List of Resources for Graduate School Funding, contributed by Stefan Robila, Montclair State University

From CISEREUPI

• Idea: Provide students with a list of resources for grad funding. Often students cite as reason for not pursuing graduate studies the high educational costs and the lack of a reasonable income during the Graduate School. However students are not aware of the variety of options that would provide funding to fully support their graduate education.

• Objective: To let students understand the resources available for supporting graduate education.

• What works well: As part of our seminars on graduate studies, we discuss financial concerns related to delaying employment and continuing studies at the graduate level. In the last several years we have also put together a list of links to funding opportunities, search engines, or reports focused on Graduate education. We also emphasize that often to be successful, students must apply early and may have to have a better prepared application, or additional items (such as GRE subject).

• What doesn't work so well: Assuming the students will check the materials themselves. We usually show and discuss as many of the links below as possible.

• Assessment data: We look at the number of students that use the opportunities we provided. We collect this through the requests for recommendation letters.

Resources for financial support

• Local (University Based Support)

1. Teaching Assistantships
2. Research Assistantships
3. University Fellowships

• Federally Funded Support

1. National Science Foundation: NSF Graduate Fellowship (M.S. and Ph.D.)Website Program Site
2. Federal Cyberservice: Scholarship for Service
3. Department of Defense:
   1. The Science, Mathematics, And Research for Transformation (SMART) Defense Scholarship for Service Program
   2. National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG)
4. National Institutes of Health: Graduate Partnership Program

• Other Sources

1. Anita Borg Scholarships Google Anita Borg Scholarship recipients will each receive a $10,000 award for one academic year. A group of female undergraduate and graduate students will be chosen from the applicant pool, and scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of each candidate's academic background and demonstrated leadership (2010 information).
2. Systers Pass-It-On Pass-it-on Award applications are open to any woman over 18 years old in or aspiring to be in the fields of computing. Awards are open to women in all countries and range from $500.00 to $1000.00 USD.
3. Some employers may provide tuition reimbursement

• Additional Resources

1. Kiplinger’s, “Free Money for Graduate School” (2006, updated in 2009)
2. US News Report, “4 Strategies to Save Money in Grad School”, 2009
3. US News Report, “6 Steps to Getting Free Money for Grad School”, 2008
4. Database of Financial Opportunities
5. Fastweb.com, List of Opportunities
6. Council of Graduate Schools Resources for Students

Contributed by Stefan Robila, Montclair State University

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