I'm a 2017 UC graduate student drop out. I did it because a teacher in the photography department directly said to me you need to take a loan out to pay for going to school and not work at making a living as an artist or do anything else, because I should be focusing on school (I too had a 10-20 hour a week TA job, while taking classes). I did have a scholarship that took the $25,000/semester tuition for my MFA down to $5,000 a semester which was exactly what I made that semester at my university job.

I didn't feel like quitting at trying to make an income from my art, so I quit school, and here I am, making a living from art as a grad school drop out.