UD task force formed for graduate student financial aid
Investing in a graduate education at UD is smart money,
returning significant increases in earning potential. U.S.
Department of Labor statistics indicate that workers with a
graduate degree earn on average 40% more than those with
a bachelor's degree only. While graduate education provides
great return on the investment, students need assistance to
fund the investment in their own future.
A task force has been formed at UD to develop improved support
for graduate students seeking federal financial aid. Increasingly,
graduate students need to fund a greater portion of their own
education. Some graduate programs do not fund, or minimally
fund students. Many companies that fully funded employees'
tuition in the past are now scaling back on educational benefits.
UD graduate students obtain a disproportionately small
amount of federal financial aid. Analysis shows that at UD
only 15.2%of master's-level students receive loans compared
to 43.6%nationally. UD master's students average $3,463 in
federal aid, while the national average is $15,644.
The task force is comprised of
graduate program directors, Student Financial Services
professional staff and representative graduate students.
The task force will be exploring better ways of serving
graduate student needs, including enhanced information
for seeking federal financial aid, timing and
coordination of financial aid offers, and
enhanced communications with graduate
students and graduate program directors.
The task force will seek federal approval to
grant financial aid to students in
graduate certificate programs, and will
develop strategies to obtain federal
work study grants for full-time graduate
students.
If you have suggestions or input for UD's Financial Aid Task Force, please
write to GradtaskForce@udel.edu.
Please help us prepare for future issues of this newsletter
What questions do you have about professional
education? Do you know of students who have held unique
internships or conducted impactful or groundbreaking projects?
Is there a company or other partner with an interesting
or compelling story? Please send your ideas for feature
articles or other comments on the newsletter to John Sawyer, Associate Provost for Professional Education
(sawyerj@udel.edu).
