Guest Author - Stephanie A. Allen

One of the things you need to consider when preparing for graduate is school is probably the most important: how to pay for it. Graduate school is expensive, and some of the aid packages available to undergraduate students are just not available for graduate students. I’ve put together some tips for you that can help you decide the best way to finance your graduate education.

Before you do anything else, go to the Department of Education’s free application for federal student aid website, better known as FAFSA. Here, you can learn more about federal financial aid, start and submit your application, and check on its progress. However, you must have your income tax return information to fill out the application. It will allow you to estimate your income, but you may end up submitting your tax return to your school’s financial aid office. Because most graduate students are classified by the DOE as independent, (your parents are not paying for school), you will only need your own information, and your spouse’s, if married. The application is long and detailed, but if you applied for financial aid as an undergraduate, all you’ll need to do is update your information. If you did not, and this is your first time filling out the application, prepare to spend an hour or so with it. It is not difficult, just lengthy. It is extremely important to apply as early as you can. Schools only get so much money, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

For graduate students, financial aid usually comes in the form of student loans. Lifetime loan limits are now at $138,500, and this amount includes loans taken out as an undergraduate. Graduate students are allowed to borrow up to $20,500 annually, and this amount could be smaller based on your cost of attendance. Your cost of attendance is how much your school estimates it will cost you to attend school for that year. This figure includes tuition, room and board, transportation costs, and books. If you have extenuating circumstances and you believe your cost of attendance is more than what your school estimates, you will need to talk to the financial aid representative at your school.

Financial aid for graduate students also comes in the form of teaching and research assistantships. Graduate students may be offered a stipend by their program department to teach undergraduate classes, or to work as a research assistant in a lab. Depending on your field, you may be offered one or both of those options. However, not all programs offer all their graduate students assistantships. You must check with your program to get details on their application process (you can usually apply for an assistantship when you apply for admission). Additionally, some assistantships are competitive, meaning students must compete with each other to keep them from semester to semester, or from year to year. The best financial aid packages for graduate students will contain an offer of support for a specified amount of time (e.g., four years), and will include information about the assistantships offered.

Finally, there are scholarships and grants available to graduate students. However, they are almost always departmental, competitive, and you may need to apply for them separately. Investigate your program to see what they offer in the way of scholarships or grants, and apply for them. Try to offset your student loan balance as much as you can, because at some point you’re going to have to pay all that money back.

Some graduate students choose to work a regular fulltime or part-time job while in school, but it is difficult. My English program, for example, made it nearly impossible to work fulltime while in school, but because they offered all incoming graduate students teaching assistantships that came with a stipend, it worked out. A part-time, low stress job is probably ok while in graduate school, but anything demanding may end up taking too much time away from your studies, or may cause too much stress.

The most important thing to do when considering financial aid packages is to seriously consider how much it costs to attend graduate school. Your school will tell you how much they think it will cost you, but what are your other financial needs? Do you need childcare? Will you have to commute? What about incidentals, like new tires, cable television,or gifts? Write these things down and try to include them in your own “cost of attendance” and see how they match up with the school’s offer. You may need to supplement with a part-time job, or you may have a surplus. Consider all your options and do what makes sense. Finding money to finance your graduate education can be a challenge, but graduate students are notoriously thrifty, so know that even on a tight budget you can do it.