<p>I am new to the world of graduate school scholarships and I have a few questions.....</p>
<p>Are all scholarships based on financial need (FAFSA form required)?</p>
<p>Are all scholarships grade and test-related (high gpa and/or GRE)?</p>
<p>Do any scholarships exist for graduate students studying to be Speech-Language Pathologists who have done something unique and beneficial for the community?</p>
<p>Are you talking about for Master’s or PhD? </p>
<p>For a master’s, they’re overwhelmingly merit-based. I had some schools that looked at my application holistically and awarded me a scholarship and others who did a straight GPA/GRE scale and gave money to those at the top. </p>
<p>Most grad students have an EFC of 0 so rarely need-based.</p>
<p>It’s really going to depend on the field. In general, expect your master’s to be funded by loans (unless an employer is footing the bill) and any scholarships will be a happy surprise.</p>
<p>Agree that to my understanding, most grad awards are MERIT based, since most young people that are newly independent have high financial need. The one kid I know who got amazing financial package was all merit based at Cornell, creating heart valves in research lab for her PhD (at least that’s what I understand of what she was doing). She is graduating with a healthy bank account and no debt from undergrad or PhD, all due to merit awards.</p>
<p>I am a speech language pathologist. Scholarships for graduate study in this field are based on the strength of your application AND the desire of the college to have you in their cohort of graduate students. These awards come in the form of fellowships, assistantships, scholarships, sometimes work study (not all schools have this on the grad level) and loans. </p>
<p>If your daughter’s application contained information about this community service, and IF it was somehow related to the field, the school would have noted this when reviewing her application. If the SCHOOL felt this added strength to her application, then she might have been offered some sort of aid. </p>
<p>Was she offered aid? From other threads, it appears that she is planning to attend Adelphi. Did they offer her a scholarship, assistantship, or fellowship? If not, she will need to take out loans.</p>
<p>I do not know whether this would help.</p>
<p>The FA at DS’s professional school is need based. However, it still expects the student to take out loans. Its FA is definitely not as generous as the counterpart of UG one. Since almost all students have no income/assets, the criterion is based on parents’ income and assets.</p>
<p>We still need to fill out FAFSA, but I suspect that the information provided on FAFSA is not as “useful” to the school and the school mostly looks at the information provided by the “NeedAccess” – which is kind of like graduate school version of CSS Profile, which probes parents’ assets (including accumulated equity in the home and the retirement accounts) more closely.</p>
<p>I think the school does not want the students to accumulate too much debt at graduation. So the school tries to “help” the students to get as much as it can from their parents but the school chips in some as well. Few could afford the “sticker price” which is 70-75K (COA) a year.</p>
<p>But I heard DS’s school is among the minority of all such schools. (Say, less than 10 of schools among 130 or so schools do this.) But for the majority of students, they are all required to take out the so-called unit loans - which is the minimum amount of the loans every student except the pay pay students (up to 20% are full pay students I think) is expected to take out.</p>
<p>After all said and done, the students on FA are expected to carry almost six figures of loans at graduation, at the minimum, unless the parents contribute more than what the school asks for in their financial aid “award letters” in 4 years.</p>
<p>Every spring, we are nervous about how much of our assets will be drained while working hard on completing the FA process. We have been in such a “nervous” mode since his freshman year. On the Need Access application form, there is a question asking about how much the parents have contributed to child’s education since his/her freshman year. I wonder whether it would be “good” for us to have a bigger number for this question or not. </p>
<p>It really depends on the school and the program. </p>
<p>One thing that I saw with my kids is that it is worthwhile to ask for money before accepting a spot. Neither of my kids were offered any aid when admitted – both initiated discussions with appropriate people at their universities to ask for aid, and both received merit-based awards worth about half their tuition. Although the awards were merit based, both students focused on their financial need in their discussions with administrators. Also, these discussions were face-to-face – I think there is a value in showing up at the admitted student event or in the Dean’s office and being able to say, “I’m here. This is my first choice school and I want to attend. I’m a strong candidate. But I am on my own and I can’t possibly afford to pay full cost.” </p>
<p>My kids are also taking loans and working – so nothing like a free ride. </p>
<p>My son also qualifies for need-based aid- he does have to complete a FAFSA. But he has greater-than-typical “need” because he is a parent – so for example, part of the benefit he gets from need-based aid is eligibility for child-care subsidies from the university. </p>
<p>I do think that the grad schools will consider true need as a factor, because many younger graduate students are still getting substantial financial support from their parents – I think the schools are very much aware of that. That information would not show up on the FAFSA at the graduate level – that’s why I think it was valuable for my kids to take the extra step of those face-to-face meetings to make it clear that they were self-supporting and had been for several years before starting grad school. </p>
<p>I don’t think the numbers (stats) counted for all that much for my kids at their schools - but it could have been a factor in why they weren’t offered the merit money at the outset. One kid was high GRE, moderate GPA - -the other was high GPA, moderate GRE – so for anything that was formula based on both factors, then I could see why they would have missed an arbitrary cutoff. But I honestly do not believe the universities calculate their aid that way – I think that it’s more a matter of enrollment management, targeting awards to the students they want they most and trying to anticipate which ones attendance is most dependent on receiving an award. </p>
<p>Questbest…did your older daughter NOT have any scholarships for her grad school? </p>
<p>Just wondering…is this the Questbest daughter or mom posting? I know this account has had some mix ups.</p>
<p>I had no idea one could get financial aid for grad school. I’ve left son to do all his apps and I’m pretty sure he hasn’t filled out any financial aid forms. Son is only going for a master’s, not a PHD, so we figure we’ll be paying out of pocket. We were going to have him take out whatever loans were available to him, but pay the notes ourselves. He only applied to four schools, and I doubt he’ll get accepted at the big ticket privates, so we’re looking at reasonable priced out of state tuition for two years. It would be nice if he gets a teaching or research job to put food on his table and a roof over his head.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>It depends on what you call financial aid.</p>
<p>For a masters program, the “aid” is usually loans so FAFSA doesn’t yet need to be submitted. Some schools will give some (not a lot) of merit for a masters and that is largely based on stats…GRE scores, GPA, etc. Getting merit has nothing to do with FAFSA.</p>
<p>Your son hasn’t likely been hurt at all by not yet applying for aid after filling out FAFSA since the aid would most likely be a grad plus loan after he submits fafsa… Any merit would be separate from FAFSA</p>
<p>It may depend on the type of program. My daughter applied to quite a few programs, and was offered grant or scholarship aid at most of them - the problems is that the the aid generally covered about half the tuition. So she would get an offer for a $25,000 scholarship, but then the tuition would be $40K per year, plus having to pay for room and board. So she ended up opting to keep her day job but attend school part time in the evenings …but she does have that 50% scholarship. But there wasn’t a separate application process for any of the scholarships – it is just something that was generally offered with the letter of admission (except for the school she attends – where was originally offered -0- but given the half tuition offer after meeting with the powers that be at her chosen school.)</p>
<p>@Montegut – I think my kids are more motivated to look for aid than yours, since both had been working and supporting themselves for a while before applying to grad school – and I’m not in a position to finance them through grad school. So it’s coming out of their pockets one way or another. It’s possible for grad students to borrow the full COA – so no shortage of loans if they want to go that route – but obviously my kids would prefer not to be in debt forever. </p>