Maximizing your financial aid, or Do your FAFSA!

Financial aid can be an important way to supplement your funding during graduate school.  In some rare cases, it can even cover the majority of costs associated with your education.  Though the total amount of available student aid has decreased in recent years, many aid options are still available, and financial aid should not be overlooked as a potential source of support.

Student aid may be available from:

1. The federal government (this post is U.S. centric, sorry international readers)
2. Your state government
3. Your university or college
4. Private sources such as non-profits

Federal student aid is usually the largest and most readily-available support, coming to students in the form of grants, loans, and work-study.  Grants are hands-down the best type of student aid because they do not need to be repaid.  Loans are just the opposite.  As I've stated the, the purpose of this blog is to help you avoid taking on any further debt, so I won't touch on loans here.  The final type of federal student aid is work-study, which essentially provides funds to employ the student at their university.  Work-study can be a little tricky, as the university is responsible for arranging the work opportunities and not all schools participate in the program.

The remaining types of aid (state, university, and private) vary widely from location to location.  The best way to find more information on what sources of support may be available to you is to visit your school's financial aid office.  This office is responsible for managing financial aid funds for all students, and they should be able to provide you with a great deal of information regarding funding opportunities.

A nearly-universal first step in applying for financial aid is to submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).  This application provides information about yourself, your schooling, and your financial need to the federal government, allowing them to calculate how much aid you should receive. They do this by generating what is called an Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which is the amount of money you (and your family if your parents can still claim you as a dependent) are expected to provide for your education.  This value is weighed against the projected costs of your education, and used to determine how much money is required to make up the difference.  You can submit your FAFSA application here and in the mean time you can calculate a projection of how much aid you might receive using FAFSA4caster.

Once your FAFSA is received, the Federal Student Aid office will generate a student aid report for that year and forward it to your university.  The actual amount of funding you are given will be determined by your school.  Your FAFSA information will also be used to gauge your eligibility for other state, university, and private funding.  It is important to note that some independent scholarships, grants, and fellowships will require that you submit a FAFSA and may ask to see your student aid report or EFC.

There is a national deadline for completing a FAFSA (usually June 30th), but it is important to look up your state's deadline.  Student aid is often given starting on a certain date and disbursed until there aren't any funds left to give.  Thus, it is very important to have your FAFSA completed before your state's deadline.  After that point, they will begin to divy up the funding and your chances of receiving aid may be diminished.  Look up your state deadline here. 

A great deal more information can be found on the website of the Office of Federal Student Aid and on the main FAFSA page.  Also, I can't stress enough the importance of talking to someone in you university's financial aid office.  They will be best able to guide you through the specifics of obtaining financial aid in your state and at your school.

In summary, submitting a FAFSA is important.  Make sure you do it by your state's deadline.  If you miss the deadline, submit one anyway.


Best of luck,

Casey

Don't overlook the little guys

When applying to scholarships and grants, many graduate students focus only on "The Big Ones."  This is not without good reason, as these larger fellowships have the potential to cover the majority of the expenses associated with graduate education.  The downside of this, however, is that many students overlook the numerous smaller scholarships and grants available to them.  These smaller funding sources can be incredibly valuable in covering research and travel expenses, which may not be included in a larger fellowship, and may help ease your financial burden.  During my master's coursework, I pulled together $12,500 in small grants and scholarships alone, helping to pay for a large portion of my research and to cover the cost of some of my living expenses while I was in school.

The great thing about these smaller funding opportunities is that many of them are locally focused, on a school, a specific department, or on a particular geographic region.  To find scholarships and grants that apply for you, start simple.  Begin with a web search, and be sure to try including key words that apply to your field, your school, your department, and the region in which you are working.  Next, talk with people in your department.  Older students are likely to know about potential funding opportunities within the department and the university.  If you have a graduate coordinator, ask them.  Call the financial aid office, or check their website (next week I'm going to talk about maximizing your financial aid and funding opportunities within your school).  Be sure to keep your eyes open and check email lists, bulletin boards, etc.  Many of these smaller scholarships are poorly advertised, which can be to your benefit as that usually translated into fewer applicants.

