Update: Financing Grad School

This past week I’ve gone to two grad school fairs. I used the opportunity to talk to admissions counselors and school representatives from schools that I’m interested in and ones that I’m not. This way, I could ask the same questions of many different people to see if there was a consensus. The answers I got were consistent.

Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a lot of private scholarships for working in mental health or social work. Most financial support comes from the programs themselves or perhaps from the university.

Rather than being grants, financial support generally comes in the form of graduate assistantships. Work study may be granted by the government. You apply for both as part of your overall application, no extra work seems to be needed. The earlier you apply, the greater the chance of not only being admitted, but getting the competitive assistantships as well. In addition, it was suggested that having a relationship with the program rather than just being a name on a piece of paper (much like looking for a regular job) would be to your benefit, so long as your interactions were positive. While admittance for Spring and Summer programs may be less competitive, there is less money to go around.

The earliest you can file for FAFSA is January 1st. Grad school applications may be due before then, or at least accepted, depending on the program.

While most of the schools were more than happy to talk about the financial support they offered their students, or at least their students could apply for, they drew blanks when I asked about support from outside their schools. The best they could offer was to Google it. Some said to try talking to financial aid.

Overall, it’s expected that students finance their graduate education. While the schools will give some support, there isn’t the level of financial aid that exists for undergraduate students. Not exactly what I’m looking to be told when a career in social work pays very poorly.

One plus at least is that some schools readily waived the admissions fee without asking for any proof of financial hardship. Some gave a voucher for stopping at their table. Another school said I just had to apply online. Not all schools do this of course. Strangely, Jane Addams at UIC straight up told me that through finding financial support I could reimburse myself. Either that or ask relatives for the application fee. I wasn’t expecting to hear this from a public school when the private schools had waivers.

As for private financial support, online sources suggested trying employers, professional associations, etc. The same idea as for undergraduate. There could also be loan forgiveness, but this was on a case by case basis, and I didn’t get the impression that this was big in the field of social work.

If any of my readers have any other ideas or resources, please let me know.