How to Afford Graduate School

Earning a bachelor’s degree is an excellent accomplishment. It places you on a path towards your career goals and provides you with the knowledge needed to succeed in your chosen field of study. However, if you’re an individual who wants to pursue a graduate degree, you may be wondering where you can secure the money needed to pay for additional education. Here are four avenues you can seek to obtain the funds required to continue schooling.

Utilize Your Savings

Starting with funds you don’t have to pay back is an ideal way to cover your graduate course studies and living expenses. If you can use personal savings to cover the cost of additional education, be sure you have enough money in your bank account each month to pay for necessities, like rent or car payments. Creating a budget should help you safeguard against not having enough money to survive each month. You don’t want to have any stress hanging over your head when you’re trying to focus on completing your education. If you can use a portion or all of your savings to fund your education expenses for the next few years, it should pay off in the future when you have a job and begin receiving an income.

Explore Student Loans

Getting accepted to grad school places you one step closer to pursuing your career. After evaluating your finances and determining you need assistance to pay for higher education, you may want to explore student loans that are tailored for graduate degrees. Applying for a student loan with no cosigner may be a good option to help you pay for graduate school on your own when you’re pursuing an MA, Ph.D. or MS degree.  Ascent Student Loans just announced a new loan designed for these types of career programs. Ascent is a private lender that helps students understand the value of their degree, future income they can expect to make, and ultimately help them make the best financial decisions for their education and career. 

Secure Scholarships

Receiving graduate school scholarships can also help alleviate the cost of pursuing higher education. If you have done relatively well in school already, it may be worthwhile to pursue this option. You may have to do some in-depth research to find the types of scholarships fitting your academic and career profile, but it can be well worth it if you are awarded any funds that will reduce your overall cost for graduate school. Pursuing this avenue is typically done by contacting the department heads at the school where you’ve been accepted or checking their website.There are also tons of other scholarships available that don’t have major or career requirements. Ascent is a good place to look, they give out at least $1,000 every month on their Instagram.

Work for the School

Working for the school as an assistant or another type of position can also be an excellent way to cover the cost of tuition and living expenses. Being a graduate assistant requires you to work a specific number of hours each week. In return for your service, you should receive a waiver and possibly a stipend for room and board. Duties are typically assigned by the faculty member or department and might include assisting a professor, conducting research or teaching courses.

Checking out all of these resources should assist you in finding a solution that works best for your specific requirements. While it may take using a combination of more than one option, you’ll probably find it was well worth it after you graduate.