Author Topic: Masters Degree Question  (Read 11440 times)

allergic2average

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Masters Degree Question
« on: September 04, 2014, 07:54:41 PM »
For those of you who have an MS in Education or an MS in general, did you get a scholarship, grant or money from an organization in order to obtain it? If you did could you please share the name of the scholarship, grant or name of the organization please.  I'm pursuing my MS next year so all information shared would be greatly appreciated :-) I already googled stuff for my field and there isn't anything, so I thought I would go for something more general or perhaps merit based.  Truth be told since I graduated from high school in Bolivia and paid half out pocket while the other half is covered by my job for my undergrad I have zero experience in looking for scholarships for grad school. 

DecD

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2014, 08:16:59 PM »
I was funded through the university.  I am an engineer.  I've done a lot of post-undergrad education and all has been funded via private organizations but through the university itself.  I was invited to apply, or they applied for me, or I found the info on the school's website and applied myself. Have you asked the financial aid office about options?  Explored their site for links?

I've also known many students funded through teaching assistantships.  These can be obtained through your department or others.  For example, I knew several engineers funded by the foreign language department.  Can you teach Spanish to undergrads to fund your masters?

LibrarIan

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2014, 06:27:44 AM »
I got my Master of Library and Information Science recently and I paid my way through. I did get one scholarship, the James E. Cook Scholarship in Young Adult Librarianship, but that's a pretty specific one that probably doesn't apply to hardly anyone. That scholarship is also specific to my university, Kent State.

It's worth it to apply for any and all scholarships that you might have a shot at. Remember though that your specific school's department might offer scholarships that can't be found elsewhere, so that might be why you had some trouble locating anything via Google.

Also, it might worth it to sign up for an account with fastweb.com. This site basically asks you a bunch of questions about your educational background and where you plan to attend and tries to match you with scholarships you might be eligible for. It was wonderful for undergrad. It can help with grad school, but the pickings are more limited. Be warned that there is a lot of garbage on there sometimes (like military scholarships spamming your inbox).

Good luck!

jda1984

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2014, 06:49:31 AM »
I'm pretty similar to DecD.  I'm an engineer and held a few different teaching assistant positions through my masters.  One semester I only had half-time (full-time was still part time, it is just twice the load as half-time) and they paid half my tuition and half the normal stipend which I think was enough to cover the other half of the tuition anyway.  Full-time covered all my tuition and had a stipend as well.  My wife was working at the time so we used the stipend to pay down undergrad student loans.

Hannah

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2014, 07:59:26 AM »
Both my sister and brother in law got their MA in Education paid for by the state of Colorado. This is because they are teachers on the Western Slope which is higher COL and lower teacher salaries. Now that they have their degrees, they got a nice pay bump, and my bro in law will be taking on a new role as the tech director of their district.

A lot of states with teacher retention problems offer this sort of deal. I have friends who did the same in Tenessee and Texas, but I think they had term agreements with their masters (like you have to teach 5 more year or 3 more years or you have to pay back these loans).

dodojojo

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2014, 08:43:09 AM »
I received a miniscule scholarship through the school.  It was a private school so the scholarship was a drop in the bucket of tuition and living expenses. 

I'm not much help in the details but there are a ton of scholarships and money out there.  Many of them obscure and even eccentric.  I was too dumb and lazy to research them and missed out on a ton of opportunities.  My jaw dropped when I found out one of my grad classmates had her entire MS tuition covered by the State Department--as long as she worked for them post-graduation.  Hello, many of us WANTED to work for the State Department anyway so "having" to work for them for a scholarship wasn't exactly a burden.

Definitely use your undergrad campus resources to research scholarships.  Go to the library--there are tons of books on scholarships and how to get them.

Luckily, my undergrad degree was at public schools and covered by scholarship/aid.  I left with 6K in debt and only because I wanted to live away from home my senior year.  My grad debt on the other hand...

