It might seem like most of the available funds for college are designated for undergraduate students, but that is not always the case.
While financial aid for graduate school works a little bit differently from that of undergrad, there are still graduate school scholarships to be had from a variety of sources.
One of the main differences between scholarships for undergraduates and scholarships for graduate and doctoral students is the source of the majority of the scholarship funding. Most undergraduates supplement federal scholarships and loan programs with scholarships from third-party organizations (these are all of the foundations, corporations and non-profits that we’ve listed on the site). Graduate students generally find funding from universities themselves in the form of fellowships and teaching assistantships, in addition to departmental scholarships.
And doctoral students (for the most part) are funded by student grants that are awarded directly to their schools for a particular kind of research or project.
In most cases, scholarships for graduate students will be most readily available through your college. The financial aid officers will know all about both university-specific and third-party scholarships that are designed specifically for students in your major or field of study. One exception to this rule are professional development scholarships. If you are entering a graduate program to get ahead in your career, you might find that your company is willing to pay for part of your tuition, if no all of it. And this doesn’t only go for large companies! Many smaller organizations and even non-profits have programs in place to help recruit and retain the best people. In exchange for these types of scholarships, you’ll have to commit to employment for a certain amount of time after you complete your degree.
While it is rare that a PhD scholarships comes up, sometimes you can get lucky with some extra money that you can use to either pay tuition or use for expenses that your department might not cover.
The Florance P. Kendall Doctoral Scholarship is one such scholarship for physical therapy students, which awards $5,000 per year.
Remember that while many graduate school scholarships are available only to graduate students, there are also opportunities that are open to students of all levels. This means that as you are searching through listings here on FinancialAidFinder and on the other scholarship search engines, you should make sure to search by major and interest as well as by grade level.
Sports Management Scholarships (& Electronic Journalism awards) >>>
