though I had a bachelor’s degree, had studied extensively, had real life experience in multiple areas, and was a certified life coach, it was incredibly hard to find a job that took me seriously.

People told me I had talent, but as a midlife woman, it felt like I had been quietly pushed aside. In the evangelical church, this was even more pronounced.

 As a midlife woman with a voice, especially one who was no longer young and cute, there was no real place for me. I was expected to shrink, stay quiet, and remain in the background, which was just one of the thousand reasons why I eventually left the church.

In 2020, I began looking into going back to school. At the same time, my husband lost his job, and we were struggling financially with three kids still at home and one in college.

The only way I could even consider graduate school was through federal student loans. Those loans offered payments I could realistically afford after graduating. Without them, the door to education would have been completely closed.

If you look at what social workers make per hour or per year, you might wonder why anyone would take on the cost of an MSW at midlife.

And if you want to become a licensed clinical social worker, it takes an additional two years after the master’s degree.

To this day, I have not earned in one year what it cost me to return to school. And that does not even include the advanced trainings, courses, continuing education, and certifications required after graduation.

 All of that costs even more money.

If private loans had been my only option, I would not have gone, even though social justice and therapy were the work I felt was part of me and what I was put on this earth to do.

It simply would not have made financial sense with my family responsibilities and at my age.

Careers in social services, nursing, teaching, social work, and counseling are carried almost entirely by women and often by women of color.

These professions rely on compassion, service, and emotional labor, yet they remain some of the lowest paid careers in our country.

For people entering these fields, having access to federal student loans is a very big deal. Taking away federal student loans affects thousands of amazing people who have hope and dreams for a better life.

Telling them to work harder or to simply get private loans comes from a place of privilege and a misunderstanding of reality. It is not that simple.

Removing this support would deeply hurt middle class and working poor communities. I

t would harm families, students, people seeking meaningful careers, and adults returning to school in midlife who are trying to build a stable and purposeful future.

 I cannot understand why so many people resist the idea of the government helping regular people by providing a safety net. Instead, they support policies that benefit billionaires and the already powerful.

Those wealthy individuals are not invested in the wellbeing of everyday families. They do not care about our struggles or our futures. Federal support does.

I went back to school because I believed my voice still mattered, and because I refused to let ageism, sexism, or financial hardship define the rest of my life.

Federal student loans did more than fund my education. They gave me a path back into the world and the chance to build a career rooted in meaning, purpose, and service.

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