Exhale

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2014, 08:52:41 AM »
Great ideas already. Here are a few more:

1) Talk to students already in the program (you should be doing that anyway to get a feel for the program
2) Apply to more than one program - others may offer you funding
3) I assume that you're fluent in Spanish? If so, leverage the heck out of that asset! The US education field is hurting for lack of trained Spanish-speaking educators.

Best of luck!
Exhale


Chranstronaut

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2014, 09:05:10 AM »
I'm working on a Master's right now.  I'm also an engineer and work for a large company who will pay full tuition for a further degree in my line of work.  It's tough because I work full time, but it's great because it's free.  My other options were: teaching assistant, research assistant, get in-state residency and find a part-time job locally.

While shopping around for schools, I would suggest keeping a spreadsheet or document about job opportunities at each one.  How do they choose TAs/RAs? Do professors pick people or does the department help organize it all? How many positions are available per year?  Are there labs, tutoring groups, libraries or other campus resources that hire students or offer tuition assistance?  For example, some school interview and select TAs around the time you apply to the department, while others will select them when the first term begins.

If you are still in school, go to your university's career center and ask them for information.  If you already know the grad school(s) you want to go to, contact THEIR career centers too, and find out what they offer.  Talk to your current and future departmental adviser.  You may need to ask a lot of questions and be proactive about following up with people. 

Where are you studying now?  If you're in the US, look for resources for foreign nationals, recent immigrants or bi-lingual people.  What hobbies do you have?  Look for scholarships for that (farming and volunteering seem likely candidates for this).  A career center might be able to help you find these kinds of scholarships, but you might be able to Google around for them, too.  Do you like to read and write?  Some organizations have essay or competition-type scholarships.  I remember there was a scholarship competition when I graduated high school for people to read and write an essay on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

What do your parents or grandparents do?  If they are in a union or certain companies, you may have scholarships you can apply to specifically for children of parents in their field.  I know my union offers at least on small scholarship like that.

One of my regrets is not researching schools thoroughly enough for this kind of information before starting both undergraduate and graduate degrees.  Even a couple thousand earned here and there over the years would have made a big difference.

Edited to add:  And don't stop applying to scholarships or campus jobs after your freshman year!  Apply every year and keep seeking out more and more opportunities.  The best scholarship I got in undergrad was given to me junior and senior year.  I was one of few people awarded it at that age because most people stop applying after freshman year.  There was a volunteer component, and I worked really hard Junior year to be involved.  That got me an even bigger scholarship from the same group the next year.
« Last Edit: September 05, 2014, 09:12:12 AM by ChransStache »

Daleth

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2014, 09:12:50 AM »
For those of you who have an MS in Education or an MS in general, did you get a scholarship, grant or money from an organization in order to obtain it? If you did could you please share the name of the scholarship, grant or name of the organization please.  I'm pursuing my MS next year so all information shared would be greatly appreciated :-) I already googled stuff for my field and there isn't anything, so I thought I would go for something more general or perhaps merit based.  Truth be told since I graduated from high school in Bolivia and paid half out pocket while the other half is covered by my job for my undergrad I have zero experience in looking for scholarships for grad school.

Can we back up from your question for a second and ask, why do you want an MEd or other master's degree? MEd's tend to be useful primarily to school teachers. Is that your career plan?

HawkeyeNFO

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2014, 09:24:05 AM »
I picked up a Masters in Adult & Continuing Education, almost for free by using the Navy's Tuition Assistance Program back in 2008.
« Last Edit: September 05, 2014, 07:25:31 PM by HawkeyeNFO »

gillstone

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2014, 09:33:17 AM »
Start by setting where you want to go.  Once you've narrowed it down to say a half dozen programs you think will get you where you want to be and are likely to admit you, go and talk with their aid departments.  Each school will carry its own set of scholarships, assistantships, fellowships, & grants.  They can also provide information on state and federal scholarship programs.  Once you've been accepted you can negotiate the aid package.  Where undergrad aid isn't very negotiation, grad school aid is open to haggling.  If you're a catch, pit the schools against each other to get a better package.  Ask for more aid, the worst they can say is no.

