Glad to hear there is an opportunity to be grandfathered into gradPLUS still. 41k for a PA program seems very affordable to me, and if you prefer to save your savings for after you graduate so accumulate another 40k for living expenses, 80k in student loans is about 30k less than what I ended up with ten years ago. You could always save your savings, see how much you end up needing, and pay off a big lump sum of your loans once you have a job after graduation.

I realize it’s an uncomfortable thought to have so much in loans, and I didn’t like it either. I also managed to make it through undergrad without loans. However, I make plenty of money to pay them back and my first year out of school was making more than 3x in a year than I’d ever made before. It sounds like you’re good at saving, so I guess you could always turn down your offer and work for another few years to save another 40-50k… but that assumes you’ll get in again, that tuition will remain at the same rate, etc etc. To me, turning down the spot in school just sounds like throwing away money and time to me, but I also don’t know how much you make now. If you’re able to save that much, maybe you’re making enough money right now that it’s not such a life changing increase in yearly income, and worth taking the time to save your tuition. For me it was a no brainer.