Opinions, please.

[Alawen]

This is a really tough decision. Have you interviewed for the internship? You haven't mentioned anything about the environment and people there. Those are important things.

We're in similar positions--working toward competitive fields with not amazing pay scales. If it were me, I'd honestly check out the internship, but I am good at being poor and horribly impractical in general. I think the prudent thing here is to stay where you're at both because of the compensation and because they seem very supportive. Grad school is going to be rough even when you're just working 20-30 hours.

My approach would be to make a list of all the pros and cons of each, everything you can think of, then tack it up on the bathroom mirror or refrigerator door or somewhere you have to look at it several times a day. Then I'd impulsively take the internship in my field, but it would probably be better if you make a more reasoned decision.

[Autotune]

Originally Posted by Autotune [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

go for the money if it's going to be available for as long as you are to it.

No reason to listen to anything else, I'm telling you right now, that internship will not pay out like your current job will (if you're smart with your money)

If you're not smart with your money, well you're doomed to fail no matter which choice you make...

[Rais]

I did the same thing working for the county I lived in. I left my job at a private company with little benifits, and applied for a slum job with the county. After a year of hell, I was able to attain a job in a field that was pretty cool. I ended up making almost 15 dollars an hour over the job I had left. If I never had my foot in the door with the county, I would have never been able to get that job.

In your case, you are going from good job with benifits with good pay, to worse. You can network with people at the job at your school, just as much as with the job with the county you are thinking of applying for. A intern is pretty much slave labor with no promises.

[MonkeyHelper]

I'd stick with your admin job at the school of nursing. Also you might want to look into entering a Phd. program instead of a masters if you can. Many people don't know but, alot of schools will pay for your Phd. program. In which case you could switch to perhaps an internship while you are in the program and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

Much luck