Choices

• How did you decide on your career path?
• Who or what influenced your decision?
• How has you decision evolved?
• Did you ever doubt your career decision?
• What are your short/long term plans for your career?

Funding

• When did you start looking for money for school?
• Where and how did you find funding for PSE?
• Where did you look for funding?
• Who helped you look for funding?
• Was it difficult to find funding?
• Did you do a lot of research into funding?
• When did you start talking to your parents about funding PSE?
• Did you have a financial plan with your parents?

Savings

• When did you start to save for PSE?
• Were you able to save much money?
• Do you find saving difficult?
• Did your parents save for your education?
• Did you have summer or part-time jobs?
• Did you have to make sacrifices in order to save?
• What mistakes did you make?

Budgeting

• Do you have a formal budget?
• How did you create your budget?
• Did you get any help in creating it?
• Do you find it hard to stick to a budget?
• What was the biggest drain on your money?
• Were there any big surprises?
• Did you make any mistakes in budgeting your money?
• Did having a budget affect your social life?
• Did you have to make many sacrifices?
• Was it stressful managing your money?
• Did finances ever affect your academic performance?
• How do you monitor your money?

Expectations

• What was your high school experience like?
• Were you a good student in high school?
• Did you know anything about PSE before going?
• What were your expectations of PSE?
• What things were you scared of in going to PSE?
• What were your biggest fears?
• Did you move away from home?

Reality

• What was your first impression of PSE?
• What is your living situation?
• What are your classes like?
• What are your professors like?
• How heavy is the workload?
• How is PSE different that high school?
• What is the hardest thing about PSE?

Student Life

• Did you meet new friends?
• Was it easy to meet people?
• What was it like to live in residence?
• What clubs or extracurricular activities did you participate in?
• Did you keep your friends from high school?
• Was it difficult to balance work with a social life?
• What was your most fun experience?

Reflections

• Do you/will you have a lot of debt when you finish(ed) PSE?
• Will you be able to handle the monthly payment?
• What impact had debt had on your lifestyle?
• What have you done to minimize debt while in PSE?
• Was PSE worth it in the end?
• Would you be where you are today if you hadn’t gone to PSE?
• What are some of the non-monetary benefits of PSE?
• What does your future hold?
• What was the most rewarding thing about PSE?
• Is there anything you would have done differently?