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Financial Aid for Graduate School

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When you speak to faculty about graduate school, find out how graduate students in your field of study are typically funded. If Penn has a program like the one to which you plan to apply, you might want to speak to the graduate chair or administrative assistant and ask how Penn students in the department/program are funded. Some questions you might want to ask:

Is one automatically considered for funding when one applies for admission? Does the program accept students who are not funded? How do these students pay for their educations?

Are most students expected to get need-based financial aid, work part-time, or take out loans?

Do most students get fellowships? Are they non-service fellowships, teaching fellowships, or a combination? What kind of stipends might one expect? Is tuition covered? Are there fees (e.g., health insurance, computer fees) that aren't covered?

Are students generally funded for the entire length of the program? Is funding guaranteed only for part of the program? Do students have to compete for funding at any point in the program and, if so, what are the criteria for that competition? What are some of the options for funding when fellowships run out?

Are there national fellowships to which one might apply? What are the procedures for such fellowships (i.e., direct application, departmental/university nomination, interviews)?

When you decide to which schools you plan to apply, you will probably want to ask these questions of them as well: not all schools or programs may offer the same types of assistance. Note that many of your questions about applying for financial aid w ill be answered when you receive the application brochures and program information from the schools in which you are interested. Ask for financial aid information when you request information from the schools (they will generally include it anyway, but it can't hurt to ask). When you receive application brochures, look them over carefully. Some may offer suggestions and addresses for financial aid information, special fellowships within the school, and even outside fellowship opportunities.

Check out the Career Services library for additional fellowship opportunities. You may also want to consult the bibliography on funding prepared by the Van Pelt Library reference staff. There may be a national fellowship competition for people in your field of interest (science, humanities, engineering, etc.).* You may be eligible to apply for fellowships for minorities, women, or other special groups.

* Students in the College of Arts and Sciences who are interested in the Mellon Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Fellowship, or the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship should see www.upenn.edu/curf for further information. To be competitive, students should have at least a 3.7 GPA.

By the beginning of the year prior to the one in which you hope to matriculate (e.g. fall of 1996 for fall 1997 admission), you should begin checking deadlines and procedures for applications, financial aid, and fellowships.

Some Other Things to Keep in Mind:

Some programs require you to fill out a FAFSA form (available through the Office of Financial Aid). Find out if you will need to do this, and take a look at the form as early as possible. You may need to dig up financial/tax information on yourself and your parents; be prepared for it.

Some programs only let in students who are funded (at least in part) by some sort of fellowship. If this is the case in you field, you may never need to fill out a financial aid form at all----if the program doesn't offer you some sort of merit-based aid, they won't let you in at all. This is not true of all programs, but it is true of some.

If you are accepted into a program and are not offered financial aid, think very carefully about your options. Are you willing to go into debt to finance your education? Will you be able to work while pursuing your graduate degree? How much debt do you have from your undergraduate education, and when will you have to start paying that back? In some fields, it might be worth it to go into debt for graduate school; in others, it might not. This is of course a personal decision----but think about it before committing yourself to a program.

Financial Aid Links

 

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