Getting Started on Financial Aid
Don't make the mistake of thinking that you won't need
financial aid for grad school, or that you won't be eligible for
it. A graduate education is a major investment and almost all
students need some form of financial assistance during their
academic careers.
To avoid financial difficulty during grad school, you should
work out a sound financial plan from the very beginning.
Financial aid programs fall into three major categories:
How can my GRE score help me obtain financial
aid?
Graduate program heads say that GRE scores are an important
factor in evaluating the many high-achieving students who apply
for financial aid. Get started learning about your financial aid
options on these pages and find out how an exceptional GRE score
can increase your chances of earning financial aid that you
don’t need to pay back. Attend
one of our free events to find out more!
Are You Eligible?
Some programs award aid based solely on a student's need,
while others are based solely on merit. However, there are also
some programs based on a combination of both. Under many
scholarship programs, for example, selection of the recipient is
based on merit, but the award amount will depend on need.
Merit-Based Aid
Merit-based financial aid is awarded on the basis of personal
achievements or individual characteristics. It usually comes in
the form of scholarships or grants and it rarely needs to be
repaid. You will learn more about merit-based aid in the Gift Aid
section, where the benefits of a high GRE score will be explained
in-depth.
Need-Based Aid
Eligibility for need-based financial aid programs is
determined by one of two need-analysis formulas that seek to
measure a family's financial strength and ability to pay for
school expenses:
- Federal Methodology: A need-analysis
procedure developed by Congress used to calculate family
contribution (FC).
- Institutional Methodology: An alternate
method of calculating FC used by individual colleges to
determine eligibility for institutional and non-federal
aid.
Federal Methodology, a formula that is specified by law, takes
into account many variables, including expenses over which a
family has no discretion, such as taxes, employment expenses, and
basic needs. There's also an allowance for your parents' saving
for retirement that increases as they get older in recognition
that more of their assets should be available to them as they
near retirement age.
Once your family's assets and income are totaled, these
allowances are subtracted off of the top, leaving an amount over
which your family theoretically has discretion. Your family can
use these resources to buy a car, home furnishings, a boat,
whatever. Or, they could be saved for a rainy day.
Congress believes that the primary responsibility for paying
for education is with the parents and students themselves, to the
extent that they are able. That means that at least a portion of
their savings and income should go toward paying educational
expenses.
Remember that much of need-based aid available to students
does need to be paid back at varied interest rates.
