How to Pay for Graduate School with Scholarships

Cost is usually a deciding factor for people considering going back to graduate school.

Fortunately, the right scholarships can make tuition prices drop or disappear altogether.

Graduate school scholarships may be less publicized than undergraduate scholarships, but definitely exist and are worth the thorough search to reduce your education costs.

After working at The Ohio State University for over a decade and getting an actual doctorate in higher education and student affairs, I’ve seen and supported students through receiving $250 checks to full-tuition scholarships.

To help you get the funding you deserve to reach your career goals, let’s go over the different types of scholarships (so you know what to Google and ask admissions about). Then, I’ll cover where to find them.

Types of graduate school scholarships:

1. Merit-Based Scholarships

2. Need-Based Scholarships

3. Field or Industry-Specific Scholarships

4. Institutional Scholarships

5. External Scholarships

Where to find graduate school scholarships:

1. University and Department Websites

2. Scholarship Search Engines

3. Professional Associations and Industry Organizations

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Types of Graduate School Scholarships

You’re bound to qualify for at least one type of scholarship. You might even be lucky enough to be auto-considered by a university without an extra application process.

1. Merit-Based Scholarships

These scholarships are typically awarded for demonstrated “excellence” in some way. They may be awarded directly by the graduate program — or the university — and can also be found externally.

For prospective graduate students, proof of excellence can include:

• High undergraduate GPA

• Exceptional professional achievements in leadership or projects

• Artistic or creative talent

• Significant research contributions like publishing multiple research articles in peer-reviewed journals (this is more common in STEM fields and for PhD applications)

Merit-based scholarship examples — both external and institution-based:

Fulbright Program and the Rhodes Scholarship (academic excellence)

Knight-Hennessy Scholars for leadership and the Schwarzman Scholars for global leadership (professional merit)

DAAD Study Scholarships (for artists and creatives)

2. Need-Based Scholarships

Higher education is known to open doors to better-paying career opportunities, especially for those coming from less economically privileged backgrounds. (This was the case for me as a first-generation college student who grew up in rural Ohio).

You may also be considering graduate school to unlock professional opportunities with higher salaries and room for growth into leadership.

In the meantime, if it feels like graduate school is a pipe dream because of significant tuition costs, you might be in luck to qualify for need-based scholarships based on your current finances.

Note: Need-based scholarships typically require proof of your financial situation, such as tax returns or results of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

These scholarships can be offered through federal and state governments, individual universities, and even private organizations like charitable foundations.

Some may require a separate application and essays along with your financial records to show proof of economic hardship.

Need-based scholarship examples:

State of Ohio State Grants & Scholarships (check your state’s website if in the US)

Professional programs like business, engineering, law, and medical school at well-resourced institutions often have need-based scholarships for applicants who qualify

Soros Fellowships for New Americans

3. Field or Industry-Specific Scholarships

These are more often available for broad fields like science, engineering, technology, math (STEM), medicine and healthcare, law, education and business.

Field-specific scholarship examples:

National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship and the Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship (STEM fields)

National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Scholarship Program (healthcare)

Forte MBA Fellowship for Women (business)

American Bar Association Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund (law)

4. Institutional Scholarships

These scholarships are wild and can be extremely unexpected (in a good way)!

While working at a university, every year I’d learn about an obscure scholarship where very few people would even qualify.

Some of these scholarships are tied to endowments funds from deceased alumni or generous supporters of a university. These funds can be open to a wide variety of people or fairly limited depending on the request of the donor.

Limitations include: certain fields of study, that the recipient be a resident of a specific state or even county, or that the applicant has a particular identity or other demographic. 

There are also more common, generalized graduate school scholarships with names like Presidential Fellowship or Dean’s Scholarship — these are likely merit-based.

Institutional scholarships can come from multiple layers of a university, so it’s worth researching outside of your specific program or department since these other opportunities may not be linked on the program’s webpage.

