Does graduate financial aid work the same as undergrad FA?

Paying for College
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<p>Does financial aid work exactly the same way for graduates as for undergrads? Are FAFSA forms, CSS Profile, and the methods for getting the EFC exactly the same? Are your parents are expected to pay just as much for your grad as undergrad?</p>

<p>And for the # of family members attending college, do siblings in graduate/business/medical school count exactly the same as if they were in undergrad? What if all the children were in grad school? Is it the same as they were all in undergrad? The EFC gets divided by # in college in both cases (as well as other variants - a few in grad, a few in undergrad)?</p>

<p>I apologize if this is a stupid question.</p>

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<p>If you are a graduate student you are independent for FAFSA purposes so the parents income and assets are not counted nor would your siblings be considered. Only you, your spouse and any of your dependents. I don't know about profile.</p>

<p>Having said that I have read of certain loans for medical students where they do consider parents income/assets. Probably a seperate thing from FAFSA though.</p>

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<p>You're independent when you're 24 right? So if you start med/grad school at 22, there won't be any difference in whether you're a grad or undergrad as long as you're under 24? </p>

<p>And won't most grad students have an EFC of 0? Or something close to it since many were working few, if any, hours while they were an undergrad student?</p>

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<p>You are also an independent student when you complete your first bachelors degree (which is the case for students who finish before they turn 24). </p>

<p>Swimcatsmom is right when it comes to financial aid at med and law school, many of these, while you are independent for FAFSA purposes, they still look to the income and assets of your parents until you are 27.</p>

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<p>Beware...the awarding of graduate financial aid is VERY different than the awarding of undergrad aid. Schools can pretty much do what they want to do. DS's EFC is ) (he's a grad student). His initial finaid award was a combination of subsidized AND unsubsidized Stafford Loans...that was IT!! It was later amended to reflect several scholarship awards from the school. BUT just because his EFC was 0, he did not receive grants, scholarships, etc, to cover his cost of attendance....or even close. So...beware.</p>

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<p>There just aren't very many grants available to graduate students any more...except for institutional aid, there is really only Stafford Loans now, with a few exceptions for state grants.</p>

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<p>GRADUATE school generally allows the student to be independent, FAFSA's for sure, not sure if CSS applies and if it require more to be independent. DD's aid was half stafford & half work study (TA or RA) for which she has to find the position.</p>

<p>PROFESSIONAL school (Med/Law/MBA) tends to ask for parent/family info & even publics, like UC med schools, ask for more info than the FAFSA, more of a Profile type of approach- otherwise every one would be $0 EFC.</p>

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<p>Yes, being in graduate school does qualify a student to be an independent student. But as Nikki pointed out, there isn't the same aid structure in grad school as for undergrad. Being an independent for grad school does not necessarily mean that you will have scads of financial aid coming your way. Grad schools do not have the same funding (federal) as undergrad, and they can do whatever they please with their institutional funds.</p>

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<p>When it comes to grad school, students are now able to borrow up to 20k a year in stafford loans. This usually is the first source of financial aid for grad school (the exception being fully funded PhD programs). </p>

<p>Other sources come from as somemom stated, TA/GA positions where a student may get something like 9 credits of tuition remission for 20 weeks of work along with a small stipend for working (per term). Some grad students become RAs/Dorm Directors in order to obtain fee room.</p>

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<p>Friends of my D's who are in grad school in the sciences all have FA from the school that they attend, but they derive from grants that the professors have for research. The students work on the research doing lab duties. My D receives nothing from her grad school in the humanities even though her income last year was under $2000 from part time work. For comparison, as a dependent undergrad at an Ivy, she received close to $20,000 of grant money, as well as Stafford and Perkins loans.</p>

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<p>Let me see if I'm understanding everything. </p>

<p>1) Applying for grad FA is essentially the same except you file as independent (b/c you got a bachelors) for FAFSA and CSS. </p>

<p>2) The FAFSA/CSS questions are similar to undergrad, and parents' assets and income are usually taken into account for med/law/MBA school, even though the grad student is filing as independent. </p>

<p>3) The awarding of graduate aid is drastically different from undergrad, with most need met by work-study & loans. (Because many grad students will have a low EFC due to independence?)</p>

<p>Now time for more questions! ;) </p>

<p>1) If parents claim a grad/med/law student as a dependent when filing taxes, this has no effect on the student's independent status for FAFSA/CSS?</p>

<p>2) When filing FAFSA/CSS as independent, do parents & siblings count for the family size question? Or do you just put 1 (yourself)?</p>

<p>3) Assuming a family with two parents and two children, one undergrad & one med student, what would the med student put for # of family members in college? What would the undergrad student put? (The med student is still claimed by parents as a dependent when filing taxes.)</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone. You've been really helpful!</p>

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<p>none</p>

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<p>Just yourself (unless you are married and have your own child dependents...then you put them down as part of your family size).</p>

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<p>The undergrad who is considered a dependent can put two students down as attending college (there is a place to indicate what year of college the student is in, and this would be noted correctly).</p>

<p>The grad student would put 1...just himself.</p>

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<p>This is not 100% accurate. There are many MED and MBA programs out there which look only at the student's income and who do not use CSS or PROFILE at all. It can vary just as much as the available for grants....institution by institution. Unfortunately, just like undergraduate schools/programs, graduate schools and programs can't be so asily classified into one "fitmost" mold.</p>

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<p>Again, not 100% accurate....in fact, most of my graduate students (MBA and MED) have EFC's in excess of 25k.</p>

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<p>I believe my curiosity is amply satisfied...(for now at least :D) Thank you!</p>

<p>It's a miracle how grad students can afford to foot that steep bill. Without rich parents, many of them will graduate under a heavy six figures of debt...</p>

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<p>check this site out, there are a bunch of articles on financial aid information for graduate school as well as undergrad.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.petersons.com/finaid/file.asp?id=944&path=gr.pfs.advice%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.petersons.com/finaid/file.asp?id=944&path=gr.pfs.advice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>At the University of Chicago, my experience is that financial support of PhD students and undergraduates couldn't be more different.
For undergraduate there is a fairly small program of merit aid, with aid levels determined for the vast majority of students based on financial need.
PhD programs are the opposite. You fill out the federal financial forms for work study and federal loan qualification. But institutional aid tends to be purely based on merit. In my department over half paid no tuition, and many of us got stipends as well. The economics of several years of study (sometimes more than ten) to get a PhD in, say, sociology or anthropology, don't work unless the degree is essentially tuition free with a large amount of living expenses covered by stipends. They did seem to take a few full-payers with lesser credentials, but that may have just been my department.
I assume other top private universities operate similarly to the University of Chicago.</p>