Scholarships, Fellowships and Assistantships For Graduate Students Congratulations! You’ve (finally) finished your undergraduate degree and are ready to move on to grad school. If you thought tuition, fees, room and board were costly for your four-year school, then you are in for real sticker shock with graduate education. The good news is that unlike undergraduate students, grad students may be eligible for a host of school-based and outside funding opportunities specifically designed to support advanced education. These opportunities include work-based tuition-support programs, such as teaching assistantships and research assistantships; research fellowships; and graduate student scholarships. For more on navigating each of these funding opportunities, read on: Graduate Assis...

Every year, the federal government spends more than $86 billion to help young people go to college. As the single largest provider of student aid in the world, the US federal government offers grants, fellowships, loans and work study programs. Your key to this massive treasure chest is the FAFSA, otherwise known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The application, which can be filled out on paper or on-line, calculates your family’s ability to pay for your college degree. Calculations are based on income, assets and other factors, such as the number of additional dependents in college. The FAFSA is used not only by the federal government to determine your aid eligibility, but also by your college or university to allocate its own scholarships, plus state and private a...

One assumption made by financial aid recipients that needs clarification is the belief that loans are not considered financial assistance. In fact, the vast majority of financial aid dollars are disbursed to students in the form of loans. While federal and state governments do dish out plenty of grant and scholaship aid, loans (often termed “self-help aid, along with work study) are the cornerstone of the modern financial aid industry. This is an important distinction to make, particularly if you enter a post graduate program. As a graduate student, you will no longer be eligible for a Pell grant or any other federal grant aid. Aid eligibility for graduate students usually falls into three categories: loans, assistantships and fellowships. From the Department of Education, the only...