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Office of Admissions - Financial Assistance for Graduate Students Office of Student Financial Aid - Graduate Assistance Graduate College - Sources of Financial Support
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| Cost of Attendance |
As a graduate student at The University of Iowa, you may offset your educational costs in a number of different ways:
- scholarships
- fellowships
- assistantships
- grants
- loans
- part-time jobs
In your search for funding, we encourage you to explore pursuing support from the Graduate College and Your Academic Department or Program, as well as assistance through the Office of Student Financial Aid.
How to Apply
To determine your eligibility for aid through the Office of Student Financial Aid for the 2008-09 academic year, you must provide information about your financial situation by submitting the 2008-09 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). See How to Apply for complete instructions.
Students applying for admission or enrolled in the Colleges of Engineering, Nursing, Medicine, Dentistry, or Law should contact those colleges for information on financial aid programs.
Half-Time or Full-Time Status Requirement
In order to be eligible for the Federal Perkins Loan, the Federal Direct Student Loans, and/or the Work-Study Program, or to maintain deferment status on the Federal Perkins Loan, Federal Family Education Loans, or Federal Direct Student Loans, federal financial aid regulations state that a graduate student must be registered at least "half-time," and in some cases "full-time." The University of Iowa definition of half-time for a graduate student is a minimum registration of five semester hours.
If you are registered for less than five hours, and you are working on your dissertation or thesis or doing research toward fulfillment of your degree requirements, you may be considered a half-time or full-time student. Federal regulations state that a half-time or full-time graduate student is "carrying a half-time or full-time academic work-load as determined by the institution according to its own standards and practices." If you meet the above requirements, obtain from your academic department the Half-Time Equivalency Form and have your department complete and return it to the Registrar's Office. This form must be on file at the Registrar's Office before any financial aid can be applied to your University account and/or before you can receive any disbursement of financial aid. Although your academic department may consider you a half-time or full-time student, this does not mean that the Office of Student Financial Aid will use half or full-time tuition to determine your cost of attendance. The cost of attendance for you is based on the actual tuition that you will pay. Be sure to inform the Office of Student Financial Aid of your actual registration hours.Special Note to Traineeship/Fellowship/Assistantship Recipients
Departmental tuition payments and/or traineeships/fellowship income is used as "financial aid" in determining your overall financial aid eligibility. These will, therefore, reduce your financial need during the academic year in which your traineeship/fellowship is received.
Assistantship income (wages from graduate, teaching, or research assistantships) will not affect your financial aid eligibility during the academic year in which your assistantship is received. These wages, however, are included along with any other income from that calendar year, in determining your financial aid eligibility for the following academic year. Nonresident financial aid awardees who receive assistantships that allow resident classification for tuition purposes may have their aid decreased due to the decrease in their educational cost.