Psychology Financial Aid for Graduate School

General Strategy for Applying for Financial Aid

Apply for everything--all scholarships, fellowships, loans, and assistantships--available at each school. There is often funding at both the university level and the department level, so make sure you check out both options. In addition, search out other sources of funding. Check out the links for the sources identified on this page.

Types of Financial Aid

Fellowships and Assistantships frequently include a living stipend ($8-19K), tuition waiver, medical insurance, and sometimes housing assistance.

Fellowships may be University-sponsored and are also available through the university from Federal granting agencies (NSF, NIH, NIMH). There are fellowships specifically for Christian scholars as well (e.g., the Harvey Fellows Program). Some fellowships are available from federal granting agencies directly;; for example, the Ford Foundation Predoctoral and Dissertation Fellowships for Minorities and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Assistantships are another type of assistance available in most graduate programs. Teaching assistantships are the most common. In return for a stipend and tuition waiver, students are expected to spend about 20 hours a week teaching quiz sections (small discussion sections) of Introductory Psychology or Developmental Psychology courses or lab sections of Sensation and Perception, Cognitive Psychology, Physiological Psychology or Psychology Learning courses.

Research assistantships may also be possible. These are often funded by a particular professor's grant, and the student works for the professor on the funded research project, running subjects, entering data, creating stimuli, or possibly supervising the project.

Loans are available at the graduate level just like at the undergraduate level. These include National Direct Student Loans and federal and state Guaranteed Student Loans. At the graduate level, the borrowing limits per year are higher than they are at the undergraduate level.

Scholarships may be University-sponsored and are usually very competitive. They are also available from organizations like the American Association of University Women, or foundations.

Check The Grants Register and financial aid search engines on the Internet for other sources of grants and scholarships.

Links to Information about Grants, Scholarships, and Fellowships