Five Masters Degrees with Scholarship Opportunities
One of the real challenges when you’re trying to shape an educational path to match career aspirations is finding the money to make it work. That’s what this website is about; it’s virtually impossible to get through college without substantial debt. For many of us that can mean foregoing a graduate education because of debts we’ve incurred completing an undergraduate degree. While scholarships shouldn’t be the deciding factor in your selection of a career, it is nevertheless worthwhile to know what fields of graduate study are most likely to have scholarship or fellowship dollars available. Here are five examples of professional fields for which there are many scholarship opportunities.
1. Nursing Degrees including The Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree have an extraordinary number of scholarship opportunities because so many organizations and agencies have chosen to act in support of the effort to reduce the nursing shortage in the United States. One of the funding opportunities for this program is the Health Resources and Services Administration which provides scholarships to graduate and undergraduate nursing students in exchange for a an agreement from the student to work in a designated facility with an acute nursing shortage for at least two years.
2. Engineering Degrees are supported by several government agencies in the United States which are willing to underwrite engineering educational efforts including various Master of Engineering degrees, also in exchange for work at one of the government agencies that need engineering talent. These programs include the SMART program co-sponsored by the American Society for Engineering Education which is a collaboration with the Department of Defense, the NASA Aeronautics Scholarship Program, and the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program.
3. Teaching Degrees have dozens of scholarship programs open for students interested in a career in the classroom. Probably the most important scholarship initiatives in teaching come from the U.S. Department of Education, which has several programs that offer student loan forgiveness programs to teaching students who upon graduate will agree to teach in a school or district with an acute teacher shortage. The Master of Arts in Teaching and the Master of Education degrees both qualify for loan forgiveness for Stafford Loans.
4. Psychology Degrees are eligible for scholarships from several minority organizations that distribute millions of dollars in undergraduate and graduate scholarships each year. These include the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and several minority scholarship sources from the federal government including the Pell Grants. The National Association of School Psychologists sponsors one of the annual scholarship programs underwritten by private organizations.
5. Accounting Degrees are among the most popular undergraduate and graduate degrees on campuses in the United States today. There are several graduate level options that mix accounting with finance, including the Master of Accounting degrees offered both online and on most traditional campuses. The scholarship opportunities come from privately endowed trusts, from businesses and consulting firms, and from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Related Articles
- What careers or job opportunities are open to recent graduates of graduate schools of engineering who have specialized and earned their degrees in mechanical engineering? - Mechanical engineering is one of the oldest disciplines in the field of engineering and, as such, one of the broadest as well. Many people, when they think of engineering in general, think of mechanical engineering first. It applies the principles of physics and the material sciences to the analysis, design, [...]
- Should I apply for every scholarship I find online? - Some people think that the spread option is their best play when it comes to scholarships but it isn’t actually the right move. You should find scholarships that you qualify for and that will be helpful in your education. Those are the ones that you should apply for. Don’t apply [...]
- Will a Masters Degree in Public Health deliver greater career opportunities? - The vast majority of jobs in public health require an individual to have a graduate degree in this field. Professionals with a graduate degree will definitely have an edge over other job applicants since they are likely to have a broader knowledge of social policies affecting local, national, and international [...]
- Can I use scholarship search websites to find free money for graduate school? - Usually, yes. You have to remember though that a lot of these websites are in this for a profit or are trying to scam you so that they can make money. Always look for legitimate resources that are actually going to help you find money for graduate school. Some websites [...]
- There are scholarships for aspiring social workers. How can I get a scholarship for a graduate social work program? - If you are getting ready to apply to graduate social work programs, then you are going to want to make sure that you can get some money to study. If you are going in as a PhD student, then you can be sure that you will be able to teach [...]