The amount granted, funding frequency, and selection criteria of these funding opportunities varies widely.  Some are based only on merit, and do not take into account any financial need on the part of the applicant.  Some are just the opposite, and will ask you to enumerate your financial need in detail.  Often, the criteria fall somewhere in between, taking into account the merit and financial need of the applicant.  Many are focused specifically on funding research costs, and are not to be spent on personal expenses, while some are intended to be spent exclusively on living and educational expenses.

Like the specifics of the funding opportunities themselves, the format and content of the applications are highly variable.  Many ask for the generic materials: statement of purpose, research proposal, transcripts, a CV, and letters of recommendation.  Some, on the other hand, can be very, very easy.  For example, I got $1,000 for writing a 250 word blurb.  While my general advice is to apply, apply, and apply again, I definitely think that some of the smaller scholarships and grants require far too much work for the amount of money they offer in return.  For me, a full application package including transcripts and letters of recommendation might not be worth a chance at winning $200.  For you, it might be worth the time and energy.  Just remember to take the time to analyze the costs associated with applying and weigh them against the potential benefits of winning the award.

Another category of grant to keep an eye out for is travel awards.  These are often associated with conferences or meetings, and are to be used to cover any expenses associated with attending.  Usually, these are advertised on the hosting organization's webpage, but there are some independent travel awards funded by specific endowments or departments.  These awards also have different criteria, but they are usually reserved for students who will be presenting a talk or a poster at the conference.


So, in summary, search broadly, apply early, apply often, and reap the rewards!


Until next time,

Casey

The Sequester: What is it and what does it mean for you?

If you have been paying attention to the news lately, and likely even if you haven't, you are probably aware of the "fiscal cliff" and the ensuing "sequester" or "sequestration."  Despite its prominence in recent news stories, the sequester remains a mystery to a lot of people.  My goal in this post is to share some information about the sequester to help you understand what it is, and how it may affect you.

To that end, the obvious first question to answer is "What is the sequester?"  The sequester is a set of budget cuts and tax increases that were "intended to reduce the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion as required by the Budget Control Act of 2011" (Council of Graduate Schools, document here).  These cuts were drafted as a response to the deepening economic crisis that began in 2008 and had driven our government towards bankruptcy.  Interestingly, it can be argued that no one ever intended for the sequester to actually occur.  Rather, the sequestration was scheduled to come into effect automatically in January 2013, providing a deadline that would intimidate law makers into agreeing upon a federal budget.  This deadline is what was referred to in the media as the fiscal cliff.

Well, predictably, our law makers were not able to come to an agreement and we fell off the cliff.  The next logical question to ask is "what does that mean for us?"  I've outlined some details of the spending cuts below that are particularly applicable to graduate students and researchers:


U.S. Department of Education Higher Education Program: -$186 million

• Office of Federal Student Aid: -$254 million

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science: -$400 million


National Institutes of Health: -$2.5 billion

• According to the Council of Graduate Schools "the NIH budget cuts due to sequestration can translate into approximately 2,400 fewer research project grants made to universities and institutes throughout the country."

National Science Foundation Research and Related Activities: -$469 million

• Education & Human Resources: -$76 million
• "The NSF would fund 1,600 fewer research and education grants which would be equivalent to approximately 19,300 fewer researchers, students, and technical support personnel than FY 12"  (Council of Graduate Schools)

Clearly, these cuts are substantial and are not to be ignored.  It is likely that they will have far-reaching and long-lasting impacts on federal funding for research activities (and for federally funded programs across the nation). In the words of Marc Kastner, Dean of the School of Sciences at MIT, "The sequester wreaks its havoc by striking the hardest at particular points in the life cycle of a university researcher...Cuts in budget strike those dependent on other people's grants -- graduate students, post docs and soft-money research scientists."

Underlying this entire discussion is a conflict that has been developing in this country for many years: the trend toward broad-scale defunding of basic science in favor of applied or industry related science (what AAAS CEO Alan Leshner refers to as "quick-turnaround, low-risk" science).  Many law makers have been calling for the federal government to stop funding basic science altogether.  Probably not the best example, but remember Sarah Palin loudly and publicly decrying the use of federal funds to study fruit flies?  I'm not going to touch the politics of Sara Palin with a 10-foot (3m) pole, but this particular example is only one of many that has been voiced in recent years.

