Funding a Masters

Graduate School
1

<p>I am currently applying for MPH, hoping to begin a degree program in fall 2014. But I was wondering about funding. I know a lot more funding is available for doctoral programs, and I am ok with finding outside funding and applying for loans and grants to cover tuition expenses. I was just wondering how people chose to cover living expenses... are there many stipend programs available? Is it possible to hold a full-time job while attending full-time, or too difficult? How difficult is it to get an assistantship with a professor?</p>

<p>The schools I am looking at are Harvard, Emory, BU, and UC Berkeley for Epidemiology.</p>

2

<p>Most people finance MPHs completely or mostly with loans.</p>

<p>I go to a school of public health, and most of my friends here in NYC funded their living expenses either by borrowing Graduate PLUS loans, or by working part-time and living very frugally, or some combination of both. It can be difficult to find a part-time job that pays enough to cover your living expenses completely (especially in New York, where there are many skilled people working with part-time jobs - I’ve been browsing through job ads to find my own and I have an advantage because I have an MA, but the BA jobs pay less than $20/hour).</p>

<p>Getting an assistantship will really depend on where you go. At my SPH (Columbia), sometimes second-year MPH students can get assistantships - either research or teaching - but it’s uncommon for first-year MPH students to have assistantships. It also depends on your skills - if you have research experience, know how to program computers, know how to use statistical packages (SAS, SPSS, STATA), have experience conducting interviews, or have experience using GIS you have a better chance. At my SPH, assistantship positions are limited and they go to well-qualified candidates who often have a year or two (or more) of work experience. At other SPHs, though, there may be more available and more students with less experience may get them.</p>

<p>Whether or not it is possible to work full-time and attend full-time will depend on your program. At my program, it would not be possible because some of the required courses are held during the day (although many, including most of our core required courses, are held in the evenings and several are taught in executive format - one weekend a month). Even if most of the classes are accessible at night, though, you may miss some important networking and university activities like Grand Rounds or career fairs.</p>

<p>I urge you also to apply to your public in-state university’s MPH program, if your state has one. Aside from the UCs, there are plenty of states that have great MPH programs - Colorado, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Texas, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Washington, to be exact, all have public universities with CEPH-accredited MPH programs that are likely to be affordable. If you’re not already a resident of one of those states, you could potentially move to one and work in health for 1-2 years before applying to cut down on costs. You don’t want to borrow a lot of money for an MPH because median salaries in the field are not very high - epidemiologists can expect to make $60-70,000, but that’s not enough to pay off $120K in loans.</p>

3

<p>When my daughter did a program at John Hopkins, they told her they were too expensive vs the salary made for MPH. Sure if you can afford it or have no undergrad loans, it’s a choice, but you really should be smart about where you apply.
My son found an accredited program in Psychology for Masters that funded him after one semester (state school) and he saved a lot of money vs a private university that accepted him.</p>

<p>It takes a lot of searching but sometimes they can be found. My D will also be looking for the best option in that field for next year also, Good luck!</p>