My oldest is applying to grad schools (she’s 22 now) and i’m wondering how need-based financial aid works when applying at grad schools. Is it identical to undergrad (that is, the parents’ income & assets) or is there a different formula? And does it vary by school?
What type of “grad school”?
PhD programs worth attending should be funded by tuition waiver and stipend from doing TA and/or RA work.
Professional school (e.g. MD, JD) can be very expensive, often funded mainly by loans.
Graduate school financial aid is not the same as undergrad. The vast majority of grad school aid is merit based…ams is based on the strength of your application and the school’s desire to have you as a member of the grad school cohort. Aid comes in the form of scholarships, grants, assistantships, fellowships, sometimes work study, and loans.
Some medical schools, pharmacy programs and law schools DO still require parents to provide financial information…income and assets.
Most other grad school programs do not require parent information…juat the student.
But keep in mind…many…many grad students coming right out of undergrad will have an EFC of $0 or close to that. Grad schools do not have guarantees to meet full need for all (with a few notable exceptions…for example Yale Masters of Music Performance is fully funded for …well at least the tuition part is but that is actually a merit award because you can’t get it unless you meet the audition bar for admission).
As noted, some PhD programs are fully funded…but not all are.
So…what kind of graduate program are you talking about?
So this would be a Masters and in the overcrowded field of Foreign Service/International Affairs (as opposed to my D’s roommate who is in aerospace engineering and is trying to decide between several lucrative grad school offers right now).
I appreciate these comments. (i will add that she’s a strong candidate…already two acceptances from top 10 schools less than 30 days after she applied).
Congratulations on those acceptances. You never know what a school will see in her application that might make money forthcoming. I guess just be patient and wait and see.
I would think she will be filing her FAFSA as an independent student…no parent information needed at all. This will make her eligible to take the Direct Loan…and Grad Plus Loans if needed.
As noted above by another poster, it depends upon the type of graduate program. Law schools (JD degree) offer a significant number of scholarships, MBA schools offer some & some master’s programs offer up to full tuition scholarships.
Many, however, take out loans for medical school & law school.
So here’s the latest from a money standpoint…she’s applied to 6 programs and has gotten acceptances from 5…but money is all over the place.
First costs (this includes rough housing costs and some offer dorms and some don’t so this is an estimate ). All are 2 year programs.
Georgie Washington Elliott School - $53,445/year
American University SIS - $55,502
Tuft’s Fletcher - $56,641
Denver Korbel - $61,695
Pitt GSPIA - $47,686
Johns Hopkins SAIS - Bologna (est.): 52,043 euros; D.C. (est.): Total $69,470
Then merit aid awarded so far (this is per year but X2 the amount)
GW – $15,000 a year (so $30,000 for the degree)
American - Accepted but finances coming March 15
Tufts – only $5000 a year (but notes that she can apply for TA/RA)
Denver - $25,000 a year
Pitt – $27,000 a year
JH – decisions haven’t come out yet so she doesn’t know if this will be in consideration or not.
From a pure cost standpoint, Pitt is the clear winner. But, like life itself, there are lots of pluses and minuses to each.
Next up: Narrowing it down to 2 or 3 and attending accepted student days.
Pitt should be fairly affordable rent wise in a shared apartment. My D’s rent in a 3 bedroom apartment is about $600 a month. She spends about $50 a week on groceries. I also think that grad students still get a free bus pass.
They have some graduate student housing as well.
If significant loans are involved, I would ask her to consider whether this masters degree makes sense. I don’t know much about IR masters degrees, but I don’t think most unfunded masters degrees (not talking about professional degrees such as MBA, JD, MD) make sense from an economic perspective.
I don’t believe there will be any significant loans needed for the two years (a combo of her jobs that she’s been working along with the merit aid) but point well taken on whether a masters makes sense. She’s also applying for jobs at the same time as applying for schools so she will have options but - coming from a State Dept family – i’ve seen a number of advantages to going out the gate with one. Right now, all options are being considered!
It looks like, among the better known IR schools, GWU and Denver are cheapest (obviously Pitt cheapest of all) with American potentially being cheaper.
Due to their location in DC, I would put GWU and maybe AU (depending on total costs) in the lead.