How to attend masters for free (tuition waive) as a international student?

[everlast1736]

Hi

I am an international student who is going to apply for masters degree in US. I was wondering if there are ways to get tuition waived and make some living expenses because my parents can't afford to pay the tuition (they paid for my 4 years of undergrad). I got an offer to work as a lab technician, but that won't be enough to pay all the tuition and living expenses. I heard being a TA gets you some money as well. What other options are there for international students? 

I was thinking about working as a technician and TA while taking classes. I am just worried that it might be too much and screw up everything.  

Also, I heard that international students can't get fellowship, training grants and financial aid. 

Thank you in advance

[fuzzylogician]

I got an offer to work as a lab technician, but that won't be enough to pay all the tuition and living expenses. I heard being a TA gets you some money as well. What other options are there for international students? 

I was thinking about working as a technician and TA while taking classes. I am just worried that it might be too much and screw up everything.  

There aren't that many options. Being a lab tech will go some way, but probably will be insufficient. Most Masters programs in the US don't fund their students. Students usually go directly from a BA to a PhD, and PhDs are funded. MAs, on the other hand, are usually a big income source for universities. That said, some programs do offer funding or TA/RAships to its students that cover tuition and provide some additional stipend. Since you don't reveal your field in your post, it's hard to know where your field falls on the spectrum. The only way to find out which schools offer funding (if any) is to do your own legwork. You may be able to get some information in the subforum that's relevant to your field, or you may have to just read through department websites to see if they have funding, and/or ask your advisors if they have any tips. There is no quick solution we can offer you. 

Also, I heard that international students can't get fellowship, training grants and financial aid. 

This is not true. In general international students can receive funding from their programs in the form of fellowships or TAships. You can also be funded through an advisor's grant. This is very common in every field I know of for a PhD (but MAs aren't usually funded, as I noted above). Financial aid and subsidized student loans are usually something that only US students have access to. The catch is that at public schools, tuition is cheaper for domestic students than international students, and therefore it costs the school more to accept international students. In some cases, this means that (poorer) programs might admit only or mostly domestic students, so while you will be funded if you are admitted, your chances of admissions may be considerably lower than a domestic student's. (In the year I applied, there was one school in CA that could only admit one international student to their cohort, along with 5-6 domestic students, for example.) This doesn't affect private schools, where tuition is the same for everyone. 

If your goal is to do a funded Masters, I'd recommend also exploring schools in Canada. Canada has a BA-MA-PhD system, and at least in my field, there is more funding for MA students than in the US. 

[TakeruK]

What field are you in and what are the reasons for wanting to get a US masters degree? As fuzzy said, the US doesn't follow the BA-MA-PhD (or BSc-MSc-PhD) format that many other countries follow. So, for many fields in the US, you actually would want to enroll in a PhD program instead because a Masters degree is not going to be very useful.

[PoliticalOrder]

You can fully fund MA/MSc programs, you just have to be proactive and get a little lucky. There are entrance fellowships available, but they are competitive; other than that, there is RA or TA positions, as well as possibly some more administrative assistant type jobs available in departments.

One of the issues being an international student is you are limited to max 20 hours a week on campus. That means you can't potentially hold two 'full time' jobs at the university in order to bring in more money as a domestic student could. Although, working on campus more than 20 hours a week is going to negate time from studying and coursework.

The myth that MA/MSc programs aren't usually funded is in my opinion not true in reality. There are lots of at least partially funded MA/MSc programs out there. And sometimes you have to hustle to find RA positions independently. I know this for a fact because I applied to 5 masters programs in the past and received some kind of funding or full funding from all of them. The one I did end up choosing didn't offer me funding but I found a TA position from the first semester + RA positions later and never paid a cent of tuition.

[TakeruK]

The myth that MA/MSc programs aren't usually funded is in my opinion not true in reality. There are lots of at least partially funded MA/MSc programs out there. And sometimes you have to hustle to find RA positions independently. I know this for a fact because I applied to 5 masters programs in the past and received some kind of funding or full funding from all of them. The one I did end up choosing didn't offer me funding but I found a TA position from the first semester + RA positions later and never paid a cent of tuition.

Just to clarify--you say you never paid a cent of tuition, but what about a stipend and living expenses? 

It could be a difference of field, but when people in my field say "funded" (for both Masters and PhD level), we mean "fully funded". That is, we mean that the student is funded at a level where they do not pay tuition, get benefits, and get paid a livable stipend (sometimes it's just barely livable, sometimes it's enough to have some money leftover to save).

