Urgent! Help! How do I approach the department for funding?

[JessePinkman]

Hi, I have received an offer of admission from Purdue University for MS in Building Construction Management. I am a little tight on budget and I want to ask the department for some sort of funding/assistantship. Anything will do for me. If I dont receive any assistantship or funding I would most likely be deferring my admission by 1 year and make some arrangement for my funds. So what do you guys recommend? How should I approach the department for funding and whom should I contact? Thanks in advance.

[ekpfeil]

If I am right to assume that this is a professional/non-thesis master's program, there tends to be less assistance for programs like these. In our program these students are self funded and are not offered teaching assistantships. If you have an advisor/mentor that you will be working with, talk to them. Otherwise, we have a graduate secretary in our department who we can also take these kinds of issues to. I would recommend to contact that person or some other person that manages the grad program and ask them for information on potential funding sources.

 

You can also complete your fafsa and apply for government loans if all else fails. You don't need to wait a year to do that, unless you want to apply for government assistant grants. In which case your fafsa should be in by Feb 1st I believe.

[JessePinkman]

Hey thanks for the reply. I am actually an international student and i guess the thing you wrote in the last para applies to American Students! And btw its a thesis program! I havent been assigned a mentor yet! So i guess I'll contact the graduate secretary then. Do you think telling them that I would defer my admission by one year if i don't receive any assistantship/funding would help?

[hj2012]

Hey thanks for the reply. I am actually an international student and i guess the thing you wrote in the last para applies to American Students! And btw its a thesis program! I havent been assigned a mentor yet! So i guess I'll contact the graduate secretary then. Do you think telling them that I would defer my admission by one year if i don't receive any assistantship/funding would help?

 

Definitely contact and ask, but I doubt that you telling them that you'd defer would spur them to fund you. Most departments have specific pathways for providing TA/RAships, and at the M.A. level I imagine the opportunities are competitive.

[JessePinkman]

Hmm so should I mention it or not? About the deferral? I mean it would do no harm right?

[hj2012]

Probably wouldn't hurt (unless you phrase it poorly), but I wouldn't expect it to help, either.

[ekpfeil]

Definitely mention it! It's good to be clear where you stand so they can best help you, just don't make it sound like a threat I guess when you say it. Just simply state that unless you can find some additional funding soon, you may have to consider waiting to start until next year. Sorry I can't be more help!

 

Best of Luck!! 

[hinhrt]

Hey, I'm not an international student, but I am in a similar boat as you. I'm also trying to find funding for my program at Purdue as well (I haven't confirmed my decision yet). 

 

For my two cents and like other posts suggested, try contacting a secretary or a faculty member within your dept. It's worth a shot and it's also not likely that they'll leave you hanging if you're willing to reach out to them. 

 

I'm not too sure if you've checked this out yet, but here's a funding database for Purdue grad students. You're not only restricted to finding TA/RA positions within your dept, you can search other depts as well. 

 

https://www.purdue.edu/gradschool/funding/

 

Good luck with finding funding! And if you go to Purdue next year, we should meet up.

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In my world, if we have funding for you we'll let you know. We assume, unless told otherwise, that you want/need funding.