Help Your Graduate and Professional Students Find ‘Hidden’ Costs

With the new academic year, many students are preparing to begin graduate and professional studies. USA Funds Life Skills^® can help financial-aid administrators address the unique concerns that their students pursuing advanced degrees face in managing time and money.

The USA Funds Life Skills module, “Embrace New Academic Challenges — Drafting Your Professional Plan,” includes information about costs associated with advanced education. Students may not have considered some of these education-related expenses.

Financial-aid administrators can share the following information about “hidden” costs that graduate and professional students should keep in mind when planning their budgets:

• Admission testing and application fees.
• Additional, prerequisite coursework.
• Photocopying and duplicating.
• Research.
• Professional-membership dues.
• Subscriptions to scholarly publications.
• Tutoring and proofreading.
• On-campus parking fees.
• Computer equipment.
• Costs incurred in meeting program-completion requirements, such as copying a thesis or dissertation.
• Job-search fees, including resume and portfolio development.
• Miscellaneous contributions, such as those required for gifts for faculty or staff and department-sponsored events.

The module also helps students assess the return on their investment in further education, chart a time line for completing their programs of study, and adjust to the graduate- or professional-school experience.

USA Funds Life Skills is a flexible educational program that helps equip postsecondary institutions to teach their students to manage their time and money wisely while they are on campus and after graduation. The curriculum includes materials both for undergraduate students and for graduate and professional students and other adult learners.

To learn more about USA Funds Life Skills, contact your USA Funds debt-management consultant.