<p>I know of a Questbridge student who will graduate from Oxford (UK) this spring and who has been accepted (so far) into Masters programs for political science at Columbia and UChicago, as well as Georgetown Law; he still has to hear from Stanford. Questbridge students for undergrad receive full fare, but what kind of fin aid is available for them for grad/law school? Anything? I’m just on the outside looking in, so I don’t know the details of his acceptances, but I do know that money is a major problem. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>He should ask qu4estbridge for advice. My guess is he is on his own, esp for Law, and he should look into the poor results for law students in salary vs loans. but for grad school you can get some loans at lower rates. better to look for funded programs.</p>
<p>CarolynB, Questbridge is a College Match Program. They do not provide the UG funds for the students, the schools that admit the students do. The purpose of Questbridge is to help identify high achieving, low income students and help them through the process of applying to highly selective schools by providing them with an additional application and sometimes other tools such as personal telementoring. In response to your OP, no, there is no financial assistance through Questbridge for grad or professional school.</p>
<p>GA2012MOM, thanks for the clarification of Questbridge program’s role. I wasn’t asking if Questbridge actually funded the students, just what resources could he check out, where to go for advice, what tack should he take with the grad/law schools, etc.? Would grad schools be more willing to work with him as a Questbridge scholar regarding fin aid, TAships, and work/study (if he asked) than with regular applicants? He applied for PhD programs, so I suspect that because he’s coming from Oxford, the schools may not be quite sure what to do with him and don’t want to take a chance on funding him for a PhD program until he’s shown he’s capable of the work.</p>
<p>I don’t think Questbridge will be any particular consideration for graduate admissions. The process is effectively entirely merit-based - financial need is not considered in funding decisions.</p>
<p>That said, if he’s graduating from Oxford, I wouldn’t worry about “schools not being sure what to do with him” when he applies for graduate school.</p>
<p>* Would grad schools be more willing to work with him as a Questbridge scholar regarding fin aid, TAships, and work/study (if he asked) than with regular applicant*</p>
<p>No, no likely. Questbridge is an undergrad application program, and being a Questbridge scholar in undergrad doesn’t necessarily have any advantage in graduate school, especially in applying for PhD programs. As polarscribe said, the process is entirely merit based.</p>
<p>For the two MAs in poli sci and the law degree, he is unlikely to get any financial aid aside from loans. Sometimes law schools have one or two scholarships set aside for their top applicants, but they are very difficult to get and not all schools have them. For the MA, there’s a small chance he can get a research assistantship or a teaching assistantship, but those positions are also usually very limited.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. I don’t know if he got any merit aid; if he did, I imagine it wasn’t substantial. I was worried the only option was loans and your comments have borne out my fears. Ugh! We’ll see how this situation develops. Thanks again.</p>