<p>Although many PhD programs are fully funded, it appears that some are not. Does a student generally apply for financial aid when applying as one does in the undergraduate admissions process? Should the parents file FAFSA and Profile again (even if the student will be paying tuition) before acceptances are out? I suddenly realized that I am clueless about this!</p>
<p>You need to check with the specific graduate programs to determine if they require parent information on the financial aid application forms. Some do (like some medical and law schools), but many do not. In a most cases, once a student has their first bachelors degree, they are considered independent for financial aid application purposes. </p>
<p>However, you should also know that MOST, if not all aid at the graduate and professional school level is merit based, not need based. It is awarded in the form of fellowships, assistantships and the like. And of course there are loans available to grad students in their own names. The fellowships and assistantships are awarded based on what the school feels is the strength of the grad school applicant’s application. Typically, the finaid forms are not required but you NEED TO CHECK EACH SCHOOL for what they do or don’t require. To get the stafford loans for grad school, the student must complete a FAFSA.</p>
<p>If your student’s professional school requires the submission of parent info, it will be clearly stated on the website…and if you can’t find it…call them and ask. I’ve never had a kid apply to law or med school, but my understanding is that parent info is required by some of these programs.</p>
<p>There is apparently a general rule (or at least that’s what my D’s professors told her when she asked about funding for PhD) that if a program is not fully funded (tuition + stipend or teaching fellowship), you should not be enrolling in it. All the good programs only take as many grad students as they can fund.</p>
<p>This is different for Masters programs, as well as JD,MD and MBA programs. The last 3 are almost never funded (though there are some merit scholarships).</p>
<p>Thumper1 is correct. Quite frankly, if your kid is going the Ph.D. route and isn’t accepted into a fully funded program you might seriously suggest the kid do a year off and applying again (naturally doing things that will help his/her resume). If that doesn’t work the question might become whether that is the right avenue for them. Most top programs fully fund in their areas of strength for the candidates they really want with some top programs fully funding everyone accepted. The key exception probably being large and popular programs where fully funding everyone would be cost prohibitive. I’m sure there are exceptions I’m not thinking off but the key point is funding is critical and makes or breaks Ph.D. programs.</p>
<p>twinmom:</p>
<p>You may find the gradcafe.com site useful. It has admissions results for last year for a variety of programs and the posters list whether they got funding or not. Very interesting read!</p>
<p>For a masters be sure to tell the student to complete the FAFSA in January. My DD was in a partially funded program and by doing the FAFSA early, because we have been doing it every January since it began with stone tablets & chisels, she was awarded a significant work study award which she could use as a research assistant. She then segued into funding as a TA and tuition remission.</p>
<p>Yet that program does not market itself as funded- they choose a few to fund for second year.</p>
<p>Confirm what #2 and #3 said, but with clarification:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>science and engineering grad programs fund all their PhD students at most places in the country, top, mid and many lower tier programs</p></li>
<li><p>social sciences fund their grad students at all top tier and some mid tier programs</p></li>
<li><p>humanities programs at top tier programs fund all their students. A few mid tier programs may fund their most wanted students. But, at many institutions, top tier included, the support often runs out before the degrees are completed.</p></li>
<li><p>at top schools, funding/support is neither need nor merit based, because everyone gets funded. At lower quality programs, less attractive students may not be funded, but the decision is not “merit” in the sense of “merit aid” for undergrads, which is rarely about merit, more often about financial yield management. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Professional programs (i.e. non-research degrees, including LLB, MBA, MD, PhD in clinical Psych, AudD etc. ) are rarely funded. You will often find a few “merit” scholarships, though. </p>
<p>Because of the competitiveness of the PhD job market, the advice of “if you don’t get funding, don’t go” is sound, because the lack of funding tells you (1) you are not very high up in the eyes of these programs w/r/t your qualifications and (2) you will be attending a less regarded program, too. Unless one has great faith in oneself, and thinks oneself is the ultimate late bloomer, the investment is just not worth it. But heck, what do I know about someone’s career goals, and tolerance for masochism and abuse? :)</p>
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<p>Are you sure that’s the correct URL? It doesn’t seem to be. There’s also [GradCafe</a> - Graduate School Admission Resource](<a href=“http://www.gradcafe.net%5DGradCafe”>http://www.gradcafe.net). Is that the one you mean? That’s dot net, not dot com.</p>
<p>I think the old site may have been converted to the new one you link to. The old one, thegradcafe.com does not seem to work anymore, and the new one seems to have very similar features to the old the gradcafe.com, though it is now laid out somewhat differently.</p>
<p>Thegradcafe.com is back on, with a slightly new look. So the two sites may be competing.</p>
<p>Thanks for the words of wisdom from all. My momentary panic has passed!</p>