>With grad school, you can pay your way through by working for professors on projects and also working for the university as a teaching assist.

Well, sort of, if you're willing to live poor. Solomon has a teaching assistship--no tuition plus a stipend of $14,000 per academic year. He'll earn an extra $3,000 working summer session. This is in the Washington, DC area where $17,000 doesn't go very far.

OTOH, a friend of ours is starting grad school at Harvard in the fall in neuro-biology. His stipend is $28,000, a lot closer to a living wage. (It would be in most places, but not Cambridge, Mass.)

I can't remember what my stipends used to be when I was a grad student. It also wasn't enough to live on, but sure beat paying tuition.

Tamar