Funding

[Bri2014]

This may be a stupid question, but what does full funding entail? Does it include housing/living expenses? A stipend? Or just tuition?

[Academicat]

My understanding is that full funding includes tuition and a stipend for living expenses.

[Bri2014]

My understanding is that full funding includes tuition and a stipend for living expenses.

 

 

Thanks. I have an interview Friday and I didn't know if it was appropriate to ask or not, so I just wanted to be aware of what my funding situation may be. 

[Academicat]

Thanks. I have an interview Friday and I didn't know if it was appropriate to ask or not, so I just wanted to be aware of what my funding situation may be. 

I would still ask what is included in their funding package, but only once you have a solid offer. For example, do they include full or partial benefits? any support for travel to conferences/professional development? Good luck at the interview!

[epikid2014]

When do financial aid packages start arriving? 

[katethekitcat]

MPH's usually do not come with financial aid packages.

[epikid2014]

Well that wasn't very helpful, nor very accurate.  

 

I shall rephrase: "When do financial aid offices start sending out information about scholarships or loan offers?"

Edited February 5, 2014 by bjohns14

[katethekitcat]

That IS more accurate. To me, "financial aid offers" usually refer to the types of funding offered to PhD students.

 

Loan offers will start once you have filled out a FAFSA.

[katethekitcat]

For scholarships, you should be checking the financial aid pages of each of the schools you applied to. At some schools, your application for admissions doubles as your scholarship profile; some of these, like BU, include any scholarship information in your welcome pacakage; others, like University of Michigan, will send out scholarship information later (early February) once they have a better idea of who has been accepted. At still other universities, such as University of Minnesota, you should have already applied for scholarships through a seperate application.

 

Overall, however, scholarship funding at anything beyond the token level (i.e. on previous threads there has been discussion of BU's 12K-15K scholarships on a total tuition price tag of 80K+) is very, very minimal at the MPH level and should be considered the exception rather than the rule. You should be actively seeking scholarhips from outside sources. Check if your current employer offers any; if you were in a greek organization in college, many offer scholarships to alumni. And, for whatever reason, fewer loans at the master's level are offered with deferred interest payments. Why, I don't know - you'd think the government would want to ENCOURAGE people to seek master's degrees - but it's true. An MPH will likely cost you a lot, will cost you even more if you choose a private instiution, and then pay little over the years to come.

 

(Basing financial aid information about scholarship scarcity off of attending multiple SOPHAS virtual fairs and reading the complete website of every school of public health that uses a SOPHAS application. Most departments offer, at best, a complete scholarship to one incoming student. Mind you, not all, I hope I'm wrong about this. I'm not relishing debt for years to come.)

[PhDbefore40]

Thanks. I have an interview Friday and I didn't know if it was appropriate to ask or not, so I just wanted to be aware of what my funding situation may be. 

Is this for Pitt? I saw that you had gotten an interview there.

 

I received an acceptance from Pitt for the Epi PhD program. In the letter it stated that a few graduate student assistantships would be offered in the next few weeks. Otherwise there was no information provided about funding. I figure that grad assistant would receive tuition coverage and stipend, since basically you're getting a job.

 

Other schools that I applied to, like Tulane, have tuition and stipends for all of their PhD students, but they only accept a few a year. For another school I've been accepted to, they offer scholarships for tuition and stipends seperately, so you might get one but not the other. And then there are scholarships floating around from other sources you can apply to on your own.

 

ANYWAY, the point is that each school is different, and what I do is just ask what kind of funding is available for students to cover tuition and if they ever offer stipends or some other source of income. Colorado told me when I asked basically that I could get a job (not something they offer for certain students like Pitt), but otherwise they didn't have any funding available. I quickly striked them off my list.

 

Hope that helps. Good luck with your interview!

[EOH_2014]

I received an acceptance from Pitt for the Epi PhD program. In the letter it stated that a few graduate student assistantships would be offered in the next few weeks. Otherwise there was no information provided about funding. I figure that grad assistant would receive tuition coverage and stipend, since basically you're getting a job.

