Financial Aid for Grad School?

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>I've been away from CC for quite a while. D is now a senior applying to Journalism grad schools. She will be 23 in April. Do I have to fill out the FAFSA with my income or is it all hers now?</p>

<p>Thanks for your advice,</p>

<p>Pyewacket</p>

2

<p>My S has done all forms himself, using his income & assets. He hasn’t been claimed as a dependent on my tax forms for past 2 years.</p>

3

<p>Thanks, bookworm, but since I paid for 4 yrs undergrad and D is my dependent–am I still on the hook to finance grad school?? (Of course, now I am $160,000 poorer than I was before.)</p>

4

<p>There is a similar thread over in the Cafe:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/843574-paying-med-school-grad-school.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/843574-paying-med-school-grad-school.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The responses mostly seem to be about Med School. Here’s what I posted re: D, who is applying for an MPH.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I guess the unknown is what an individual school requires in addition to the FAFSA. We have no prior experience with applying for financial aid, so will learn as we go.</p>

5

<p>I would guess it depends on the school. Is it a MA or PhD?
(PhD, generally speaking, should be fully funded.)
Professional schools (JD, MD) will usually require parents’ info for need-based grants, but the loans can be taken based on the student’s FAFSA.</p>

6

<p>Having a bachelor’s degree makes the student independent for FAFSA, but for profesional degrees (MD/JD/MBA) some schools ask for parent info for their own institutional need based aid.</p>

<p>For grad school, tell your DD to do the FAFSA now, my DD did a masters and was the first student EVER seen in that department with a work study (one big enough to cover all tuition!) because kids seem to wait until they choose a school, then do FAFSA and by then the work study $ are gone. DD got paid for what she would have had to volunteer- working in her sponsoring professor’s research lab as a research assistant.</p>

<p>For a masters, also look for TAship which will pay the student for TAing and probably comes with some funded health benefits and some tuition remission. You can turn a technically unfunded masters into a mostly funded one. Many masters are unfunded, so don’t be offended by that, just find ways to impress people and be chosen as a TA.</p>

7

<p>One part of the FAFSA asks several questions about age, degrees, marital status, etc. These answers will determine if she is your dependent. Having a BA/BS is one of the disqualifications for being a dependent.</p>

8

<p>For grad school your data is not be required as your D will now be considered independent for FA purposes (nothing to do with whether you claim them as a dependent on your tax returns or not - that is not even one of the dependency questions).</p>

<p>As mentioned in an earlier posts, med schools and Law schools do sometimes require parent info. But otherwise, No.</p>

9

<p>You also need to know, however, that financial aid for graduate school is VERY different than for undergrad. There are no Pell grants or the like. The only federal funding I can think of is Stafford Loans. Most grad students who get funded for grad school do so on the basis of merit, receiving fellowships, scholarships, research or teaching assistantships, and the like. No such thing as “schools that meet full need based on EFC”…just doesn’t happen in grad schools.</p>