Financial Aid in Grad School (a different type of question)

[muzihc]

I have an interesting question.

I know it's unspoken that a rejection of financial aid is considered a "polite rejection" to your entire application, but what if I don't apply for financial aid?

Will that effect me either way? I'm under the impression that schools actually WANT students to receive financial aid in the form of a TA/RA ship; and if I didn't even bother to apply, maybe they'd look less favorably on me. On the other hand, I wonder if some of these places would be happy to just take my money.

I have enough saved that I could afford to go without aid in my first year (I'm planning to go to an in-state school). I'm also planning on getting a masters; not a doctorate.

Please tell me if you know anything about this.

 

[eri]

I don't remember applying for a TA/RA position; I was automatically considered for one. However, that's usually not the case if you're doing a terminal masters - if you're stopping there, you almost always need to pay for it. The programs that offer a PhD usually don't want to accept students for a terminal masters, and the programs that offer a terminal masters usually don't include a TA/RA with that. So you'd expect to have to pay for it yourself anyway.

 

[muzihc]

Thanks, eri.

I tend to catastrophize little things ;\

 

[twofish-quant]

I know it's unspoken that a rejection of financial aid is considered a "polite rejection" to your entire application, but what if I don't apply for financial aid?

I don't think this is the situation. For doctoral programs, the financial aid is included in the package. For terminal masters, most schools don't offer financial aid. Also. most school keep financial aid and admissions separate to various degrees.

There's no reason for the school to be polite. If they don't want you to go, they'll say no.