Here’s where you can search for institutional graduate scholarships:

(envision this like a Russian nesting doll, we’ll start at the outermost layer first — I’ll use Ohio State as an example)

University-level (general graduate school funding opportunities)

⬇

University student support office-level (The Office of International Affairs)

⬇

College or school-level (College of Arts & Sciences)

⬇

Specific graduate program or department level (Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies)

(Note: department or program-level scholarships may not even be publicized on a website due to how few people qualify each year— but they still exist and scholarship coordinators are always looking for people to award these, it’s a bad look to the university and donor families when funds go unused)

5. External Scholarships

We’ve already covered a few examples that are external to a university — as you continue your scholarship search, consider these additional resources:

• Corporate and employment-based scholarships — if you work at a company that provides them.

• National non-profit and charitable foundation scholarships.

Examples: Ford Foundation Fellowships (for PhDs)

• Community-based and local scholarships.

Examples: Rotary Clubs, The Columbus Foundation (in Columbus, OH — search for your city and state name + “foundation” or “fund” to see what opportunities you have locally), some religious organizations offer scholarships, too

Example scholarship for $1,500 promoted on The Columbus Foundation’s website — this was found by searching “graduate school.”

Pro Tip: Community and local scholarships have the lowest levels of competition and are worth your time and effort to research and apply.

Where to Find Graduate School Scholarships

To get you started, try these base keywords when searching any of the websites listed below.

Pro Tip: For more tailored results, include search terms like your program name (ex. “public health”), your location (ex. “in Colorado”) or aspects of your identity (ex. “for women”).

• graduate school scholarship

• graduate student scholarship

• graduate student funding

• graduate scholarship

• master’s degree scholarships

• doctorate scholarships

• “(plug in your program name: business, engineering, law, medical, public policy)” school scholarships

• also try “grant” or “award” in place of scholarship

1. University and Department Websites

As mentioned above, there are a number of places on a university’s website to find scholarships.

While some webpages may offer links to other funding opportunities across the institution, you’re more likely to find everything you need if you take time to do a diligent search of all levels of university pages.

To expand on the earlier list, below are common units at universities where you might find additional scholarship opportunities outside of an academic department, school or college.

I’m using The Ohio State University again as an example.

Each link connects to that unit’s current graduate student funding opportunities to give you an idea of what you might find in your own search on an institution’s website:

Graduate and Professional Admissions (an overarching unit that handles the logistics of graduate student applications whereas academic departments review the applications and make admissions decisions)

Student Financial Aid Office (best resource for need-based scholarships)

Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Office of Student Life, Council of Graduate Students (student government for graduate students)

University Libraries (these include research funding databases)

The Alumni Association (great for scholarships from local alumni chapters)

2. Scholarship Search Engines

An initial Google search for graduate school scholarships will bring up a number of resources like Sallie Mae and scholarships.com.

Pro Tip: Before sharing your personal and financial information — do diligent research to determine whether you’re applying for a scholarship through a reputable resource, and learn how your personal information is used and stored.

While tempting to use a graduate scholarship search engine first, I highly recommend looking at university websites and local organizations since they may have fewer applicants than scholarships advertising on dedicated search engines.

3. Professional Associations and Industry Organizations

These are likely the most under-searched resources for graduate school scholarships — great news for you!

Whether you’re already working in an industry or hoping to pivot to a new one, industry organizations are incredible resources for professional development like a graduate degree.

To find these on Google, search “professional association for [field of interest].”

Example search: 

Googling “professional association for marketing” yields The American Marketing Association

Next, search for “American Marketing Association graduate school scholarship” — here is their scholarship page

You can also search for state chapters of national organizations, which will have less competition for their scholarships.

Bonus Resource

If you’re on TikTok, check out Carlynn Greene (@ESPDaniella), the Scholarship Guru, for additional graduate school scholarship tips.

She’s a treasure trove of information and real talk about the search process!

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the scholarship search and need a short list of action items, I’ve got you covered:

1. Create a short list of key words to search for scholarships, including your degree type, degree name, field/industry name, and any part of your identity (ex. gender, race, ethnicity, etc.)

2. Once you know where you’re applying — or have already been accepted — search high and low on university websites

3. Check your local resources next, including your employer, religious organization, and non-profits

4. Search professional associations related to your future career (note: you may need to be a paying member to apply)

5. Spread this process out over weeks or months so it’s less intense, especially if you need to complete additional applications and essays

You’ve got this, good luck!

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