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Career Center

Graduate School Funding

Financial Aid

Loans (need-based)

  • Loans should be your last choice after the following, but they are viable options for funding your education will likely be a good investment.

Assistantships (merit-based)

  • Teaching Assistantship (TA), which means you teach introductory courses

  • Research Assistantship (RA), which means you assist a professor with his/her research

  • Administrative or Residential Advisor Assistantship, which means you would work in a residence hall

  • There is usually a work requirement of about 20 hours a week, and stipend varies by department

  • Some assistantships include tuition remission or reduction

Gift Aid (merit and/or need-based)

  • This is FREE MONEY, but is highly competitive and the program must really want you

  • Usually have early deadlines (November 1)

  • Tuition waivers

  • Institutional fellowships and scholarships, controlled by department chair and faculty

  • National fellowships, for example Rhodes, Mellon, Fulbright, NSF, NHS or Ford Foundation

  • Targeted fellowships, usually geared toward minority students and often in math, science and engineering

How applications are evaluated:

  • Applicants evaluated by a committee

  • Committee normally consists of faculty from a specific discipline

  • Committee makes admissions decisions and awards the majority of departmental teaching and research assistantships and division fellowships and scholarships

What to do once you receive an offer of funding:

  • Wait until all your decisions come in and then compare programs and costs.

  • Negotiate if possible for funds to defray moving costs, provisions for summer support, dissertation support, and more money!

 

Funding

  • Graduate student aid is generally from fellowships, assistantships, and loans. Graduate students are not eligible for Pell Grants, SEOG (grants), or Missouri Grants. They are eligible for some of the federal aid programs that are not grants, some requiring financial need: Stafford Loan, Perkins Loan, and Work-Study. Master's students rely heavily on work and loans. Fellowships and assistantships are decided by admissions and the departments. Loans are processed by the Financial Aid Office.
     

  • The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) has to be filled out to determine eligibility for the Perkins Loan or the Stafford Loan. Get a paper application from a Financial Aid Office or file online at www.fafsa.ed.gov. You should have a PIN (personal identifier) so you can electronically sign your FAFSA online and can access your student aid information online. This can be obtained at www.pin.ed.gov if you do not already have a PIN. FAFSAs have to be filed annually, but PINs can remain the same each year. FAFSAs are available after January 1 for the next year. 
     

  • You will be considered an independent student on the FAFSA if you will be enrolled in a master's or doctorate program. This means you will report your/and your spouse's income and assets instead of reporting parents' income too. You must be fully admitted to the graduate program. Taking prerequisites does not satisfy "fully admitted" status.  
     

  • Students seeking a second undergraduate degree are not considered graduate students. These students are reclassified at an undergraduate class level based on hours needed to finish the new degree, and loan amounts are calculated accordingly for that class level. 
     

  • Half-time enrollment is required for receipt of Stafford Loans (or 6 credit hours per semester). Incompletes or in-progress hours do not carryover to the next semester to obtain deferment of loan repayment. There is a 6-month grace period (after graduating, withdrawing, or dropping below half time) before you begin repayment.
     

  • Students who don't qualify for federal student loans or receive enough assistance from them may look into alternative student loans. These are loans offered by commercial lenders. You may go online to their websites to check out loan terms and your eligibility. 
     

  • With a big reliance on student loans for graduate study it is important to weigh the cost of education against future income and the ability to repay loans. It has been recommended that student loan repayment be limited to 8% of gross income. Realize  differences in earning power exist between majors, and those in certain majors accrue larger student debt. 
     

  • If you already have loans for undergraduate study, you may seek deferment of the loan repayment while attending graduate school at least half-time. Be sure to keep your lenders informed of your continuing enrollment. Each semester they need to know you are still in school.

 

Look at some friendly websites for additional information:

http://www.mapping-your-future.org (for financial aid for graduate studies)

http://www.finaid.org (for financial aid for graduate school and calculators to estimate results you will see from

filing a FAFSA)

http://www.studentaid.ed.gov (government site with section on funding your graduate education, including links to

tax benefits)

http://www.bls.gov/oco (information on various careers and earnings)

 

Still have questions? You may contact the Financial Aid Office to set up an appointment to talk

to a financial aid staff member.