Thoughts on Grad School

I started studying for the GMAT and looking at MBA programs because it feels like the practical next step to moving up the corporate ladder and making more money.  But now I'm very seriously considering taking the GRE instead and really following my passion and true interests.  I'm looking into the International Political Economy graduate program at UTD.  It feels like a delicious dream to think about getting back into social sciences academia.  There's so much to weigh and consider, from what kind of job I can work while going to school, what kind of job I'm likely to get once I finish an IPE program, whether I'll be able to make enough money in a post-IPE program career to make it financially "worth it," whether the program at UTD is any good, whether I'll be able to find a job in IPE that is challenging and high-level enough to satisfy what I want out of life/my career AND stay in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, etc....  My heart is totally into taking this path - in a way that my heart hasn't been into anything school or career-wise in a very, very, very long time.  I'm thinking and praying (something that I don't often do - I do know that, after all, I am still the one who has to make the decision) a ton.  It's hard and scary, but I may just need to leap.  I've never felt this tentative about something that I am so bursting-at-the-seams sure about.  I know that I feel tentative because being an "adult" and making these kinds of decisions is so much different than it was even just 3 and a half years ago!  Being financially independent from my parents, being married, having bills to pay and having a future family life to think about and plan for really does change things.  I don't want to say that I've always been impulsive (maybe I've SEEMED impulsive to others but I've never seen it that way...), but I've always had passionate instincts and I've always jumped to follow them.  It's so strange having these impulses now and having to stop and really, really consider them from so many angles.