Your Graduate Aid Explained…
Frequently students come to our office and ask: “How will my aid change when I become a graduate student?” Please read the following blog post to find out the answer.
As a graduate student, your application for aid process begins similarly to your undergraduate applications. First, you must file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The key differences to take note of are in Step One (Student):
- Select that you will have your first bachelor’s degree before July 1
- Indicate that you will be a 1st year Graduate/Professional student
- Also indicate that you will be pursuing a graduate degree
Also different from Undergrad, you will now be considered an independent student. This means we will not ask for your parent’s financial information when determining your aid eligibility. Therefore, you do not need to include it on your FAFSA.
Unlike undergraduate aid, the government does not provide any grants to graduate students. This means that you will no longer be eligible for Pell Grant/SEOG/State aid. Once you complete your FAFSA, the federal processing system will tell you in the notes that you’re not eligible for those programs. However, regardless of your financial situation, as a graduate student you’re entitled to Stafford Loan funding.
The annual amount of financial aid significantly increases for graduate students. Students can receive up to $20,500 of Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan per year
For most graduate programs, the Stafford loan is not sufficient to cover full tuition charges; therefore, you may have to look into supplemental funding. All supplemental loans will be credit based, and in the student’s name. If you don’t feel like your credit is strong enough for a loan approval, you can always get a co-signer/endorser.
A resource available to graduate students that wasn’t available to you as an undergrad student is the Federal Direct Grad PLUS Loan. This is a federal supplemental loan is offered at a fixed interest rate, and therefore can be consolidated with your federal loans after graduation. There are a number of other private supplemental loans available to students. Information is available on the graduate aid website.
As a graduate student, you’re more likely to depend on loan money to fund your living expenses. These may include rent/utilities/groceries/personal expenses. Students are able to borrow supplemental loans to assist with these costs. Unlike undergrads, graduate students can borrow up to $8,100 for each of the fall or spring semesters, and $5,400 in the summer at Northeastern to help with these costs.
The financial aid department advises students to be aware of the loan debt they’re incurring while pursuing graduate degrees. Our motto is to encourage students to “live like students while in school so you don’t have to after you graduate .”