The financial picture for graduate students is markedly different than the
picture for undergraduates, for two reasons in particular:
- Graduate tuition is considerably higher than undergraduate tuition.
- The available aid is awarded more often on a competitive basis than on the basis of financial need.
The key to funding is to investigate as many potential sources of aid as possible. To help you do that, I will include information and/or links to
as many sources as I can.
Types of Aid
Fellowships
At the graduate level, grants of money often take the form of fellowships, which carry a stipend. Fellowships are usually awarded competitively. The awarding of a fellowship usually carries with it particular conditions:
- The recipient must be a current student or admitted to a degree program.
- The money awarded must be used for tuition and school-related expenses.
- There may be restrictions on outside employment.
- The recipient is often required to be enrolled as a full-time student.
There are many types of fellowships. Some are local in nature:
competition is limited to students at a particular institution or
applicants for admission to that institution. Some fellowships are
targeted toward students in a particular field of study, so that students
in graduate programs at different schools are competing against each other.
Graduate Assistantships
An assistantship is a form of employment. Graduate students are hired to
help the department with teaching or research duties. At some schools, in
addition to a stipend, an assistantships also carries a partial or full
remission of tuition. Assistantships are usually administered by
individual academic departments.
Competition for assistantship is often very competitive, so it is
important to get an application in as early as possible. In competing for
an assistantship as an applicant for admission, you are often competing
against current students as well as other candidates for admission.
Some Sources to Investigate
Mark Kantrowitz's Financial Aid Web Page
This is it: the mother lode. Click here to connect to a comprehensive Financial Aid web page, with basic information about financial aid for both undergraduate and graduate students, including
- a glossary of financial aid terms,
- compilations of frequently-asked questions and answers about financial aid,
- explanations of how financial need is calculated,
- tips on how to spot financial aid scams,
- links to webpages for financial aid offices at various institutions, and
- links to databases of potential sources of aid.
Mark Kantrowitz has written a book on financial aid and a FAQ on financial
aid which he posts to several newsgroups. Thanks to Mark for putting
this site together and calling its existence to my attention.
Peterson's Education Center
Part of the web site for the Peterson's Education Center, which is put
together by the publishers of Peterson's Guides, is devoted to
financial aid. Peterson's publishes reference works which you can buy.
Federal Information Exchange
A source of information on Federal funding is the Federal Information
Exchange, Incorporated. Click here
to be connected to some databases of Federal financial support for
research and fellowship and scholarship opportunities sponsored by
various agencies of the Federal Government. FEDIX is a general database
listing government funding for various kinds of research. MOLIS is a
database of information for minority applicants, and included financial
support information. The RAMS area eventually will include a database of
scholarship and fellowship information.
In addition to connecting to FIE directly via your world wide web
browswer, you can telnet to fedix.fie.com and access information
the web site using the Lynx webbrowser (which is text only). When you
establish a telnet connection, you are allowed up to two hours search
time.
Other Sources
Once you have decided on which schools you will apply to, you should
contact both the degree program office and the financial aid office to
determine what forms of aid are available to you and to get the necessary
application forms. At many schools, there is an office that administers
fellowship programs; be sure to ask for fellowship information.
Professional and cultural organizations can be sources of information
about scholarships or fellowships. If you are actively involved in an
organization, it can't hurt to ask if the organization offers support to
students.
You can also ask the financial aid or fellowship office at schools to
which you are considering applying for referrals to possible sources of
support. The UWM Graduate Fellowships Office's web
page includes
some links to some searchable databases of fellowship programs.
I will add additional sites to the ones listed above as I discover them.
One thing that I have noticed so far is that several of the sites are
interlinked. If you connect to one, it is often possible (if not easy) to
connect to the others.
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last revised: 03292000