Yes Virginia, you can get financial aid for your doctoral program. It may not be like Santa Claus where the only string attached is being good through the school year, but there is money out there.
For this author, this article is not only to potentially help you in your pursuit of your graduate or doctorate degree, but it may also help me in how I proceed toward my doctorate. I, too, have been looking at different doctoral options for a couple of years (stop me if you have heard this before), and if I can get the money right, I will likely get my doctorate degree.
A typical Ed. D. program requires 60-66 credits. This gives us an average range of roughly $21,000 to $55,000, depending on where we go to get the degree. At this point in most of our lives, we have jobs, families, and other items in life that we are involved in, so finding the money for this degree is not ‘easy.’ It may require tightening our belt in some areas or saving money over time for these costs.
After some research and discussion with a couple of universities, all things financial assistance starts with the FAFSA (Free Application for Student Aid). You will need the following information for your FAFSA: Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID to sign into StudentAid.gov, Social Security number or Alien Registration number, account statements for checking and savings accounts, information about investment accounts, federal income tax returns and record of untaxed income.
There are some differences for the FAFSA for graduate students. First, your dependency status is different now that you are in graduate school so you will have to enter your own income and asset information rather than your parents’ information from when you were an undergraduate.
Second, according to Forbes advisor, the only loans you qualify for are direct unsubsidized loans and grad PLUS, so you’re responsible for all interest on your loans. Also, most grad students are ineligible for Pell Grants unless they are pursuing a teaching certification. However, most of the people reading this article have obtained this certification.
Thirdly, unsubsidized graduate loans have borrower caps, but grad PLUS loans have no borrower maximum; thus, you can borrow up the total school-certified cost of attendance.
Forbes also points out that Grad School FAFSA Eligibility has three elements: 1) you are a US citizen or eligible noncitizen, 2) are planning to attend an accredited university in an eligible degree program, and 3) demonstrate financial need like grants and work-study,
Essentially for graduate school your three main financial aid options are student loans, grants/scholarships (largely dependent on the place you want to attend), and work-study. The work-study option is harder for most people in graduate school due to being already in the workforce. Remember there is a yearly borrowing limit on direct unsubsidized loans at $20,500 per year, so if you are going to a very expensive grad school, watch the price. Grad PLUS Loans have no such cap.
Turns out there is no actual income limit that qualifies you for money in the FAFSA formula. FAFSA points out that the average full-time graduate student received $28,300 in federal aid; what kind of aid that was (grants vs. loans) was unspecified.
USA Today answered the question of how much aid graduate students qualify for with the PELL Grant up to $7,395 (for those pursuing a teaching certification only), TEACH Grant up to $4000, the aforementioned Direct Unsubsidized Loan, and the GRAD PLUS loans.
Other Ways to Pay for Grad School
In researching this article, some other grad student options came up to help offset the cost of your doctorate program.
Most universities will have private grants or scholarships available. You need to talk to financial aid about these options. Anything to offset the cost will be great but even better in this case you are not paying back a loan when you still might have some loans from your undergraduate work.
Some universities have fellowships or assistantships available. Depending on what is happening in your life at this time, this could be an option as most of the money can be used for tuition, fees, and housing. For many of us with families and in the workforce, making time for this could be difficult.
Does your employer offer any tuition assistance? Every option would help here. Everywhere I have worked in Texas this has not been an option, but I would think there are some educational institutions out there where assisting someone toward their doctorate would come in a financial form other than a raise in pay.
As someone who tries to avoid loans, I suggest trending towards a university where I can get some scholarships and grants to help me offset the cost of my final degree.
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