{"id":8958,"date":"2024-04-29T09:50:39","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T14:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.graduateprogram.org\/?p=8958"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:20:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:20:05","slug":"can-you-get-financial-aid-for-doctoral-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.graduateprogram.org\/blog\/can-you-get-financial-aid-for-doctoral-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Get Financial Aid for Doctoral Programs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes\u00a0Virginia, you can get financial aid for your doctoral program<\/a>. It may not be like Santa\u00a0Claus\u00a0where the only string attached is being good through the school year, but there is money out there.<\/p>\n

For this author, this article is not only to\u00a0potentially\u00a0help you in your pursuit of your graduate or doctorate\u00a0degree, but it may also help me in how I proceed toward my doctorate.<\/p>\n

I, too, have been looking at different doctoral options for a couple of years (stop me if you have heard this before), and if I can get the money right, I will likely get my doctorate\u00a0degree.<\/p>\n

A typical Ed. D. program<\/a> requires 60-66 credits.\u00a0This\u00a0gives us an average range of roughly $21,000 to $55,000, depending on where we go to get the degree. At this point in most of our lives, we have jobs, families, and other items in life that we are involved in, so finding the money for this degree is not\u00a0\u2018easy.\u2019\u00a0It may require tightening our belt in some areas or saving money over time for these costs.<\/p>\n

After some research and discussion with a couple of universities,\u00a0all things\u00a0financial assistance\u00a0starts\u00a0with the FAFSA (Free Application for Student Aid).\u00a0You will need the following information for your FAFSA: Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID to sign into StudentAid.gov<\/a>, Social Security number or Alien Registration number, account statements for checking and savings accounts, information about investment accounts, federal income tax returns and record of untaxed income.<\/p>\n

There are some differences\u00a0for\u00a0the FAFSA for graduate students.\u00a0First, your dependency status is different now that you are in graduate school so you will have to enter your own income and asset information rather than your parents\u2019 information from when you were an undergraduate.<\/p>\n

The only loans you qualify for are direct unsubsidized loans and grad PLUS, so you’re responsible for all interest on your loans. Also, most grad students are ineligible for Pell Grants unless they are pursuing a teaching certification. However, most of the people reading this article have obtained this certification.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, unsubsidized graduate loans have borrower caps, but grad PLUS loans have no borrower maximum; thus, you can borrow up the total school-certified cost of attendance.<\/p>\n

Grad School FAFSA Eligibility has three elements:<\/p>\n

1) you are a US citizen or eligible non-citizen<\/p>\n

2) are planning to attend an accredited university in an eligible degree program<\/p>\n

3) demonstrate financial need like grants and work-study,<\/p>\n

Essentially\u00a0for graduate school\u00a0your three main financial aid options are student loans, grants\/scholarships (largely dependent on the place you want to attend), and work-study.\u00a0The work-study option is harder for most people in graduate school due to being already in the workforce.<\/p>\n

Remember there is a yearly borrowing limit on direct unsubsidized loans at $20,500 per year, so if you are going to a very expensive grad school, watch the price. Grad PLUS Loans have no such cap.<\/p>\n

Turns out there is no\u00a0actual income limit that qualifies you for money\u00a0in the FAFSA formula. FAFSA points out that the average full-time graduate student received $28,300 in federal aid; what kind of aid that was (grants vs. loans) was unspecified.<\/p>\n

USA Today and StudentAid.gov<\/a> answered the question of how much aid graduate students qualify for with the PELL Grant<\/a> up to $7,395 (for those pursuing a teaching certification only), TEACH Grant<\/a> up to $4000, the\u00a0aforementioned Direct\u00a0Unsubsidized Loan, and the GRAD PLUS loans.<\/p>\n

Other Ways to Pay for Grad School<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In\u00a0researching this article, some other grad student options\u00a0came up to\u00a0help offset the cost of your doctorate program.<\/p>\n

Most universities\u00a0will have\u00a0private grants or scholarships\u00a0available.\u00a0\u00a0You\u00a0need to\u00a0talk to financial aid about these options. Anything to offset the cost will be great but even better in this case you are not paying back a loan when you still might have some loans from your undergraduate work.<\/p>\n

Some universities have fellowships or assistantships available. Depending on what is happening in your life at this time, this could be an option as most of the money can be used for tuition, fees, and housing. For many of us with families and in the workforce, making time for this could be difficult.<\/p>\n

Does your employer offer\u00a0any\u00a0tuition assistance?\u00a0\u00a0Every option would help here.\u00a0Everywhere I have worked in Texas this has not been an option, but I\u00a0would\u00a0think there are some educational institutions out there where assisting someone toward their doctorate would come in a financial form other than a raise in pay.<\/p>\n

As someone who tries to avoid loans, I suggest trending towards a university where I can get some scholarships and grants to help me offset the cost of my final degree.<\/p>\n

Teachers never stop learning; check out <\/strong>our available graduate degree programs <\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to hone your skills and promote lifelong learning and academic excellence.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes\u00a0Virginia, you can get financial aid for your doctoral program. It may not be like Santa\u00a0Claus\u00a0where the only string attached is being good through the school year, but there is money out there. For this author, this article is not only to\u00a0potentially\u00a0help you in your pursuit of your graduate or doctorate\u00a0degree, but it may also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":8959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[272,331,859],"class_list":["post-8958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to-pay-for-grad-school","tag-doctoral","tag-financialaid","tag-masters"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCan You Get Financial Aid for Doctoral Programs? - Graduate Programs for Educators<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you know you can use financial aid to fund your doctorate? 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