How does graduate school funding work

Faculties and graduate unit decisions take many things into account, including student recruitment, faculty research foci, program enrolment and resources, and time to degree completion. The amount of your funding package, the number of years you will receive it, and how the funding is composed will depend on your specific program. If you are applying for a fully funded graduate program or an internal fellowship offered by a specific university, you are competing with a relatively small pool of applicants.

Recipients of these funding awards will be selected only from those that apply to that specific graduate program.

External fellowships, on the other hand, draw from a much larger crowd. Opportunities like the NSF Graduate Fellowships will have you competing with candidates from hundreds of universities, in various departments. This is no reason to steer away from applying to external fellowships, but external fellowships should not be your sole strategy for financing graduate school. As mentioned previously, Assistantships are part-time research and teaching positions at universities that are offered to graduate students.

Assistantships offer a stipend and in many cases, tuition remission. In some cases, these positions also offer other benefits like health insurance, housing and professional development funding. Although working part-time may sound challenging with a full-time academic schedule, often the Assistantships provide important research and teaching experience that is very valuable when you start applying to jobs as a graduate.

Many prospective graduate students are unaware of this and miss this important opportunity for graduate funding! Because of this, some prospective applicants assume that a part-time or online program is more financially viable. Fully-funded programs are typically offered to graduate students who would be conducting research for their thesis or dissertation and subsequently, are pursuing careers in research and academia. Universities tend to reserve graduate student funding for full-time, on-campus students.

Part-time and online programs that are geared toward working professionals often serve as a source of revenue for the university, and therefore, students in these programs typically are not offered scholarships, fellowships or Assistantships.

They are also less likely to be eligible for external fellowships. Therefore, it may be more affordable to attend graduate school full-time so that you can be eligible for these sources of internal university funding. Therefore, it is recommended that you apply to universities that offer full funding and Assistantships to all or a good portion of accepted students, particularly if you are pursuing a Ph.

Private student loans for graduate school are available through banks and credit unions. These loans are credit-based, so the better your credit, the better your chance of being approved. Many private loans offer both fixed and variable interest rates. Graduate student loans offer a few options for how repayment can work. Contact your loan servicer to find out what options you have. Learn more about graduate student loans.

How to borrow responsibly Borrowing is often a necessary part of getting the education you need to start or further your career.

Evaluate what your anticipated monthly loan payments might be versus how much you expect to earn in your post-school career.

You can research your potential salary through professional associations and the U. Department of Labor , which lists the median pay for many fields. Learn how to apply for federal financial aid for graduate school, including grants, work-study, and federal student loans. Use our Graduate School Scholarship Search to get custom scholarship matches based on your field of study, interests, and skills.

See which loans are available for graduate students, including federal student loans and private graduate student loans. Home Student loans Graduate school information Ways to pay for graduate school Ways to pay for graduate school These tips can help you figure out how to pay for your graduate degree. Put a plan in place to pay for graduate school To start, consider a approach to paying for graduate school. Supplement your savings by applying for scholarships, grants, fellowships, and assistantship positions.

Explore federal student loans. Once you receive your financial aid details, look through them carefully and determine if there is anything you want to ask the school or institution to reconsider. To appeal, get in touch with the financial aid office as soon as possible. Be sure to start by thanking them for the award, and then present them with your situation.

Ask them what options—if any—there are to improve or amend your package and what they would recommend. If there is not much room for adjusting the aid you were offered, you may be put on a waitlist for federal work-study assuming it was not already awarded to you.

Keep in mind that it might take time for the financial aid office to reconsider your situation. Stay on top of the process, but make sure to give them enough time to address any issues they might be working on. Financial aid applicants at individual schools all vie for a slice of a finite amount of funding that is available for a given year.

With those limitations in mind, you may choose to supplement your application for aid with the following:. This may include receiving outside awards or experiencing unforeseen economic hardship since applying for aid. Reporting changes immediately will allow the financial aid office to adjust your award package as necessary. When reporting outside aid, keep in mind that it will not be added on top of your financial aid package, but will be re-calculated into your EFC. Your financial aid award will depend on many factors, some of which you can change, and others you cannot.

And while the process may be frustrating at times, remember that the financial aid staff are people too!