<p>Hi
My D has decided to go to our instate school. Where she will get a state scholarship for tuition and we will just have to pay room and board (Yay!) We had been saving money in a 529 account and I am unsure as to how to use it.
She is interested in grad school -not sure what kind. </p>
<p>I am confused as to how it all works? What kind of grad schools give stipends? and what do stipends usually cover? Do most people take out loans for grad school?
What kind of majors usually have TAs? and does being a TA pay for tuition?</p>
<p>I went to nursing school and my H went to professional school -so we have no experience with how this works out</p>
<p>Congratulations to your D! Great for all of you that she has a tuition scholarship. As far as graduate school financing I think the answer is - it depends. It’s my understanding that for law school, med school and many masters programs scholarships/funding opportunities are few and far between. On the other hand, for many Ph.D. Programs funding is available through graduate assistantships (research and/or teaching) and fellowships. Some of these are funded by the university but many by the grants the labs get for the research students will be involved In. Typically, such funding also includes a waiver of tuition so whilst the stipend is often low it’s liveable given a frugal lifestyle. Loans to supplement are available if necessary.</p>
<p>I suspect that many professional-degree graduate programs have few “full-ride” scholarships available. My own HYP professional-degree program also had poor financial aid funding, period. Nearly all students in my grad school and division were “full pay”, with some receiving loans. That same program’s COA has now quintupled.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I would question whether a “full pay” or even “somewhat pay” PhD program is a worthy choice if not easily affordable otherwise to student and/or family. Reviewing salaries at many LACs recently, I was surprised to see that a $60,000/year salary for a PhD tenure-track professor is common. The “gypsy” adjunct professors, paid by class rather than on annual salary, is compensated even more poorly despite their PhDs and likely trailing student loans.</p>
<p>The general rule is that if you are seeking a professionally-oriented degree, the most that is available, if anything, is a tuition scholarship of some amount. For a research-oriented degree (usually a Ph.D. but sometimes a Masters, depending on the school), there is often a tuition scholarship and stipend for work as a Teaching or Research Assistant. Of course there are exceptions to these general rules and it very much depends on the field of study, which you have not mentioned.</p>
<p>Generally a TA position comes with stipend and full tuition in the form of a waiver or scholarship. The same goes for a Research Assistant position.</p>
<p>As for your question about loans, my recommendation is not to take out a loan for a Ph.D. program. It is simply too long a proposition and the eventual salary increase is minimal for the lost earnings and the loan. for a limited term Masters degree (no more than 2 years), there is a better case for taking out loans since the pay difference between a Bachelor’s and Masters is significant and the time to degree is relatively short.</p>
<p>Now, if your daughter is interested in a Masters degree, it may be possible that her school has some integrated co-terminal programs where she can get both Masters and a Bachelors degrees in a total of 5 years while maintaining her financial aid package. This is a very good deal and even if she is interested in a Ph.D. eventually, it could very well be worth it to get a jump on the coursework.</p>
<p>If in a few years it becomes apparent she won’t need the 529 for grad school, you/she can withdraw money equal to the merit scholarship without penalty. She would have to pay taxes on the earnings portion, which may be small enough to avoid any taxes at all. (For example, if she had $15,000 per year scholarship, she could withdraw $15000 that year and only pay taxes on the earnings.) If she decides later not to go to grad school, or is in a funded program, and you don’t have anyone else to transfer the 529 to, there is a 10% penalty to withdraw money for non-educational purposes.</p>
<p>D1 is in a fully funded Ph.D program. She does live frugally (and has always been a prolific saver). She is on track to graduate with her Ph.D with no college debt whatsoever.</p>
<p>I suspect it depends on the field. I’m very proud of D2 who has just been accepted into a fully funded Ph.D. Program - at one university where she interviewed she was told there were 250 applications for 5 places - so in her field competition is stiff but I’m sure it varies .</p>
<p>A general rule of thumb for PhD programs, would be that if your daughter can’t land full funding, the universities are telling her that she really isn’t good enough to get a job in the field. Not to mention that many PhD programs simply do not admit students who they cannot fund.</p>
<p>Spouse of professor here with a few thoughts --</p>
<p>Top level Ph.D. students in the humanities (don’t know about sciences) are fully funded coming into the program, at least for tuition. Students may also get grants (not loans) for living expenses, or they pay on their own for living expenses. After the first year of classes, students typically get TA positions which provide a stipend covering living expenses for a frugal grad student. As students move through the program, they apply for competitive grants as they work on their thesis (as with professors, the more teaching you do, the less time you have to work on your independent research – so grad students need to stop teaching at a certain point and start writing – and that means they need funding). </p>
<p>Agree with other posters that if a student is not offered full funding coming into the program, that is a statement from the program that they are willing to take the student’s money, but are not really committed to that student. A very risky proposition to take a spot like that. </p>
<p>Grad school is a long way off and sounds like other folks know more about how 529s work. Congrats to your daughter, and enjoy this last semester together (my oldest is a college freshman, and this time last year, everything seemed to be the “last” of something that had been a fixture in our lives.</p>
<p>^^I agree with MIdwestmomofboys. My humanities Ph.D. was fully funded, with a stipend that covered basic living expenses. I had the choice between two programs that were approximately equal in status, one with full funding/stipend and one with nothing. The one with no funding was more convenient to my husband’s job and our current location, but I chose the less convenient program that had the funding. This was the best decision I have ever made. My advice would be never to go into debt for a Ph.D. in humanities.</p>
<p>The professional schools (law, med, dent, vet) rarely come with any . PhD programs have funding as stated above. Go to a program where they fund the student. especially in the humanities. </p>
<p>H started in a fully funded PhD program in physics. After 4 years, he really hated research and so left with a masters+ to marry me. His school was very unhappy, but he had been an excellent TA for them so they got 4 yrs of professor quality for grad student dollars. He currently teaches at a community college.</p>
<p>In engineering and the sciences, it is not at all uncommon for PhD students - even Master’s students - to get a full tuition waiver and a stipend (in return for work as a GRA/GTA especially; full fellowships are less common, but certainly available).</p>
<p>I would go so far as to say that one should not pay anything (except the opportunity cost of putting off getting a job in industry) to go to graduate school in STEM. Exceptions might arise for concentrations that don’t translate well into industrial roles, like some areas of pure mathematics, theoretical computer science, theoretical physics, etc.</p>
<p>In any event, I think that graduate programs are right to charge what the market will bear.</p>
<p>Some students are not ready to go directly from undergraduate to PhD with full funding, they may not have the research, the ECs, the LORs, GPA, atc. Those students may be able to get a fully funded (tuition remission and living expenses) masters, especially at a school which is terminal master’s. This allows them to prove they are worthy of the funding (or not) and not acquire loans.</p>