There are two traps to avoid in finding your grad school

1) Attending a weak program because they gave you a better aid package than a better grad program did.  Where you go to grad school really does matter.  It doesn't have to be ivy league, but try to keep in the top 20 for program rankings.

2) Refusing to consider private or out-of-state universities because the sticker price looks higher.  Aid packages are more important than sticker price.  A good package can make it drastically cheaper to attend out of state or private than going to your local public program.


MillenialMustache

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #11 on: September 05, 2014, 12:14:34 PM »
I have an MA in Higher Education and I worked for a community college that had tuition reimbursement while I did it. I am working on my Ph.D. now and I work at a university that gives free tuition for employees. I would recommend looking for a full-time job and then taking classes for free. My current university even allows you to take one course during your work time per semester.

Mrs. Frugalwoods

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #12 on: September 05, 2014, 01:43:26 PM »
I have an MA in Higher Education and I worked for a community college that had tuition reimbursement while I did it. I am working on my Ph.D. now and I work at a university that gives free tuition for employees. I would recommend looking for a full-time job and then taking classes for free. My current university even allows you to take one course during your work time per semester.
Gigantic +1 on this. I got my MA for free via tuition remission for working full-time at the university while I was getting my degree.

In addition to the obvious monetary benefit, there are other advantages to this approach:
you're already on campus for work so commuting to class is a breeze; you're more plugged into the university community and can take advantage of opportunities that arise; you won't have a work experience gap in your resume. 

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #13 on: September 08, 2014, 11:00:43 AM »
I was funded through the university.  I am an engineer.  I've done a lot of post-undergrad education and all has been funded via private organizations but through the university itself.  I was invited to apply, or they applied for me, or I found the info on the school's website and applied myself. Have you asked the financial aid office about options?  Explored their site for links?

I've also known many students funded through teaching assistantships.  These can be obtained through your department or others.  For example, I knew several engineers funded by the foreign language department.  Can you teach Spanish to undergrads to fund your masters?

I will be contacting the program director since I just decided on a specific program and will find out about financial aid though I don't think I'll qualify because of my income but its worth a shot.

Being funded by the language department sounds like a marvelous idea, but I already work full time and go to school full time so fitting in an extra part time job just wouldn't be possible time-wise but I'll try and find another avenue in regards to using my language.  Thank you for the response. I appreciate it.

darkadams00

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #14 on: September 08, 2014, 11:41:48 AM »
I got two MSs for the price of none.

If you have the background and sufficient grades, apply for your PhD. Many PhDs are funded by the dept even if there is no money for MSs. Acceptance might be harder, and funding is usually contingent on your working for the dept rather than an outside employer, but it worked fine for me. I was able to get one MS this way and my other MS was earned concurrently in another dept, so I didn't have to pay extra for that one. I left after I finished my two MSs  as did almost half of the MSs on the PhD track. 100% of the MSs from the PhD track were funded, 100% of the MSs only on the MS track were not. This was true in both depts.

BTW, this idea was suggested by my undergraduate senior advisor, a well-regarded and award-winning prof in my undergraduate program. 


mozar

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #15 on: September 08, 2014, 06:28:42 PM »
Are you planning on teaching grade school? There are lots of programs through the state or non profits that will support you. Similar to Teach for America. If not then what are you planning on doing with the MS?

valk001

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #16 on: September 08, 2014, 07:12:13 PM »
I got my Masters (MHA) through the GI bill and through TA.  I know several of my peers have had their employers assist through tuition assistance as part of their "perks" for working.  That could be a method that you can try.


allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #17 on: September 08, 2014, 07:13:00 PM »
I got my Master of Library and Information Science recently and I paid my way through. I did get one scholarship, the James E. Cook Scholarship in Young Adult Librarianship, but that's a pretty specific one that probably doesn't apply to hardly anyone. That scholarship is also specific to my university, Kent State.

