I'm going back to school for an MBA from Penn State this fall and am pretty excited because I know it is a good school and will provide a strong ROI.

Anyway, I'm able to have half of the tuition paid for through various means which leaves me on the hook for about 29 grand (obviously not all due at once)

The program is online so I will still be working full time which is a big deal so I won't just be going into debt and making no money.

My question for some of you financial gurus is this.

Am I better off taking out a 29K student loan and repaying it the standard way, or emptying out a stock portfolio worth about 21K and saving up the extra 8 K which I could do pretty easily. (plus the taxes I'd lose from the 21K)

The stocks are something I've had pretty much my whole life, set up from parents when I was a little kid and managed well by a family friend (was much higher at one point, but who's wasn't?)

So what is the smarter short term and long term decision? Go into 29K debt but have a nice portfolio to rely on later, or empty out the portfolio as to not come out of school 29K in debt. To me the stocks seem the way to go, assuming I can come out of school making 75K- the avg PSU MBA salary, I feel like I can recoup the stock money over time while having no debt, but I don't fully understand all that goes into loans vs stocks.

Thanks for any advice
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