We also mean that the availability of the income is generally guaranteed although, as you say, exact TA or RA appointments may be competitive and vary (but you're promised to get something). And finally, it also means that the work is actually academic and will help you towards your career (i.e. a teaching or research position, not an administrative assistant or tutor position).

To clarify the above posts, in Canada and other countries that follow the BSc-MSc-PhD format, the MSc portion is "fully funded" in the way I describe in this post.

[fuzzylogician]

The myth that MA/MSc programs aren't usually funded is in my opinion not true in reality. There are lots of at least partially funded MA/MSc programs out there. And sometimes you have to hustle to find RA positions independently. I know this for a fact because I applied to 5 masters programs in the past and received some kind of funding or full funding from all of them. The one I did end up choosing didn't offer me funding but I found a TA position from the first semester + RA positions later and never paid a cent of tuition.

This depends on the field but is unfortunately not a myth. I collected information on funded MA programs in linguistics recently (defined as TakeruK suggests above) and found exactly one school in the US that offers funding. There were a lot more options in Canada and Europe. 

[PoliticalOrder]

Well, the university I attended paid ~1500 USD a month as a stipend, plus free health insurance for a TA/RA job. So was it livable? Yeah I guess so. The stipend wasn't important to me though. 

Listen, I am not saying you are going to get lots of MA/MSc programs out there that offer you entrance fellowships that will guarantee you funding during the whole program. But that doesn't mean you can't get funding when you get there. 

Funding is a hustle at the BA/BSc and MA/MSc levels, you have to apply for a bunch of things; scholarships, departmental funding, university funding, apply for jobs, everything and see what sticks. You also have to bust your ass and show interest/prove yourself to professors so that they want to hire you for research positions. And if you can't find something, it's not the end of the world to do a more administrative thing for a semester if you can't find anything else. 

There is also no reason you cannot work for a year, save up money, and be able to have a significant chunk of money for living expenses saved up. 

And yes, I do agree that Canada offer more programs to fund your masters but that doesn't mean you can't find some in the US. 

Edited August 25, 2015 by PoliticalOrder

[TakeruK]

Well, the university I attended paid ~1500 USD a month as a stipend, plus free health insurance for a TA/RA job. So was it livable? Yeah I guess so. The stipend wasn't important to me though. 

Listen, I am not saying you are going to get lots of MA/MSc programs out there that offer you entrance fellowships that will guarantee you funding during the whole program. But that doesn't mean you can't get funding when you get there. 

Funding is a hustle at the BA/BSc and MA/MSc levels, you have to apply for a bunch of things; scholarships, departmental funding, university funding, apply for jobs, everything and see what sticks. You also have to bust your ass and show interest/prove yourself to professors so that they want to hire you for research positions. And if you can't find something, it's not the end of the world to do a more administrative thing for a semester if you can't find anything else. 

There is also no reason you cannot work for a year, save up money, and be able to have a significant chunk of money for living expenses saved up. 

And yes, I do agree that Canada offer more programs to fund your masters but that doesn't mean you can't find some in the US. 

I agree that it's not impossible to find funding. But for an international student, full funding in this sense is also essential because international students need to show evidence of financial means to support themselves prior to arriving (either through the school or personal funds). And almost all of the things you mention are not accessible to international students. In particular, there is a pretty strong limit on what work is allowed and the number of hours one may work as a non-resident alien on F-1 or J-1 status.

I also think it's a difference of perspective. You are right that there are lots of ways to apply for small things and/or "bust your ass" to prove yourself and if you are determined enough, it could work out (or at least greatly minimize your loans). But to me, graduate school is a job; it's an apprenticeship. I don't want to have to spend my time working odd jobs or applying to every possible small funding source just to get a few hundred/thousand dollars here and there. And all that work just so I can do the "real" work of my Masters research (which may not even be paid). And I do not want to work for a year or two in order to save up money so that I can ... work for a MSc? No thanks! (Just my personal decision for myself, I understand others may feel differently).

I agree that funding is indeed a hustle at BA/BS/BSc programs and I worked very hard during my undergrad to pay for everything. My undergraduate education was funded through a small amount of scholarships, several summer jobs at a car parts warehouse and some research positions. However, most countries other than the US view Masters programs as actual jobs and stepping stones towards PhD jobs and post-PhD jobs. This is why I don't think the mentality of the "hustle" works well for me at the graduate level. The way I see it, graduate programs are an exchange: I provide valuable research labour in exchange for pay, benefits, and the training/mentorship that leads to a valuable degree. Graduate programs are not like undergrad where the student is the only one getting the benefit so therefore the student has to find their own way to pay for everything.

