How do you save for graduate school? Confused about the best way to manage my money

I have read through the many posts on savings on WSO, but I have a few specific questions in regards to saving for bschool and how people tend to view the subject.

  1. How much of my savings should be cash vs 401k? Say I want to go back to school within 2-3 years, does it make sense to hold my savings in cash vs a more volatile brokerage account? Example: someone has ~15k saved in cash. Is it foolish to hold this amount of cash vs. letting the money grow in a 401k or other brokerage account, even if the funds will be used for school in the next few years?

  2. Should my priority be saving cash for bschool, or maxing my retirement savings? How did you break up your savings (cash, 401k, other brokerage account, etc)?

  3. If you're only able to save 40-50k before bschool, and will have to take lots of debt anyways, does it really matter?

Would appreciate any insights...thanks!

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