How do you say “Give Me Money” professionally? 

By Alexandra Fisher

Money is something students will always worry about no matter their year in school. In graduate school, I have found it to be extra stressful as the ways to find scholarships, and grants are not nearly as obvious as they were in undergrad. This added layer of mystery around graduate school funding is just another barrier that prevents people considering getting advanced degrees from actually following through. My name is Ally, and I am a second-year graduate student working to get an M.Ed. in College Student Affairs, and I am here to share how I have found funding in graduate school, so you don’t have to do it all on your own.

When looking for funding to attend school look first through all the Graduate Assistantships (GA), Teaching Assistantships (TA), available at your institution. Every school’s system of advertising and applying to these roles is different so email your advisor, or the head of your program to find out what next steps to take. My school also has Graduate Student Tutors in a few departments to help undergraduate students, it just goes to show every institution has different opportunities and your advisors should know about them all (when picking a program and meeting with faculty this is definitely something to ask about). These types of roles should have set hours a week, and depending on the number of hours pay for a few of your courses as well as pay you a stipend. Some positions like Graduate Hall Directors will provide you with free housing and a meal plan as well but those generally are more time-consuming. The specifics of these positions will vary at every school making it hard to know if you’re getting a good deal or not. I recommend weighing the pros and cons of each position and picking what you think will be best for you. 

Now that you’ve secured funding for school, how do you find more to help support any internship experiences or attend professional conferences? The very first step should be finding out if your school has a program that pays students working unpaid internships, or a program that pays for professional experiences in general. I recently received a Professional Experience Grant from my institution that will be funding my attendance at a conference this fall. This program could help fund a wide range of experiences for students of all years including research with a faculty member, internships/student teaching, study abroad, or conference attendance, you just need to do the research and send in the best application you can. Another place to inquire about funding to attend a conference would be your department chair or your GA supervisor. At my institution the School of Graduate Studies has a budget to help sponsor students to attend and/or present at conferences, the problem is it’s not advertised, you have to know to ask. It might not be enough to pay for the whole trip, but some money is always better than none. Asking your GA supervisor might sound crazy, but my supervisor has found money to help students attend conferences in the past as they would help fund any other staff members’ professional development. Again, this might not be enough money to pay for everything, but if you keep getting a couple hundred here, a couple hundred there suddenly you’re in better shape. Lastly, email your university’s foundation, they will know best if they have any scholarships or grants that could help.

Now that you’ve really looked through all the funding options on your campus it’s time to look elsewhere. When selecting what conference, you want to attend first check if they have scholarships available for the cost of at least registration. If you can’t find anything like that on their website email them! It can be hard to know exactly who to email so just go with whoever you think is best and politely ask if there is a discount, or scholarship available to students who want to attend but are struggling financially. Many conferences do offer students discounts or scholarship opportunities so I would try to pick one of those to attend if possible. Those same organizations hosting conferences might also have educational scholarships to help pay for your cost of attending school, so I would make sure to really do a deep dive on their website. The next place I would look is any national or regional organization you were a part of in undergrad or joined as a graduate student. That could be a professional, social, or service fraternity/sorority, an honors organization, a society for people in your desired field, or a club that is a chapter of a larger entity. Many have scholarships for school or professional development that generally go under-utilized. I hate to say it again, but if you can’t find any on their website it truly can’t hurt to email them inquiring, the worst that can happen is they say no; maybe you’ll inspire them to create one!

There are so many different sources to secure funding from, but it can be hard to know where to go look. Universities need to become more transparent with their graduate student funding opportunities and be better equipped to help students find additional funding outside of their institutions. Until that is the norm everywhere I hope this blog has helped you find a new funding source or sparked an idea of a new place to look! 

Happy Scholarship Hunting,

Ally