It's worth it to apply for any and all scholarships that you might have a shot at. Remember though that your specific school's department might offer scholarships that can't be found elsewhere, so that might be why you had some trouble locating anything via Google.

Also, it might worth it to sign up for an account with fastweb.com. This site basically asks you a bunch of questions about your educational background and where you plan to attend and tries to match you with scholarships you might be eligible for. It was wonderful for undergrad. It can help with grad school, but the pickings are more limited. Be warned that there is a lot of garbage on there sometimes (like military scholarships spamming your inbox).

Good luck!


You're right about departments offering specific scholarships, I plan on going in person ASAP to speak with the graduate adviser of the program to see what they have for health education.  And I'll definitely try fastweb, thanks for the advice. 

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #18 on: September 08, 2014, 07:18:09 PM »
Both my sister and brother in law got their MA in Education paid for by the state of Colorado. This is because they are teachers on the Western Slope which is higher COL and lower teacher salaries. Now that they have their degrees, they got a nice pay bump, and my bro in law will be taking on a new role as the tech director of their district.

A lot of states with teacher retention problems offer this sort of deal. I have friends who did the same in Tenessee and Texas, but I think they had term agreements with their masters (like you have to teach 5 more year or 3 more years or you have to pay back these loans).

Your brother and sister in law were definitely blessed.  There is a similar thing here in NYC for teachers but its only in high need areas like math and science.  I'm doing physical education and plan to get an MSed in health so it's a bit harder to find but I'm sure I'll find something until May when I graduate.  I tried international scholarships since I graduated in Bolivia but I haven't had luck in that area either. 

erae

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #19 on: September 08, 2014, 07:24:29 PM »
I'm finishing up a M.Ed. from Penn State's world campus.  No scholarships that I'm aware of, but I've been working as I chip away at the degree - taking my next class as soon as I have time and money to do so.  The classes are very well designed and I've "met" some really interesting students.  I've been working on my degree for about four years now, but you can take up to seven years to complete a Masters.  Could be another option if you're looking for a good program with lots of flexibility.  Attrition is high in distance education, though, so you would need to be confident in your ability to stick to it. 

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #20 on: September 08, 2014, 07:24:50 PM »
I received a miniscule scholarship through the school.  It was a private school so the scholarship was a drop in the bucket of tuition and living expenses. 

I'm not much help in the details but there are a ton of scholarships and money out there.  Many of them obscure and even eccentric.  I was too dumb and lazy to research them and missed out on a ton of opportunities.  My jaw dropped when I found out one of my grad classmates had her entire MS tuition covered by the State Department--as long as she worked for them post-graduation.  Hello, many of us WANTED to work for the State Department anyway so "having" to work for them for a scholarship wasn't exactly a burden.

Definitely use your undergrad campus resources to research scholarships.  Go to the library--there are tons of books on scholarships and how to get them.

Luckily, my undergrad degree was at public schools and covered by scholarship/aid.  I left with 6K in debt and only because I wanted to live away from home my senior year.  My grad debt on the other hand...

Haven't had luck yet finding anything obscure and or eccentric but I'm still looking so I think something will come up.  NYC has a similar thing for teaching fellows where they have to work in a Title 1 school that has low income students and high needs in math, english and science.  Sadly that doesn't apply to physical education or health, I called up the DOE and they told me to find other avenues because they don't offer anything. 

I didn't think about that yet, so I will definitely head to the library and check things out. 

I hope your able to pay your grad debt ASAP, good luck

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #21 on: September 08, 2014, 07:29:41 PM »
Great ideas already. Here are a few more:

1) Talk to students already in the program (you should be doing that anyway to get a feel for the program
2) Apply to more than one program - others may offer you funding
3) I assume that you're fluent in Spanish? If so, leverage the heck out of that asset! The US education field is hurting for lack of trained Spanish-speaking educators.

