“Paying for Grad School” |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2011 05:51 PM PST , On Saturday February 5, 2011, 10:58 pm EST When 24-year-old was choosing between graduate programs in social work and international studies, she picked one at the University of Denver, which offered her a $20,000 annual scholarship. But with a $53,000 total annual tab, she had to figure out how to cover the rest. So Ms. Roybal found a work-study position that pays $5,000 a year. She gets $1,000 per quarter as a teaching assistant. She has taken out four federal loans and has a grant from her time working in an AmeriCorps program. Getting an advanced degree isn't cheap. But as Ms. Roybal can attest, there are a lot of options for financial assistance out there -- whether you're continuing your education right after graduating college, or if you're going back to school after a few years in the work force. Graduate aid from schools is typically based on merit, not on need. Schools give the most money to applicants under age 30 who plan to enroll full time and have done research in their chosen field. Aid typically is in the form of tuition waivers, cost-of-living stipends and teaching and research assistantships. Ph.D. students can expect to get a significant amount of tuition and other costs covered by a school. That's because doctoral students usually help conduct research and are being groomed to become professors, says , who helps set financial-aid policy for the University of California in Oakland. Many outside grants also are available for master's and doctoral students. For instance, the National Science Foundation (nsf.gov) offers grants for those pursuing degrees in the fields of science, technology and math. Fastweb.com, cos.com and UCLA's Graduate and Postdoctoral Extramural Support (Grapes) database (www.gdnet.ucla.edu/grpinst.htm) let you search for grants based on degree type and field of study. (Grapes can be used by non-UCLA students.) Grants and aid are much less prevalent for a master's in business administration or other professional-degree programs. So you'll most likely have to take out loans. Federal loans are a better option than private loans, financial-aid experts say. Though the rates on some private loans are lower right now, they're typically variable so they'll change over the course of the loan period -- and likely surpass those of fixed-rate federal loans. Graduate students can borrow up to $20,500 per year in federal Stafford loans. For the 2011-12 academic year, subsidized loans (in which interest on the loan won't accumulate until you graduate) have a fixed rate of 3.4%. The rate is 6.8% for unsubsidized loans (in which interest accumulates while you're still in school). You can apply for a Graduate PLUS loan (current rate: 7.9%) up to the full cost of attendance. If you're employed, see if your employer has a tuition-reimbursement program, especially if you're going for an M.B.A. If there's no policy, you can still make a case for why an advanced degree would help you contribute even more to the company, says , senior associate dean at the University of Richmond's Robins School of Business in Virginia. Follow Yahoo! Finance on ; become a fan on Facebook. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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