 

I received the same letter from Pitt, but I can safely assume epi PhDs would get first pick to graduate assistantships over epi DrPHs. Not holding my breath to receiving a stellar funding package from them.  

[Bri2014]

Thanks all. This is really helpful. This was more of a general question as opposed to a Pitt related question. But yet, I have an interview with them on Friday. I suppose I never really thought of funding before. I don't really have any student loans from undergrad or my MPH, so if I have to take out loans, I"m fine with it. My biggest concern is "how am I going to pay to live," however. My top two choices are Pitt and Harvard- both of which are not cheap places to live, so I'm mostly stressed out with that. 

[NeurosciMRI]

For scholarships, you should be checking the financial aid pages of each of the schools you applied to. At some schools, your application for admissions doubles as your scholarship profile; some of these, like BU, include any scholarship information in your welcome pacakage; others, like University of Michigan, will send out scholarship information later (early February) once they have a better idea of who has been accepted. At still other universities, such as University of Minnesota, you should have already applied for scholarships through a seperate application.

Overall, however, scholarship funding at anything beyond the token level (i.e. on previous threads there has been discussion of BU's 12K-15K scholarships on a total tuition price tag of 80K+) is very, very minimal at the MPH level and should be considered the exception rather than the rule. You should be actively seeking scholarhips from outside sources. Check if your current employer offers any; if you were in a greek organization in college, many offer scholarships to alumni. And, for whatever reason, fewer loans at the master's level are offered with deferred interest payments. Why, I don't know - you'd think the government would want to ENCOURAGE people to seek master's degrees - but it's true. An MPH will likely cost you a lot, will cost you even more if you choose a private instiution, and then pay little over the years to come.

(Basing financial aid information about scholarship scarcity off of attending multiple SOPHAS virtual fairs and reading the complete website of every school of public health that uses a SOPHAS application. Most departments offer, at best, a complete scholarship to one incoming student. Mind you, not all, I hope I'm wrong about this. I'm not relishing debt for years to come.)

FYI, UofM has begun to send out some scholarships already.

[PhDbefore40]

Thanks all. This is really helpful. This was more of a general question as opposed to a Pitt related question. But yet, I have an interview with them on Friday. I suppose I never really thought of funding before. I don't really have any student loans from undergrad or my MPH, so if I have to take out loans, I"m fine with it. My biggest concern is "how am I going to pay to live," however. My top two choices are Pitt and Harvard- both of which are not cheap places to live, so I'm mostly stressed out with that. 

I also don't have any school loans, but from my viewpoint why start now?!

 

I do have a friend in grad school who lives almost completely off of loans, so it's definitely doable. But I think it'd be pretty easy to get a research job if you/I didn't end up getting school supported funding. Or maybe do loans for the first year, and then get some funding support the following one.

 

The thing that's sucking the most for me right now is worrying about how I'm going to pay for places when I'm not sure where all I've gotten in, and decisions about funding haven't even been made yet. How will I survive the next two or three months? AGH.

[chris.9]

Does anyone know when we should expect to be hearing back from schools regarding what loans and grants they are able to provide from FAFSA?

Most curious to know about Michigan and Tulane.

[Jokenberry]

Similar to the above question, does anyone know when MHA/MHSA accepted applicants will receive financial aid information (Scholarship, grant, graduate/research assistanship) from schools like Michigan, Minnesota, UNC, etc...?

Edited February 11, 2014 by Jokenberry

[mittensmitten895]

FYI, UofM has begun to send out some scholarships already.

 

Back when I did my MPH at Michigan, I'm almost positive the scholarship notification went straight to my spam folder.  I didn't even realize I had been offered any funding until the disbursement showed up on my account during my first week of classes.  It was a good surprise, but I could have saved myself some agony around decision time.  So if you think you may have merit aid coming your way, check your spam folder!  Gmail automatically deletes spam after 30 days, so it can be lost forever.