Best of luck!
Exhale

1) You're completely right, I've only recently picked the school and program from seeing it online so I have to physically go to the campus next.

2) Well here in NYC there isn't much for health in CUNY schools so I'll have to take a look at private schools and compare prices

3) If I were trying to be a Spanish teacher that would definitely be a great benefit, but I'm gonna be a phys ed teacher next year and I'm going to be getting a MSed in health which many schools aren't in high need of.  So I'm starting to think about writing senators and congressman and see where that gets me

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #22 on: September 08, 2014, 07:31:10 PM »
Great ideas already. Here are a few more:

1) Talk to students already in the program (you should be doing that anyway to get a feel for the program
2) Apply to more than one program - others may offer you funding
3) I assume that you're fluent in Spanish? If so, leverage the heck out of that asset! The US education field is hurting for lack of trained Spanish-speaking educators.

Best of luck!
Exhale


Forgot to say thanks for your response

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #23 on: September 09, 2014, 09:08:06 AM »
I'm working on a Master's right now.  I'm also an engineer and work for a large company who will pay full tuition for a further degree in my line of work.  It's tough because I work full time, but it's great because it's free.  My other options were: teaching assistant, research assistant, get in-state residency and find a part-time job locally.

While shopping around for schools, I would suggest keeping a spreadsheet or document about job opportunities at each one.  How do they choose TAs/RAs? Do professors pick people or does the department help organize it all? How many positions are available per year?  Are there labs, tutoring groups, libraries or other campus resources that hire students or offer tuition assistance?  For example, some school interview and select TAs around the time you apply to the department, while others will select them when the first term begins.

If you are still in school, go to your university's career center and ask them for information.  If you already know the grad school(s) you want to go to, contact THEIR career centers too, and find out what they offer.  Talk to your current and future departmental adviser.  You may need to ask a lot of questions and be proactive about following up with people. 

Where are you studying now?  If you're in the US, look for resources for foreign nationals, recent immigrants or bi-lingual people.  What hobbies do you have?  Look for scholarships for that (farming and volunteering seem likely candidates for this).  A career center might be able to help you find these kinds of scholarships, but you might be able to Google around for them, too.  Do you like to read and write?  Some organizations have essay or competition-type scholarships.  I remember there was a scholarship competition when I graduated high school for people to read and write an essay on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

What do your parents or grandparents do?  If they are in a union or certain companies, you may have scholarships you can apply to specifically for children of parents in their field.  I know my union offers at least on small scholarship like that.

One of my regrets is not researching schools thoroughly enough for this kind of information before starting both undergraduate and graduate degrees.  Even a couple thousand earned here and there over the years would have made a big difference.

Edited to add:  And don't stop applying to scholarships or campus jobs after your freshman year!  Apply every year and keep seeking out more and more opportunities.  The best scholarship I got in undergrad was given to me junior and senior year.  I was one of few people awarded it at that age because most people stop applying after freshman year.  There was a volunteer component, and I worked really hard Junior year to be involved.  That got me an even bigger scholarship from the same group the next year.

I wish my employer did that for teachers.  The crazy thing here in NYC is currently as an assistant teacher I get half of my tuition covered every semester but once I become a full physical education teacher they only offer tuition help if you do math or science which sucks.

I found a program and completely forgot to go the union route and my father's union offers graduate scholarships so thanks for reminding me of that one! Hopefully I can get something from them. And you're completely right about the research part, I graduate in May so I'm taking this entire year to find as much stuff as possible in terms of free money for graduate school because a lot of my coworkers have loan debt that starts around 10K and I'm not about that life.  Thanks for the response it was very helpful.

