Has Anyone Considered.....

[hopeful grad]

Trying to get a job at the University? LIke working as an admin or another 9-5 type job in order to get tuition assistance? I have been applying to some at NYU and haven't heard back, seems rather competitive.

[yticnineb]

Tuition remission is a great thing. I took a job at a nonprofit organization a couple years ago, not really thinking about its affiliations with a university. Over the last two years, I've been able to take evening classes to complete prerequisites and explore into graduate studies in political science. A word of warning, though. The federal limit for tuition remission on graduate-level classes is just over $5,000 per year; after that, the benefit is treated as taxable income. At my university and in my income bracket, this means that for every credit over 5 in the graduate school, I paid about 1/4-1/3 the cost. At a private university, each graduate credit is easily in excess of $1000. So if I took four classes in 2007 for 12 credits total, I paid (via a paycheck dock for federal income tax) about $270 on credits 6-12, or $1890. It really adds up, but of course it's better than paying tuition outright.

Undergrad credits are unlimited (I mean, the university might limit the number you take, but they are not treated as a taxable benefit), and everything is different for dependents and spouses. Universities also often only let you begin taking classes after you've worked for them for six months, so make sure you know NYU's policy.

I was thinking about applying to an MA program at Columbia and trying to do precisely the same thing, actually.

[hopeful grad]

Wow, thanks for the information! Now it's just a matter of getting recognized out of the other 1,000 applicants. Good luck with Columbia!