<p>Hi, I "hopefully" will have a son that will be in grad school, at least part time, but hopefully full in a year. I know he will be independent for the fafsa and dependent for our taxes, but does anyone have any feedback on how aid might differ in this new phase for him?
I know college FA offices might look at my twins entering college as having 3 students in school with my son, but I'm not counting on that. What I don't know is will his grad schools look at us as supporting him since he will be only 21 when he graduates and not working full time? Making under 4,000 a year, he wont have very much to claim.
Thanks for sharing any experience.</p>
<p>Our family would like info on this as well.
Son will attend grad school in fall and he completed FAFSA in January as independent; still dependent for taxes (I think).</p>
<p>Schools seem very slow with needs based packages for grad students. He has not received FA letter from his school. Only verbal info that grad students can usually borrow up to $20,500 per year in staffords, which is way more than he will need. </p>
<p>I’ll be interested to hear what others say here as well.</p>
<p>Also if an older child claim independent for FAFSA, would it effect the FAFSA of the younger chiild? What is the right strategy if you have multiple childs that are a couple of years apart and the older one is going to grad school.</p>
<p>We will have one child in grad school, and another starting college this fall. The fact that we will have one in grad school did not affect the EFC for the younger child; that is to say, her schools did not take her older sibling’s status into account at all. But I think some schools treat this situation differently. You should check with your younger child’s school whether they take kids in grad school into account in figuring EFC.</p>
<p>Whether undergrad schools count your grad student depends on each UG school policy, you need to ask, but many schools (the UCs for example) do count</p>
<p>Most grad school financial aid is in the form of loans, TAships which earns a stipend and tuition remission etc. </p>
<p>Tell any grad school applicant that you know to file FAFSA in January as they had in UG. My DD did this for a masters and got a substantial work study which was used as a research assistantship. The profs & dept all said they had never seen a grad student get work study before, we figured out this was because most of her cohort did not do FAFSA until they knew where they were going and WS$ are limited so by then they were all gone. This small award made a huge difference in reducing her potential loans as she would have had to work in that research lab any way so would not have had that much time to work another job.</p>
<p>For professional schools- MD/JD/MBA many schools will count parents info for school based aid, PhD and masters usually consider the student independent</p>
<p>somemom-
Our son, attending grad school in fall, contacted the FA office of his school to ask about ANY kind of needs based aid. He was given a large talent award based on audition but wanted to see if he could pick up workstudy or loans if necessary, to help with room,board.</p>
<p>The FA folks told him that “there is no work study for grad students”. Don’t know if he understood what was said exactly or if this is school specific.
Anyway, he will pick up gigs or other work to compensate.</p>
<p>DD had an EFC of 0 for her grad school FAFSA. She is a dependent for taxes and we have another in college. Her award consisted of Grad Plus loans for the COA.</p>
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Is there usually need based aid for grad students? How about for professional/MBA students?</p>
<p>My son will be trying to getting into grad schools for school psychology. He was told to file early, but I thought they had to tell them yes or no by April 14th( or something close to that) for PhD and May for masters programs. I have seen posts from students that were still left hanging with aid…they act like all of a sudden whether you can afford to go doesn’t matter anymore. I hope my son’s schools will not be the same.
My niece did business programs and they were better. I’m sure every school varies and the type of program.
Unlike undergrad, a low EFC doesn’t matter as much since the awards are different. We have heard though if there are grants, work, etc., the earlier the better. I have found browsing different sites, they are very vague with grad aid, whether masters or PhD, it really depends on what they want to give, not your need. I hope since we don’t have much in savings, my daughters have some colleges that will consider 3 in college and not just 2.</p>
<p>Debruns-
That’s EXACTLY how it seemed to us…that the schools all of a sudden act like whether you can afford the school doesn’t matter anymore!
Son had two acceptances, one waitlist (still pending!). Merit money offered in March for one school that offered to him, none from other. He had to accept merit by April 15th or lose it. Luckily for him, it was substantial enough that he could accept it, regardless if he ends up with any needs based aid.</p>
<p>He has received several ‘requests for info’ forms from both schools FA depts but even now has not received any award letters like for undergrad. He is in a reasonable situation since we can assist a bit.
But how do the schools assume you can make an intelligent decision without all the facts?
Verbally, we were told by both schools that he would at least be offered grad loans in his name since he filed as independent for FAFSA in January.
