As you proudly watch your child cross the stage to collect their undergraduate diploma, you know that their higher education journey may not be over yet. Long before that celebration, you and your student discussed their wish to go to graduate school to continue the education that is required or optimal for their chosen profession. You’ve helped cover their college expenses with Ohio 529 CollegeAdvantage, but now what?
Use Ohio 529 for grad school
You know that Ohio 529 can be used to pay for qualified costs at any four-year college or university, two-year community college, trade or vocational school, apprenticeship approved by the U.S. Labor Department, or certificate and credential program nationwide that accepts federal financial aid.
But did you know that an Ohio 529 account also pays for your child’s graduate and professional school? The same rules apply as undergraduate programs: The graduate school must accept federal financial aid for you to use an Ohio 529 account to pay for student’s qualified expenses. Check to see if the graduate school is listed on the FAFSA School Code Search. It will be different code than the undergraduate schools. If it is, you can use your 529 funds there.
If the institution has a Federal School Code, then you can use Ohio 529 funds to pay for their qualified expenses for medical, business, law, and medical school costs as well as master’s and doctoral degrees. These include, to name a few:
- Tuition;
- Room and board during any academic period in which the 529 beneficiary is enrolled for at least half of the full-time academic workload according to the eligible education institution. Room and board costs can also include rent for off-campus residency —including apartments and houses— and groceries (non-taxable items only), provided these costs are equal or less than the same room and board allowances from the accredited education institution.
- Mandatory fees;
- Computer equipment and related technology as well as internet services; and
- Books, supplies, and equipment related to enrollment and class schedule.
If your Ohio 529 account has any leftover funds, your savings can continue to be used for grad school expenses.
Other revenue resources
If your student needs to find more funds to pay for graduate and professional school, there are other revenue sources that they can access besides student loans.
Many universities offer Teaching Assistant (TA) and Research Assistant (RA) positions for graduate students for certain departments, which can provide tuition and a monthly stipend for the grad student. Your student should check for postings with the professors and advisors in their chosen graduate studies department.
Just like your family did for their undergraduate degree, fill in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid ( FAFSA) to see what grants and financial aid your student might receive as well as being eligible for a federal work-study program to earn additional income. Most colleges and universities have online portals to apply for these jobs.
There are also graduate-school-specific scholarships. Start the search first with the graduate program where your student will continue their education and the institution’s financial aid or scholarship office. There are also free online scholarship sites to research like Sallie Mae’s Graduate Scholarships, which serves as an aggregate of multiple scholarships sites. It also offers a $5,000 no essay, grad school scholarship. Other scholarship resources include Scholarships.com listing of Graduate Scholarships, U.S. News and World Report, GoGrad, FinAid, and FastWeb to name a few.
Ohio scholarship websites
The State of Ohio also wants to help you search for scholarships. Once your child fills in the online form, the site will match them to over 1.5 million scholarships in Ohio’s database.
The Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) can also connect you to multiple scholarships and grants, like this Choose Ohio First (COF), available throughout the state. As the ODHE website states, some financial aid will be decided based on students’ “areas of study (such as teaching, science, engineering, technology, math and medicine), academic merit, financial need, military status, and more.”
To see if there are any local scholarships, do an online search for graduate school scholarships offered in your area. Regional foundations like the Columbus Foundation can direct students to other organizations which offer scholarships to grad school students. Also, check with your university to see what graduate school specific scholarships it offers. Additionally, local service organizations like Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs also offer graduate school scholarships, based on what the student’s field of study is.
Visit Ohio 529 CollegeAdvantage to start saving today for your child’s future education. An investment in a 529 plan is an investment in your child where every dollar saved today is a dollar that doesn’t have to be borrowed later. Learn, plan, and start with Ohio 529 today at CollegeAdvantage.