The real kicker here is that basic science is incredibly important.  I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I will again quote Marc Kastner in saying that "paying for basic research is a bet a society makes on its future...(for example) it's estimated that the Human Genome Project delivered a return on investment of 141:1 -- $141 in wealth created for every dollar spent on the job."  Some experts believe that not investing in basic science can have devastating economic effects.  The non-partisan Information Technology & Innovation Foundation released a report estimating that the cuts to basic research found in the sequester would reduce the GDP of the U.S. by $200 billion over a nine year period.

So, that brings us to our final section: "How is the sequester affecting us right now, and when is it going to end?"  There is no denying that we are already feeling the effects of these budget cuts.  I personally know of at least one person who lost their PhD funding, as it was coming from a project that was cut due to sequestration.  The EPA still has not announced the recipients of this years STAR fellowships, and the outlook is getting grimmer by the day.  In the words of EPA STAR technical contact, Brandon Jones:

"Yes, the Sequester has put quite a damper on things, including award announcements.  No award decisions have been made and right now we do not have a timeline for those decisions."

Like the EPA, many federal funding agencies are unable to say one way or another how many awards they will be giving in the coming years, or even whether they will be able to continue funding grants and scholarships at all.  One major reason for this is that no one knows how long sequestration will be in effect.  The sequester ends when law makers pass a federal budget, but due to the seemingly universal inability of our law makers to find compromise with one another, it remains unclear when this will happen.  The timing, and more importantly the content, of the new budget will play a large role in determining how federal funding for graduate students will be affected in the coming years.  For example, Obama's most recent budget includes some fairly major changes to federally funded graduate fellowships (though it seems very unlikely to me that this budget will be accepted by law makers).  Check out the details here.

To make this very long story short, no one really knows exactly how the sequester will affect graduate students or when it will end.  In the short term, it's not looking great, but we won't know the long-term outlook until a new budget is passed.

In the mean time keep your chins up and struggle on!

Casey

A Brief Interlude: Fulfilling a request

A reader mentioned they'd like to see some health science related funding opportunities, so I've made an effort to break out of my field and fulfill the request.  My knowledge of health science is pretty limited, but my impression in doing my research was that the field is subdivided into many separate niches, with equally as many funding agencies targeting or specializing in those niches.   I did find a good list of some of these funding agencies and their associated grants/fellowships that I came across in my research:

SUNY Downstate Medical Center List of Extramural Funding Opportunities

A quick Google search turned up dozens and dozens of small grants and scholarships ($500 - $10,000) for variety of specialties, or from a number of different schools and universities.  Posting a handful of those seems counterproductive, but check your school and your niche within your field for opportunities.  The little scholarships won't pay for your education outright, but they sure do add up (I will be writing a post about this soon).


Additionally, it struck me that "The Big Ones" were either few and far between, or much more difficult to find than those from other fields.  If I'm missing any major players, please feel free to share them. Here are some that I found:

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA)

Epilepsy Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship ($20,000 for one year)

European Citizens: Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD Fellowship Program




Finally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers a number of funded internships and fellowships for medical and public health students.  Those can be found here:

CDC Student Internships & Fellowships


Hopefully this was helpful or at least educational.  Stay tuned for my next post about the sequester, and what it might mean for federally funded grants and fellowships.