Just seems weird to me after the relative organized flow of undergrad. Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>That’s how I felt too. My son went on a grad school forum and read about quite a few students that were left hanging, some didn’t know whether to take one school or another, emails went unanswered. It must be very hard. Some grad schools though were better than others (I told him to make a note of them!) Maybe with Psychology it’s worse, because they have so many students and so few slots, but it is quite a different experience. With undergrad, you had strict deadlines and offers early and any vagueness I detected on college sites seems quite different now, it’s all relative I guess.
I remember people telling me how things would be better when my son went to grad school because he would have a low EFC but I don’t think they realized it wasn’t like undergrad.</p>
<p>There IS work-study available for graduate students. I received federal work-study, and I am entering grad school this fall. What that lady said was false.</p>
<p>I’m in limbo because I haven’t heard back from one of my schools regarding scholarship aid. I cannot map out my total expenses. It’s very frustrating.</p>
<p>What is your area of study, tenisghs?</p>
<p>I’m in a dual-degree master’s program. I submitted my FAFSA in February. The university gave me the maximum aid ($3000 work-study, $500 Perkins Loan, $8500 Subsidized Stafford, and $12,000 Unsubsidized Stafford). I’m not planning to accept all of it, but I have only heard back from one of my two schools. I want to compare grant/scholarship awards before I proceed further.</p>
<p>It may be possible that some schools do not administer grad student work study? Or she could have been mistaken, I have a friend who has worked in student loans at DDs masters school and she did not know there was grad student work study; maybe no one ever applied earlier enough before!?</p>
<p>Do you get the Stafford and Perkins loans by filling out the FAFSA? Or, do you have to do something extra to get it?</p>
<p>On the FAFSA, I checked the box stating that I wanted to be considered for federal work-study and stafford/perkins loans. I also stated this on my school applications under financial aid. If you did not do this, it’s probably one of the reasons why your son was never given those options.</p>
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<p>The FAFSA is required for both, checking the loans considered box lets the FA office know that you’re interested but not checking the box does not disqualify you. Also, MPN and entrance couseling, are required. The Perkins loan funds are limited to what the school has available and are pretty much offered at their discretion. Btw, there is a separate application required for Plus loans.</p>
<p>You should contact your FA office asap if you’re interested in loans, but at this point in the year the Perkins funds are likely exhausted. If they do come up with Perkins funds for you, try not to consolidate these loans with other loans later as you’ll lose the 5% rate and other benefits it offers.</p>
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<p>somemom, I’m pretty sure that Federal WS is always at the institution’s discretion. They have a pool of funds and are allowed to set their own policies regarding distribution. Unfortunately, some distribute it exclusively to undergrads.</p>
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<p>cap, do you mean she wasn’t offered her share of subsidized and unsub Staffords? This doesn’t sound right…maybe call FA and ask about them? Just for curiosity, did her grad school allow the 2 for number in college to determine her EFC, or didn’t it make a difference for her?</p>
<p>There is some good info posted on this site, though incomplete, relative to funding exclusively for grads:
[Graduate</a> School Scholarships - Graduate Student Loans - GradView](<a href=“gradview.com - gradview Resources and Information.”>gradview.com - gradview Resources and Information.)</p>
<p>and, in the “leave no stone unturned” category (especially for math/CS grads), additional sources to check here:
[FinAid</a> | Answering Your Questions | Books Listing Fellowships (Graduate School)](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>
<p>For those considering grad school in their home state, it’s worth checking into your state aid/scholarship programs as well. For example, in NY, the HESC website is a good source of info for state funded grants and scholarships available for grads and the following merit and need based aid programs:
[Programs</a> for Graduate Study in New York State](<a href=“http://www.hesc.com/Content.nsf/SFC/2/Programs_for_Graduate_Study_in_New_York_State]Programs”>http://www.hesc.com/Content.nsf/SFC/2/Programs_for_Graduate_Study_in_New_York_State)</p>
<p>I’ll have to dig out the letter to check what she was offered, but I know for sure there were no grants or subsidized loans. It doesn’t matter anyway; she got an assistantship after meeting the department head and it covered almost all tuition and expenses, and she had already qualifired for in-state tuition because of her program. She’s leaving the country for two years, but was already told she would have a teaching job for her last semester when she gets back. She’s doing her master’s in 3 semesters because of the program she is in.</p>