PAYING FOR YOUR DEGREE
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
The Most Affordable And Best Approach
CIHS works hard to have the most affordable tuition within our area of the academy, by far.
In addition, we offer the ability to spread each quarter’s tuition payments out (our Deferred Tuition Plan). This way you don’t have to make one large up front payment each quarter if that doesn’t work for you.
We do this to help you minimize the debt you otherwise might have to take on to afford your degree.
Students often don’t realize how costly their degree becomes when they take on debt, and especially federal student loan debt that also includes funds for living expenses. Although tuition might be in the tens of thousands, when the portion of the loan that covers living expenses is added in, students can literally graduate with over a hundred thousand dollars of debt.
This simply is not necessary for most students.
By keeping our tuition low, having 10 week classes so you can start and finish sooner, and gearing our learning to adults with busy lives we’re able to help you realize your dreams far more effectively and economically. This directly translates into giving you the best possible trajectory for success after you graduate.
Deferred Tuition Plan
For some people it makes sense to pay each academic quarter’s full tuition in advance, as is traditionally done. For others, it makes more sense to spread out that payment over the quarter. The Deferred Tuition Plan does just that, and is available for all students, except I-20/F-1 international students who are studying on campus in the U.S.
Under this plan, 1/3 of the tuition is paid at the time of class registration, 1/3 by the beginning of the fourth week of the term, and 1/3 by the beginning of the eighth week. For the Deferred Tuition plan, there is an additional charge of $8 per unit. For more information, contact admissions if you’re a prospective student, or the registrar if you’re a current student.
Student Loans
Some students take the path of student loans. It might be the only way to afford college at the desired pace, or a financial strategy because of current interest rates. It’s important to note that CIHS does not directly offer student loans, nor do we participate in most federal or state financial aid programs (including Title IV and the GI Bill for Veterans), however there are many sources for private student loans. Private student loans are typically offered by banks, credit unions and specialized lenders. The best options change all the time, so we recommend performing an internet search for “top student loans” or something similar when it is time for you to begin your journey. Some established websites like Forbes maintain good, up-to-date guides with lists of providers they recommend.
Student Grants and Scholarships
CIHS occasionally offers scholarships directly to students, but this is rare because our focus is on keeping tuition maximally affordable for everyone. Often schools will have higher tuition, and then give “scholarships” to bring the costs down. Our priority is making college affordable for all of our students.
There are a huge number of non-CIHS grants and scholarships available for students. In fact, there are so many that it’s estimated that over $2 billion goes unclaimed each year!
They are given away for an astonishing variety of reasons, and can relate to: gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, financial need, disability, military or employer affiliation, standardized test scores, grade point average, where you live, heritage, hobby interests, sports interests, degree type, academic area, research you want to conduct, and many more.
When searching for grants and scholarships, it’s best to use as many search terms as possible, or widely browse categories to see which ones you’re a good fit for as you never know which ones will work in your favor.
There are many great grant and scholarship programs, search engines, and so on depending upon your area of the world. Some of the most well known include:
Additional Resources...
To provide youwith even more information on outside scholarships and grants, CIHS has compiled the following list of additional top resources that could be utilized by U.S. graduate students (U.S. citizens and Green Card holders) to help with their scholarships and grants search.
International graduate students should visit Edupass.org for a list of scholarship programs that are specific to international graduate students seeking to finance their graduate studies in the U.S.A.
Credello Scholarship
Click here for details
GoGrad
GoGrad helps graduate students by providing tips and advice on how to pay for school, including federal grants for graduate school and grad school scholarships.
GoGrad also lists plenty of niche scholarships, including options for women and veterans. The platform clearly shows how much each scholarship is worth, what the sponsoring organization is and what the deadline to apply is. It also lists the requirements for each application, such as submitting an essay or planning to study in a certain field.
Unigo
Unigo is a site for high school seniors and current college or graduate students. Aside from providing resources to help you decide which school is best for you and how to make the most of your education, it also has a searchable database of graduate school scholarship opportunities. You can sign up for a free account to be notified of new scholarships.
The company also awards its own scholarships. You could receive up to $10,000 by applying for Unigo awards. To date, Unigo has distributed nearly $500,000 in scholarships.
Besides the usual scholarships for excellent students, Unigo also has quirky ones. For example, the company offers a $2,000 Zombie Apocalypse Scholarship to the person who can come up with the best survival plan for if zombies were to overrun your school.
Scholarship America
Scholarship America states it believes that every student deserves a college education, regardless of their financial situation. The organization gives students the resources and information they need to go to school without ending up in significant debt.
Scholarship America has distributed over $4.2 billion in scholarships to more than 2.5 million college and graduate school students to date. The organization has dozens of scholarship opportunities available, including options specifically for grad school students.
While other organizations offer smaller graduate school scholarships, Scholarship America offers large awards. Past recipients of the organization’s Dream Award have received an average of more than $24,000.
Scholly
Scholly is a mobile app that makes finding grad school scholarships easier. According to Scholly, hundreds of thousands of students have used the app to identify over $70 million in scholarship opportunities. You can’t apply for scholarships on Scholly (yet), but the app can help you find money you would have otherwise missed.
Once you create an account on Scholly, which is available for iOS and Android smartphones and online, you can find scholarships that are a good fit. You can filter results by grade level or major, making it easy to find graduate-level scholarships. The app also helps you keep track of deadlines and prioritize which scholarships to apply for.
Sallie Mae’s Graduate School Scholarship Search
The student loan company Sallie Mae has its own tool that helps you find graduate school grants and scholarships. Sallie Mae’s database features over 950,000 graduate scholarships, totaling up to $1 billion in value.
Once you register for a free account, create your profile by entering details like your area of study, interests and skills. You also can set up alerts when new scholarships become available or search by field, region, demographic and school.
Big Future
Big Future is a database is created by The College Board, a not-for-profit organization that helps students prepare for a successful transition to college via its own programs and the broader education community through its advocacy for educators, students and schools.
Although there aren’t scholarship opportunities specifically for graduate students, you can search under the “non-degree” option in the database to find general funding opportunities. Listings may include the scholarship sponsor, the award type, the minimum or maximum scholarship amount and the application deadline.
Council of Graduate Schools
The Biofield Research Fellowship Program
For researchers interested in exploring the science of subtle energy and biofield healing. For more information about the program, selection criteria, and how to apply, please visit www.biofieldfellowship.org.
Professional associations
Although there isn’t an app or a snazzy database to find them, you can identify valuable graduate school grants and scholarships via professional associations. To encourage students and professionals to continue their education and improve their expertise in a given field, these groups give out thousands of dollars each year.
For example, if you’re a member of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), you can apply a variety of scholarships for academic achievement.