Casey

Know "The Big Ones"

Every field is a different, but within each discipline there are usually a number of graduate fellowships and scholarships that I like to call "The Big Ones." These are the funding opportunities that pop to mind for most people when they think about paying for school. Many, though certainly not all, are federally funded, and provide full support for graduate students for 2-4 years of schooling. Some examples (my biological science bias is going to show here for a bit) include:




National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP)

• Provides 3 years of support
• $32,000/year stipend, plus $12,000/year for cost of education

Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE SCGF)

• Provides 3 years of support
• $35,000/year stipend, plus $10,500/year for cost of education
• Additional $5,000/year research allowance

Environmental Protection Agency Science to Achieve Results Fellowship (EPA STAR)

• Provides 3 years of support to PhD students, 2 years of support for MS students
• $25,000/year stipend, plus $12,000/year for cost of education
• Additional $5,000/year for "authorized expenses"

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Graduate Student Research Program (NASA GSRP)

• Provides up to 3 years of support for PhD students, up to 2 years of support for MS students
• $20,000/year stipend, plus $6,000 travel allowance and $1,000 for health insurance
• Includes a 10-week NASA center-based research experience

National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG)

• Provides 3 years of support
• Stipend: $30,500 in Year 1, $31,000 in Year 2, and $31,500 in Year 3
• Covers full tuition and fees, plus $1,000/year for health insurance

Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship

• Provides 4 years of support for PhD students, 2 years of support for MS students
• $30,000/year, plus $12,000/year for cost of education
• Up to $10,000 to finance a research collaboration at a NOAA facility (PhD students get two)

This list is by no means exhaustive, but hopefully it is illustrative of the type of awards I am discussing in this post.  These awards are competitive and prestigious, and are pretty much a magic bullet for funding at least the first few years of your graduate work.  If you are awarded one of these fellowships, some universities will agree to fund the remainder of your schooling (in exchange for the prestige and money you have brought to the university).

The most important message here is that it is important to know what "The Big Ones" are for your specific field, and to have a general idea when they are due and what the application entails.  This will allow you to plan ahead and obtain all of the materials (transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc.) you need to supply a complete application by the due date.  The simplest way to find these fellowships for your field is to do a quick web search.  Next, ask your advisor (or prospective advisor) and labmates (or prospective labmates).  I will go into further detail later about what the application process for this type of fellowship usually entails, and break down the different parts, but for now I simply want to stress the importance of knowing about them.

Another important note: don't wimp out and not turn in an application because:

• You're not ready
• You waited too long (within reason, 2 days is probably cutting it close with your letter writers)
• You're not a competitive applicant

I applied to the NSF GRFP before I had fully developed my master's thesis project and, though I didn't get the award, I found the experience of preparing the application incredibly valuable.  I was forced to write a research proposal, pare it down to 2 succinct pages, and defend it's scientific merit.  The letters of recommendation helped me to continue contact with previous mentors with whom I had begun to lose touch.  Finally, and most importantly, the experience of putting together the application helped immensely to prepare me for future applications.  Additionally, the actual application materials were very useful in putting together applications for future grant and fellowship applications.

So, long story short, find out what "The Big Ones" are for your field, find out when they are due, and apply, apply, apply.

Good luck,

Casey

The Hardest Question: Are you sure grad school is right for you?

Before delving any further into the realm of locating, securing, and spending money for your graduate work, I am going to suggest that you take a moment to ask yourself an uncomfortable question: "Is graduate school right for me?"  If you've made it to my blog, you may already be enrolled in a graduate program, or maybe you're so incredibly determined to get your master's or PhD that this question is irrelevant to you.  If you're anything like the majority of prospective graduate students, however, there may be some lingering doubts about whether this is the right choice.

I am by no means trying to scare anyone away from pursuing their goals, but if you've taken the time to do the budgetting outlined in my last post, you'll have a clear idea of just how great the monetary cost associated with graduate education can be.  And what's more, this process doesn't even begin to address the massive amount of time, energy, and dedication required to complete your graduate degree.

Instead of launching into the specific factors to consider before deciding to apply for grad school, I'm going to let others speak for me.  Warning away potential young students seems to be the favorite pastime of people who have already run the gauntlet, and there is no shortage of articles and blog posts about why you shouldn't go to graduate school (which I think is a good indication that their advice should be taken with at least a grain of salt).  I am just going to link to a select few, but the first one has a plethora of links to articles and pages with similar viewpoints in its sidebar. So without further ado:

The Pessimistic View

100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School

Don't try to dodge the recession with grad school

The Realistic (or at least less opinionated) View

Bad Reasons to go to Grad School

The Impossible Decision (in The New Yorker)

