<p>While making college decisions (should i go to the expensive one or the cheap one or the one that gives me merit $$?) I have been wondering a bit about how graduate school financial aid works. How hard is it to get merit aid? Is it a good idea to go to a cheaper undergrad and save money for grad school (especially if med school is a possibility)? If you go directly after college is your parents' income factored in? Is it only based on your income (that is probably very little)?</p>
<p>I am speaking entirely out of what little I know, so take this with a mountain of salt.</p>
<p>By graduate school, you are expected to be independent -- most people who go to grad school are in fact over the 'independent' age threshold (24 years of age), so you'll probably be expected to come up with the majority of the cost. </p>
<p>Graduate aid varies. Usually, a terminal Master's degree will charge you full freight, with perhaps a little bit of loans on the side, and if you're VERY lucky, some TA jobs (though usually not). PhD programs are the ones that offer stipends and pedagogy (some often include this in the requirements for the degree) that can pay all or part of your tuition. How this will fare for you depends on a lot of factors, such as whether you're underrepresented in the field (female in the sciences? male in psychology? racial minority? etc.), what kind of research you're bringing to the university, and what kind of impact your receiving the degree will have on the world (I'm thinking particularly of biomedical research here; they have programs with the NIH that offer a free ride through a PhD program in exchange for some committed research; very competitive, but available in a lot of places).</p>
<p>As far as saving money by going to the cheaper undergrad, it really depends. In a lot of cases, where you went to undergrad will have an impact on where you'll be able to go to grad. Grade inflation/deflation has a lot to do with this, also, because GPA (particularly GPA in the relevant classes) will matter, ESPECIALLY if you're going into medicine (but look on the medicine boards here on CC for more on that). Your GREs and other exams (MCAT, LSAT, MAT, etc.) will matter as well (though GREs are odd: if you're going for math/science, your verbal score won't much matter, and vice versa). You want to maximize both of these and get in research. So don't opt for the 'cheapest school' simply because it's the cheapest: examine what it is you want to do, what kind of research opportunities are available to you at the undergrad institution, and things like that. In the end, know that your terminal degree is often the one that employers care about; if you want the 'big name,' it might be best to save it (and your money) for grad school.</p>