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #24 on: September 09, 2014, 09:10:40 AM »
For those of you who have an MS in Education or an MS in general, did you get a scholarship, grant or money from an organization in order to obtain it? If you did could you please share the name of the scholarship, grant or name of the organization please.  I'm pursuing my MS next year so all information shared would be greatly appreciated :-) I already googled stuff for my field and there isn't anything, so I thought I would go for something more general or perhaps merit based.  Truth be told since I graduated from high school in Bolivia and paid half out pocket while the other half is covered by my job for my undergrad I have zero experience in looking for scholarships for grad school.

Can we back up from your question for a second and ask, why do you want an MEd or other master's degree? MEd's tend to be useful primarily to school teachers. Is that your career plan?

Yes I'm currently working as an assistant teacher and when I graduate in May I will be a physical education teacher. I want to be able to make extra money per session so I want to get my MSed in Health which allows me to be flexible.

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #25 on: September 09, 2014, 09:20:34 AM »
Start by setting where you want to go.  Once you've narrowed it down to say a half dozen programs you think will get you where you want to be and are likely to admit you, go and talk with their aid departments.  Each school will carry its own set of scholarships, assistantships, fellowships, & grants.  They can also provide information on state and federal scholarship programs.  Once you've been accepted you can negotiate the aid package.  Where undergrad aid isn't very negotiation, grad school aid is open to haggling.  If you're a catch, pit the schools against each other to get a better package.  Ask for more aid, the worst they can say is no.

There are two traps to avoid in finding your grad school

1) Attending a weak program because they gave you a better aid package than a better grad program did.  Where you go to grad school really does matter.  It doesn't have to be ivy league, but try to keep in the top 20 for program rankings.

2) Refusing to consider private or out-of-state universities because the sticker price looks higher.  Aid packages are more important than sticker price.  A good package can make it drastically cheaper to attend out of state or private than going to your local public program.

I didn't know grad school aid was negotiable, I will definitely keep that in mind when I visit the school. Here in NYC there isn't much in terms of health so there was only really one option.  It leads directly to health certification so I don't have to worry about program rankings, the DOE only cares that you have a degree and its certified by NYS.  I thought about private but they didn't offer health and out of state isn't an option because I can't leave my career simply to get a cheaper package for a masters degree.  Thank you for your response, the negotiation part was definitely new info for me that I will use to my advantage.

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #26 on: September 09, 2014, 09:23:05 AM »
I have an MA in Higher Education and I worked for a community college that had tuition reimbursement while I did it. I am working on my Ph.D. now and I work at a university that gives free tuition for employees. I would recommend looking for a full-time job and then taking classes for free. My current university even allows you to take one course during your work time per semester.

Thanks for the advice, I already work full time so that isn't an option.

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #27 on: September 09, 2014, 09:25:55 AM »
I have an MA in Higher Education and I worked for a community college that had tuition reimbursement while I did it. I am working on my Ph.D. now and I work at a university that gives free tuition for employees. I would recommend looking for a full-time job and then taking classes for free. My current university even allows you to take one course during your work time per semester.
Gigantic +1 on this. I got my MA for free via tuition remission for working full-time at the university while I was getting my degree.

In addition to the obvious monetary benefit, there are other advantages to this approach:
you're already on campus for work so commuting to class is a breeze; you're more plugged into the university community and can take advantage of opportunities that arise; you won't have a work experience gap in your resume.

My current employer pays half my tuition cost as an assistant teacher, when I become a full teacher next May is when they stop covering tuition unless I did a masters in math or science which sucks.  I can't leave my current job but thanks for the response.  By the way great blog!

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #28 on: September 09, 2014, 09:29:01 AM »
I got two MSs for the price of none.

If you have the background and sufficient grades, apply for your PhD. Many PhDs are funded by the dept even if there is no money for MSs. Acceptance might be harder, and funding is usually contingent on your working for the dept rather than an outside employer, but it worked fine for me. I was able to get one MS this way and my other MS was earned concurrently in another dept, so I didn't have to pay extra for that one. I left after I finished my two MSs  as did almost half of the MSs on the PhD track. 100% of the MSs from the PhD track were funded, 100% of the MSs only on the MS track were not. This was true in both depts.