The Optimistic View

5 Reasons Why You Should Go to Grad School

4 Reasons You Shouldn't Put Off Graduate School

As I said before, I don't want to drive anyone away from going to grad school.  Really, after reading the above articles, as well as many of the pages they link to, my final conclusion is pretty obvious (and pretty ambiguous): It really depends on the person, their field, and their motivations for wanting to go to grad school.  The process may not benefit you at all, and in fact may be a really negative thing for you in the long run, or, it could be just the opposite.  I have found the process to be very fulfilling, enjoyable, and valuable.  My intent in writing this is for people to be able to make informed, intelligent decisions when making choices that may greatly affect their personal and professional lives.

Also, just in case any of you are impatiently waiting for me to get to the good stuff, I will tell you now that my next post will actually address the topic of finding funding for grad school.  There were just a couple of topics I wanted to get out of the way first, before getting into the specifics.

Happy reading,

 Casey

The Basics: How much is this going to cost?

Let's face it, school is expensive. Many of us finished our undergraduate degrees with crippling loads of student debt, and the last thing we want to do is add thousands more dollars to that financial burden. To that end, it is very important to spend some time thinking about the costs associated with pursuing graduate education before deciding if it is the right choice for you. The ultimate goal is, of course, to get fully funded for your graduate work, but even in that case understanding the magnitude of the cost of your education can provide important perspective as you work towards your degree.

Make a budget (actually make a few budgets)

For most of us, making budgets isn't very much fun. This primarily stems from the knowledge that even though it's only hypothetical at this stage, you will be spending all of that money some time in the not too distant future. Still, budgets are important and, in this case, they can provide you with important information about how much money you will need to find to pay for grad school.

There are two types of budgets that are particularly helpful in this instance. First, there is the "in school" budget. This budget should contain all of the projected costs of attending graduate school: tuition, books, housing, food, transportation, you name it. Nearly every university has projected estimates of cost of attendance. Pick out a few of your top schools and use their projections of attendance costs to figure out how much it will cost to get your degree. These estimates often encompass expenses that many of us forget to think about, such as health insurance, and take into account residency status (more about this later).

Next comes the "after school" budget. This is more of a grand scale projection and the accuracy of the math gets a bit fuzzier here. The idea here is to factor in the "cost" of not working while you are in school. In other words, how much money could you have made if you had just forgotten about grad school and gotten a job (assuming you could find one). To balance out that depressing value, you then factor in your salary increase after receiving your graduate degree and figure out how long it will take for them to balance out. Estimating the salary increase is, of course, a difficult thing to do. It varies greatly among disciplines, and depends on what sector you intend to work in after earning your degree. An interesting article on this can be found here. Lastly, our goal is to avoid taking on any further debt, but if you have any existing student loans, they go on the negative side of this equation (sorry).

These two budgets will provide you with critical information about the financial costs of attending graduate school. The "in school" budget gives you a fairly accurate estimate of the amount of money you will need to secure/find/raise to get your degree. Knowing this value can help you to figure out how much money to ask for when applying to grants and scholarships. It can also be useful when writing scholarship applications to highlight just how much your education will cost. The "after school" budget is more for your personal use. Figuring out (or at least roughly estimating) the long term costs/benefits of earning a graduate degree can help you to make informed decisions regarding your educational and professional goals. Of course, you're hopefully pursuing a degree in a field about which you are completely passionate, so why should money matter? That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.

Stay tuned,

Casey

The Objective

I have started this blog with the intention of creating a resource for graduate students seeking to fund their education and research. As the content develops, I hope to provide valuable information regarding where to find scholarships and grants, tips for writing fundable applications, advice on marketing yourself to funding agencies, and information on what to do with the money once you have received it.

All of my information on this subject comes from reading, research, conversations, and from my own personal experiences. My field is biological science, so my information will almost inevitably be slanted towards this particular field, but I think that much of what I have to say is broadly applicable to a variety of disciplines. I am not a professional grant writer, but I have been successful in securing funding in the past. Now I hope to share the results of this experience with others, so please stay tuned for future developments.

 More soon,

 Casey