Graduate school info sources

[PronghornD]

I've been through the process once with helping my kid off to college. Now they are a senior, and they want to go to graduate school.

I am looking for good sources of graduate school information, especially relating to financial aspects. We are old, and my husband is about to retire and cause our household income to plummet. So, we won't be able to provide much, if any, financial support. Are there any good general information sources to tell things like the range of possible amounts of assistantships, merit scholarships, and such at particular schools. The websites tend to be very vague.

Our child is a top music composition student at their undergraduate school, attending on a full tuition scholarship. A professor has said, "A student like you should not have to pay for their education." I'm looking to help make that a reality!

Please don't criticize me for trying to help my young adult with things they should be mature enough to do independently. Each student is special in their own way, and some require more assistance than others.

[Bootsie]

The amount of financial assistance available for graduate school is going to vary greatly within the same university, depending upon the particular program and the degree the student is seeking.  For example, there may be assistantships for thsoe who are pursuing a PhD in biology that provide for tuition and cover basic living expenses but vary little assistance for someone pursuing a masters in English at the same school.  

The best place to turn for information about admissions and financial feasilbity of various graduate programs is probably her current professors.They will know the schools that have graduate programs that meet her interests and have some idea of the availabiity of assistantships at those schools.  

[easypeasy]

3 hours ago, PronghornD said:

Our child is a top music composition student at their undergraduate school, attending on a full tuition scholarship. A professor has said, "A student like you should not have to pay for their education." I'm looking to help make that a reality!

Please don't criticize me for trying to help my young adult with things they should be mature enough to do independently. Each student is special in their own way, and some require more assistance than others.

I have no concrete information for you as I have not yet BTDT, but want to commend you for helping your young adult navigate new and treacherous waters!! I have never understood those who offer blanket admonitions to those of us who help our young people with these investigatory tasks if the student is asking and/or willing to have the assist!

I also have a music student in much the same scenario as well as a current junior non-music who has been told over and over again that she should not pay a penny for graduate school with her resume. We are just beginning the research now that my last undergrad has started his freshman year. I will follow this thread with much interest!

[kokotg]

We're not there yet, but I'm guessing the answers for music specifically are going to be a lot different from other fields. You might want to post on the music major board on college confidential (which is a much more supportive and helpful sub-forum than CC as a whole). Generally speaking, you don't want to pay for a ph.D.; there's usually a tuition waiver and a stipend (in exchange for doing things like teaching or TAing undergrad classes, assisting with research, etc). I've read that looking at phD programs is one way music students make grad school more affordable, too, (my personal experience is an English phd program many years ago and doing some research with my current college senior in math) (going out of the US is another I've heard mentioned), but my music kid is in his first year of college, so it's not something we've done much research on yet. Do they have an advisor at school that could help navigate? 

[PronghornD]

5 hours ago, kokotg said:

We're not there yet, but I'm guessing the answers for music specifically are going to be a lot different from other fields. You might want to post on the music major board on college confidential (which is a much more supportive and helpful sub-forum than CC as a whole). Generally speaking, you don't want to pay for a ph.D.; there's usually a tuition waiver and a stipend (in exchange for doing things like teaching or TAing undergrad classes, assisting with research, etc). I've read that looking at phD programs is one way music students make grad school more affordable, too, (my personal experience is an English phd program many years ago and doing some research with my current college senior in math) (going out of the US is another I've heard mentioned), but my music kid is in his first year of college, so it's not something we've done much research on yet. Do they have an advisor at school that could help navigate? 

My kid is not wanting PhD programs but master's programs, at this point. There seems to be a bit less funding for those programs than PhD or DMA. My kid is also probably not ready to go out of country except perhaps to Canada.

I'll try college confidential.

[Frances]

9 hours ago, PronghornD said:

My kid is not wanting PhD programs but master's programs, at this point. There seems to be a bit less funding for those programs than PhD or DMA. My kid is also probably not ready to go out of country except perhaps to Canada.

I'll try college confidential.

Yes, it is generally much harder to get funding for master’s programs or professional programs than it is for PhD programs.

[irprof]

In order to get an assistantship, the best place to look is large universities with strong music schools. Conservatories have (in general) very little money, but large universities tend to need lots of graduate assistants, both for teaching as well as with student life and administrative positions, and financially well off ones (ie state flagships and privates with $$) have no problem funding graduate students. Different universities have very different policies about this, so you will have to inquire at each university with a program of interest. But while many programs save research and sometimes teaching opportunities for PHD students many of the admin and student life positions are happy to have a good masters student and at the right university will provide a tuition waiver and a decent stipend.

[Frances]

2 hours ago, irprof said:

In order to get an assistantship, the best place to look is large universities with strong music schools. Conservatories have (in general) very little money, but large universities tend to need lots of graduate assistants, both for teaching as well as with student life and administrative positions, and financially well off ones (ie state flagships and privates with $$) have no problem funding graduate students. Different universities have very different policies about this, so you will have to inquire at each university with a program of interest. But while many programs save research and sometimes teaching opportunities for PHD students many of the admin and student life positions are happy to have a good masters student and at the right university will provide a tuition waiver and a decent stipend.

It’s also possible to get things like RA positions that will cover housing. When my husband was in a PhD program at a land grant state university, his tuition was paid and he received first a teaching fellowship (for ironically not teaching) and then later a research stipend. But for two years, we were also RAs at the international married family housing complex and this covered all rent and utilities except long distance phone (before cell phones).