I think the biggest reason for the difference in thinking is that US Masters programs are very different than Masters programs in many other countries. From what I know about terminal Masters programs in my field, they really are more like an extension of undergraduate programs and it's exactly how you say it here: funding is a hustle and Masters students are treated like students, not researchers.

I hope that clarifies the approach I have taken to the OP's question. Also, this difference was also why I asked the OP what field they are pursuing and why they want to join a US Masters program. I asked this because if the OP is from a country where BSc-MSc-PhD is normal, then they should actually not be applying to US Masters programs, because they might be expecting a different type of graduate program than what the US terminal Masters programs offer!

[fuzzylogician]

I think there is a greater risk as an international student, and at the same time there are fewer opportunities. You have to demonstrate that you are able to sustain yourself during your studies *before you begin the program*, so working odd university jobs that aren't guaranteed just can't work. You're also limited in how many hours you can work (20 per week, 40 over the summer) and where (on campus only). Availability of these jobs and how much they pay is another concern. Not every scholarship that is available to US citizens is also available to international students (in fact, for the ones that are relevant to my field, the majority are not). And, again, you can't count on these scholarships because you need to have the money upfront. And you can't rely on credit cards or subsidized loans in the way that some American students do, in case of an emergency. So it's easier to get into trouble and harder to get out of it. 

For the OP, if they are already working as a lab technician but not making enough to cover their expenses, there is a serious concern that they won't be able to find a job -- let alone work enough hours -- to cover tuition and living costs. That aside, I personally have a similar mentality to TakeruK in how I view my education and how I should be spending my time as a graduate student. I really don't mean to discourage the OP or anyone else from trying, but you have to be realistic about how you do it. For many international students (and, I realize, many domestic students), even applying is a costly and risky endeavor. You don't want to waste money on schools that will only make you an unfunded offer you could never take, and you don't want to lose your family's support. So my recommendation (as in my original post) is to take the time to do the legwork and figure out exactly what the chances of being funded are at each potential program of interest *before applying*, instead of (or in addition to) trusting that you can find random jobs or scholarships after you begin. 

[bhr]

Again, it's incredibly field dependent. In my field, the MA is generally expected as a stepping stone to the PhD, and so we have a decent number of fully funded programs out there (not all, but a lot). The other thing, if you are set on coming to the US, is to look for assistantships outside of your potential departments, and what their hiring process is. I have a number of friends who funded MAs/MS/MFAs by working in admissions, or student housing and events, or with other campus departments. Yes, those programs take away from your departmental time and don't add to the resume like a GA/TA slot, but they often offer stipend+tuition (and even housing, for some gigs).

[everlast1736]

Thank you for all these great comments

I forgot to mention my field

I got a B.S in biochemistry and currently working as a lab technician in the department of Pathology.

I am planning to apply to Case Western, department of pathology, pharmacology and physiology both the Masters and PhD direct admission programs. (Trying to stay at Case Western because of personal reasons) My current professor is also talking with different professors and directors to get me into a program at Case.

I talked with some professor and directors and they mentioned that for PhD programs, they are not planning to accept international students (unless they have funding) because they can't receive the NIH training grants so the department or the PI has to cover everything which they don't really have the funding to do so. The PhD program I was interested only accepted 13 students this semester and all of them are US citizens which tells me that as an international student I have almost no chance of getting accepted.

I also talked with the international student office and yes I can only work 20 hours a week during school year and 40 hours a week during summer which sucks because 20 hours don't really make that much money and doing research requires more than 20 hours a week. I did get an offer from a professor from a different university to fund me partially, $1500 a month, so that might help a little.

I really don't plan to do on campus jobs like dining court because it really is a waste of time and you get minimum wage.

Thank you for all the comments again

[everlast1736]

I found another way to attend masters for free!

For international students, you should consider J-1 Scholar Visa. The minimum requirement is that you need a bachelors degree and haven't received a J-1 in the past. This will make you an employee to the university meaning you can get staff benefits. The benefits are different with universities. For example, if you are a Case Western "research assistance I" employee the benefits are 1) Free tuition up to 6 credits, 2) health benefit (you only pay $24 per month for minimum health insurance) If you pay $9 more you get dental and if you pay $4 you get some other benefit that I can't remember right now 3) pay check ($25,225, but you have to subtract tax + health benefit). 

