how long before your grad program starts can you take out a loan?

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

I'm just curious. I know at the undergrad level financial aid (grants, scholarships, loans) go toward tuition before the semester starts but the excess money doesn't get to you until a few weeks after classes have started. But I know that in grad school a lot of people are making major life changes (moving to a new state or country, getting an apartment, maybe a car, etc) and they have to do these things before their actual program starts. I was just curious how this process works and how early you could get a loan to make a major cross-country move. My undegrad program ends May 5 and my grad program doesn't start till September 27. That's almost five months. Of course I don't have to go five months early but I wouldn't mind going a month or two early so that I could get things situated. I was just wondering if anyone knew from experience. Thanks.

Also, if your program gave you an X amount per year stipend, I assume you wouldn't get that (or the first installment) until around the beginning of your program.

[anthropologygeek]

The same as undergrad. Every school is different but don't count on it before the semester

[juilletmercredi]

My number one advice for people accepted to graduate school is now PLAN AHEAD. As already noted, loans work the same as in undergrad - you don't get them until after the first couple weeks of classes. Even better, you don't get the refund until after your tuition is paid, so if your tuition is paid by the school (not waived, but your school has to pay it to the university) then you have to wait until that happens before you get a refund. My university is a notorious administrative nightmare so I slept on an air mattress for 5 weeks until I got my loan money.

Also, as far as stipends, the university told us we didn't get our stipend until the end of September. But again because of administrative nightmare stuff, we didn't actually get it until the middle of October. We begin at the beginning of September, so basically you have to tough it out for a month or so.

So I always tell working folks to set aside some "get situated" money, and people coming straight from undergrad that they should think about getting a summer job or, if possible (if you aren't already at max Stafford loan limits to pay for tuition and stuff), borrowing some loan money now and setting it aside so that you can use it later.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

My number one advice for people accepted to graduate school is now PLAN AHEAD. As already noted, loans work the same as in undergrad - you don't get them until after the first couple weeks of classes. Even better, you don't get the refund until after your tuition is paid, so if your tuition is paid by the school (not waived, but your school has to pay it to the university) then you have to wait until that happens before you get a refund. My university is a notorious administrative nightmare so I slept on an air mattress for 5 weeks until I got my loan money.

Also, as far as stipends, the university told us we didn't get our stipend until the end of September. But again because of administrative nightmare stuff, we didn't actually get it until the middle of October. We begin at the beginning of September, so basically you have to tough it out for a month or so.

So I always tell working folks to set aside some "get situated" money, and people coming straight from undergrad that they should think about getting a summer job or, if possible (if you aren't already at max Stafford loan limits to pay for tuition and stuff), borrowing some loan money now and setting it aside so that you can use it later.

Thanks a lot. Yea I really had no idea how it worked. I assumed it was a little different at the grad level but I'm not surprised that it isn't.

[ANDS!]

Having attended three campuses that I got Financial Aid for, I never had to wait more than the first week of classes to start to get my refund (if one was due).

[TakeruK]

Definitely plan ahead and save up / put money aside. But depending on your school and/or program, here are some possible options you might have as well:

1. Ask about extra funding if you come early. At my school, if you arrived earlier in the summer, you're "hired" as a RA basically so you get paid for the extra months. If they're not going to start paying you early, then I'd get a summer job or only come early enough so that I can get settled. At my MSc school, I didn't get paid until Sept but I arrived in August, so I just let the department know that I'd arrived, did all of the admin things (keys, desk, etc.) and then didn't come back until September. August was mostly spent getting to know the city and getting the apartment set up.

2. Some schools offer a start-up loan. In July, my current school let us know that our first paycheque doesn't come until the end of October (the term doesn't begin until Oct 1), but we could apply for a start-up loan of $2500 with 0 interest and fees that would be paid to us in mid September (i.e. before school officially begins). That was helpful for my wife and I since we were moving to a new country and this reduced the amount of currency we had to convert (and thus saved us some fees with our bank!).

[ANDS!]

What you're talking about sounds like a stipend, which is quite different than traditional financial aid. With the stipend, that usually comes at the end of the first month of the semester starting; financial aid (if a refund is due) comes well before that.

What the OP is curious about, is whether there is any assistance in the interim between finishing their undergrad and beginning the graduate program; as answered by others this is pretty much program dependent, but I wouldn't hold out my breath to getting anything that far in advance from the school.

Also, as the OP is in a non-STEM based program, it's not likely that they'd qualify for an RA position so early in their studies.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

What you're talking about sounds like a stipend, which is quite different than traditional financial aid. With the stipend, that usually comes at the end of the first month of the semester starting; financial aid (if a refund is due) comes well before that.

What the OP is curious about, is whether there is any assistance in the interim between finishing their undergrad and beginning the graduate program; as answered by others this is pretty much program dependent, but I wouldn't hold out my breath to getting anything that far in advance from the school.

Also, as the OP is in a non-STEM based program, it's not likely that they'd qualify for an RA position so early in their studies.

Thanks. Yeah, that's exactly what I was asking. My undergrad ends nearly 5 months before my grad starts. I'm glad I found this out now because I'm gonna take out a bit of a loan my final semester of undergrad and just sit on it; also, I'm gonna pick up extra shifts at work and add to the pile. Hopefully I could have 5 or so grand set aside by the time I graduate. Then I could land some summer job. I will look into the early RA thing, but I should be able to find something unrelated to my school. Thanks for your feedback.

Edited November 13, 2012 by JoeyBoy718