BTW, this idea was suggested by my undergraduate senior advisor, a well-regarded and award-winning prof in my undergraduate program.


I would do your option but I can't leave my job because the benefits and hours are great. Thanks for the response

allergic2average

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #29 on: September 09, 2014, 09:31:26 AM »
Are you planning on teaching grade school? There are lots of programs through the state or non profits that will support you. Similar to Teach for America. If not then what are you planning on doing with the MS?

I work in a high school currently and will continue working there when I graduate.  My salary increases with time served and degrees/credits from college.  I just want to avoid paying for grad school if possible so I'm going researching this until death.

mozar

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #30 on: September 09, 2014, 07:26:04 PM »
So you are already accredited?

nirvines88

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #31 on: September 09, 2014, 08:59:47 PM »
Teach for America?  Academic scholarship?  Teach overseas?  Perhaps go to a rural area that is in high demand for teachers and find out what kind of deals they're offering.  Some large school districts offer help with tuition as well.

With that being said, 3/4 of the education classes I took were a joke.  I learned more in my first week of teaching than in a whole year of grad school while obtaining my MA in teaching secondary social studies.  If you want to be a teacher, see if you can get a degree in your preferred field of study (depending on your field) rather than a degree in education and still get the salary bump (depending on which state you're in; NC recently got rid of increased master's pay for teachers, so obviously in states like that you wouldn't necessarily want to spend time or money pursuing a master's in certain fields).  If you're able to do that, you should come out ahead.  You'll either have more knowledge about your content area and be a better teacher or be more marketable in the private sector.

Your mileage may vary.  Good luck!

Mrs. Frugalwoods

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #32 on: September 10, 2014, 10:24:46 AM »
I have an MA in Higher Education and I worked for a community college that had tuition reimbursement while I did it. I am working on my Ph.D. now and I work at a university that gives free tuition for employees. I would recommend looking for a full-time job and then taking classes for free. My current university even allows you to take one course during your work time per semester.
Gigantic +1 on this. I got my MA for free via tuition remission for working full-time at the university while I was getting my degree.

In addition to the obvious monetary benefit, there are other advantages to this approach:
you're already on campus for work so commuting to class is a breeze; you're more plugged into the university community and can take advantage of opportunities that arise; you won't have a work experience gap in your resume.

My current employer pays half my tuition cost as an assistant teacher, when I become a full teacher next May is when they stop covering tuition unless I did a masters in math or science which sucks.  I can't leave my current job but thanks for the response.  By the way great blog!
Hey thanks! I really appreciate it :)!

Cassie

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #33 on: September 10, 2014, 12:10:57 PM »
My first master's was free because I worked as a TA for 10 hours/week.  My second was free because the Feds were offering full ride for people willing to work in public vocational rehabilitation for 3 years after graduation.  My Ph.D I paid for because I pursued it while working f.t.

nico demouse

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #34 on: September 10, 2014, 12:30:52 PM »
I didn't see if you mentioned *where* you will be teaching, but...

I was a middle school science teacher and have a MSEd. It was basically free (I paid fees and for books). My school had a relationship with a nearby university where we received tuition waivers for supervising student teachers. I supervised as many as I could and just took grad classes when I had enough waivers to "pay" for them. Really didn't take that long, I finished in 3 years. Also, once colleagues knew I was in grad school, if they had waivers from supervising they weren't using, they would occasionally offer them to me.

This is highly YMMV, of course. But for me, it worked out beautifully.

Rein1987

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Re: Masters Degree Question
« Reply #35 on: September 10, 2014, 12:42:18 PM »
I got graduate fellowship directly from the university, without any additional application. The fellowship covered my first year tuition and provided generous monthly stipend for living expense. The second year I got research assistantship, same coverage as the fellowship, but required 20 hours per week research work.