There are many master programs that are designed for staff students which means you can get a masters degree for free and get living expenses at the same time. It takes about 2 years (including summer) to get the degree and its mostly 1-2 classes max per semester so that's not a huge load of work compared to regular master students. The other plus side is that when you go for thesis degree, you can work with any professor in any department as long as it is related to the department you want to get a masters, so for me its any science department. 

The only down side about this is that the professor you want to work has to have enough funding to support you and if he runs out, your contract is over. Which means if you are 2/3 done with your masters, but your professor runs out of funding, you have to either go get another job or get a student visa and continue. Hopefully my professor has enough funding to support me for at least 2 years.

I forgot to mention, J-1 visa is up to 5 years and each year you have to renew (update) them. I am not sure if you have to go back to your home country to get it renewed, but I think they just check if your professor has enough funding to support you the next year. 

Anyways, I think that's the best option so far. I will still apply just in case my professor can't hire me as an employee, but hopefully that won't happen.

Good luck to everyone! 

[TakeruK]

Sorry to disappoint, but no, that is not what a J-1 visa is. I am on a J-1 visa and I am certainly not an employee nor do I receive staff benefits. Whether or not you are paid/funded/hired as an employee depends completely on the school and the program you're applying to. It may be possible that the schools you are mentioning are willing to hire you as such and because of your job, you will need to get J-1 status, instead of F-1. That is, your job determines your visa status, not the other way around.

J-1 is also a different type of PhD student visa. The main difference is that a spouse of a J-1 student has J-2 status, which allows him/her to obtain permission to work in the US. A F-1 student's spouse is on F-2 status and would not be able to work at all.

Other differences include:

- J-1 students must have secured funding for the entire length of degree, not just the first year (unlike F-1)

- J-1 students funding must come "mostly" (most schools consider this to be 50% or more) from non-personal funds (i.e. TA, RA, fellowships, anything other than your own bank account or a family member's bank account)

- J-1 students have Academic Training (AT) options post-graduation instead of OPT (functionally, these are the same).

- J-1 students must have a higher level of insurance than F-1 students

- J-1 students may be subject to the two-year home residency requirement, where you must return to your home country for at least 2 years before you can apply for any immigrant-class visa. Whether or not you have this condition depends on your source of funding (government funding tends to lead to this requirement) and whether or not your degree is on a special list of "skills" designated by your home country's government as needed. This is the main purpose of the J-1 distinction, as a J-1 is really an "exchange scholar" rather than simply a "student".

[TakeruK]

I forgot to mention, J-1 visa is up to 5 years and each year you have to renew (update) them. I am not sure if you have to go back to your home country to get it renewed, but I think they just check if your professor has enough funding to support you the next year. 

Also, I want to mention that this is not universally true. To clear this up, there are two things you are confusing: visa vs. status. 

A visa is permission to enter the country. It is a page in your passport and for most countries, you will have to go through an interview process in order to get permission to enter. When you get your visa, you will notice that it will have a time limit and/or a number of entries limit. A typical time limit is 5 years with unlimited entries, however, this depends on the treaties between your home country and the United States. Certain countries have very limited visas--some of them expire the moment you use them. However, a visa is only permission to enter--once you are in the United States, it doesn't matter if your visa has expired. You will have to get a new visa if you leave the United States though (e.g. for a conference). You cannot renew any visas, you always have to apply for a new one (although if you already had one and are applying to another one, some people call this "renewing" but it's the same application as your first visa).

On the other hand, status is permission to remain in the country for a specific purpose. This is determined by a piece of paper called the Form I-20 (for F-1 status) or DS-2019 (for J-1 status). You must keep this document up to date and you will have to get extensions if you end up staying longer, beyond the expiration date. This form must also be valid whenever you enter the United States. One thing you must do whenever you enter the United States (except the first time) is have a "travel signature" on this form that is no less than 1 year old. To get the travel signature, you bring the form to an office at your school and they will sign it to confirm that you are still a registered student and meeting the conditions of your status.

This is a confusing topic and it's easy to mix up the two because you would use an I-20 to show that you have F-1 status in order to get a F-1 visa. Due to the similarity of the names and the fact that you first get them both at the same time, it's easy to confuse them.