<p>I am looking at top tier universities, but am unlikely to receive much, if any aid. I'm fine with taking out loans, but I'm curious about the cost of grad school. My mom told me she didn't spend money on either her Master's or her Doctorate, due to work and research grants. To what extent is this true, or will I have to take out loans for post-undergraduate education?</p>
<p>Some grad school programs have funding and others don’t.</p>
<p>What will you be studying in grad school?</p>
<p>As an FYI, there really isn’t need based aid for grad schools. Most grad school aid comes in the form of merit aid…based in the strength of your application and the college’s desire to have you in the grad school cohort. Aid comes as fellowships, assistantships, scholarships, grants, sometimes work study, and loans.</p>
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You’re putting the cart before the horse.
There may be a flaw in your plan. You’re limited to $5500 in loans as a freshman, rising to $7500 as a junior and senior.</p>
<p>Most master’s programs are unfunded, most PhD programs are funded. </p>
<p>Of course, this can vary considerably depending on tuition reimbursement from work and a boatload of other factors. </p>
<p>Are you currently in undergrad looking at grad schools or are you an incoming freshman? </p>
<p>It’s not exactly true that you’re limited to $5500 in loans as a freshman. You are limited to $5500 in subsidized loans, but you can get unsubsidized student loans to cover the rest. </p>
<p>As far as grad school funding, it really depends. Many graduate programs involve working as a teaching assistant and include a living stipend that is enough to live for the year within reasonable means.</p>
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<p>Wrong</p>
<p>you are limited to $5500 where</p>
<p>$3500 is subsidized, meaning that the interest is paid by the federal government while you are in school</p>
<p>$2000 is unsubsidized</p>
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<p>This happens at funded PhD programs, rarely if ever at masters programs.</p>
<p>Perhaps OP’s mom went to a funded PhD program, where she was able to get a masters in route to the PhD which is why she did not have to pay for her masters.</p>
<p>@comfortablycurt Your info is VERY wrong. Sybbie is correct. A frosh can only borrow $5500 in federal student loans…and some of that 5500 is UNSUB.</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad…I was about the write the EXACT same thing about a flaw in the plan and putting the cart before the horse. lol</p>
<p>@pidap001 </p>
<p>You first have to come up with an affordable undergrad list because YOU cannot borrow whatever you need for undergrad. If your parents can’t pay much or enough, then schools that won’t give you enough in merit scholarships will NOT be affordable for you. </p>
<p>I know that is frustrating, but as you have said, you won’t qualify for much/any FA. You need to find out EXACTLY how much your parents will pay. (BTW…if you have a NCP, his info will also be needed for need-based aid app at the top schools that give the best aid.)</p>
<p>Having an unaffordable EFC can be dealt with a couple of ways. Once you know how much your family will contribute, then your goal will be one of the following:</p>
<p>1) attend a school with a COA that is below what the family will pay (that doesn’t sound likely)</p>
<p>2) attend a school where you will get HUGE merit, so the remaining cost is about the amount that your family will pay plus a 5500 student loan. For example…if your parents will pay $10k per year, and you borrow 5500, then you will NEED a full tuition merit scholarship so that the 15,500 will pay for room, board, books, fees, travel, misc.</p>
<p>3) commute to a school where the tuition/books/transportation is within the family’s budget. </p>
<p>While many masters grad programs do NOT guarantee full funding, many do have graduate assistantships for a select few. </p>
<p>I forgot to mention above…these types of funding are for your major in your department. So…you can contact the departments to inquire about assistantships and the like in your department/major.</p>
<p><<<
My mom told me she didn’t spend money on either her Master’s or her Doctorate, due to work and research grants.</p>
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<p>What was your mom’s area of discipline? Was she in some kind of combo MS/PhD program?</p>
<p>Often, if you apply to some PhD programs as a senior in college, you can get accepted with full funding which covers the MS portion as well as the PhD program. Depends on the program and how strong a student you are.</p>
<p>I didn’t pay for my masters either. I had a teaching fellowship. My tuition was covered and I got a small stipend. I’m a speech pathologist. </p>
<p>The situation with fellowships, tuition remissions, stipends differ from school to school and even among programs at schools. For instance, back in our day, going for a PHD in economics at UChi, meant a likelihood of getting a “full ride”, living expenses included if you lived the poor grad student life, with no loans, but if you were at the med school or going for your MBA, you were unlikely to get a dime. You took out loans. </p>
<p>However, these days, from what I’ve been hearing, many programs that once met full need and including stipends for living expenses are also including loans in their packages. That’s quite the blow for those who want to go into disciplines highly unlikely to result in jobs that will pay enough to make taking out that loan a good business decision. If a discipline or field is ones passion and is worth paying for, that’s one thing, but the chances of it being paid for are very low. Jobs have always been few for a lot of those areas, but at least back in my day, you were not likely to go into debt doing future study in it. Just meant a few years of your life living poor but doing and studying what you love. </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse:</p>
<p>On the other hand, MBA programs and definitely law schools are giving out more merit aid. Booth has been giving out merit money for a while now. I believe that fully-covered PhDs are still the norm at the good schools (and much of the STEM disciplines).</p>
<p>In any case, you should investigate each field and the policies of each school.</p>
<p>Yes, there still is money out there, but less. More schools, even some prestigious names, are gapping grad students. Getting a full ride is becoming difficult when it was the norm in my day. My friend’s DD is first in her class at a top school, top program and they gave her zilch until she got her Master’s and was accepted to the PHD program. She;s right up there again, and is getting a stipend and tuition remission but it’s not anywhere what is needed to live in that area. Her parents and grandparents paid for the master’s but at this point she is taking out some loans–luckily she has been loan free for her UG degree and up to now, and expects to be making a enough for this all to be worth while. But someone without the family support, who took out loans for ug AND for grad school, all cranking up interest before the student can make any payments towards them is going to find it very difficult to get out of that financial pit. We are not talking MD salaries here or MBA salaries even at the top schools. In her case, she is at least more likely to find a job. A lot of PHD holders do not find a job that can make enough money to pay back those loans, and pay prospects not much better than those who graduated with a Bachelor’s in that field and spent the next 5 years working. </p>
<p>I am personally frightened because one of mine wants to go down this route.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse:</p>
<p>What discipline is this?</p>
<p>My understanding is that in STEM fields at many schools, some social science fields, and even humanities at top schools, full funding is still the norm.</p>
<p>Purple, are you talking about for Master’s or PhDs? There is a huge difference. Many top schools only offer Master’s on their way to a PhD so that is funded- but only because you’re in a PhD program. </p>
<p>I am in a Master’s program at a top school and no, funding is not the norm. The vast majority of us have very little to no funding. Yes, Master’s students can apply for GSI positions but only after all PhD students that need the positions get them (leaving very, VERY few) </p>
<p>My apologies, my info was wrong. I’m an independent student (I’m 28), and I was going by the figured I’d been quoted. The maximum loan amount for a freshman who is also an independent is $9500. For dependents, it is indeed $5500. Max subsidized is $3500 in both cases. </p>
<p>@romanigypsyeyes :</p>
<p>PhD programs, since @cptofthehouse was talking about full-funding of programs being cut back. Full-funding for terminal Master’s has always been fairly rare. I would be surprised to hear of any STEM PhD programs cutting back from full-funding.</p>
<p>When getting my Masters years ago, I was able to cover tuition with a teaching assistantship. My parents helped out with living expenses. It depends on the school and the field you have chosen. I was not on the Masters to PhD program. At the time, there were a few PhD students but more Masters students.</p>
<p>My son only had to spend 2000 on his Masters/6th year program in School Psychology but was told that was rare, he had jobs/funding given to him from the second semester on. It wasn’t mentioned on on their web page which is common with some grad schools but he read about it on a grad school forum and it was discussed on interview later. </p>