Financial Information for Psychology Graduate Students
Funding graduate school is a common concern. The Department of Psychology at Western Michigan University offers suggestions and options for financial assistance.
Funding
- Scholarship Universe - Internal scholarships
- Private and external scholarships
- Graduate College fellowships and scholarships
- FAFSA - Federal assistance through grants and loans
- Department research or teaching assistantships (full-time [20 hours a week] or half-time [10 hours a week] assistantships available through internal offers).
- Funding is often available in other units at WMU, at local businesses, or through the Graduate College.
- Handshake (assistantships and paid internships)
- Other funding—contact the WMU faculty member you are interested in working with.
Graduate Employment
For over five years, 100% of our master's and doctoral graduates have secured relevant jobs. They are employed in human resources, performance management, process improvement and environmental safety departments in business, industry, medical settings and human service settings, and in consulting firms and instructional design consulting firms.
Tuition cost
Please see WMU’s Office of the Registrar website.
Funding for traveling to conferences
Students may apply for up to $1,000 for research and travel to conferences through the Graduate College; however, funding is competitive and very limited.
Working other jobs while completing graduate school
We do not recommend that students work more than 20 hours week while completing the program for these reasons:
- Many of the required courses are offered during regular business hours, making it difficult for someone who works full time to complete the requirements of the program.
- To take advantage of practicum, applied work and applied research opportunities, students must be available to go to organizational settings during regular business hours.
- Many important extra-curricular educational activities take place during business hours. These include local, state, regional and national conferences, departmental colloquia, and laboratory meetings. Students who are not able to take advantage of these opportunities are placed at a serious disadvantage in terms of their training professional networking.
If you work full-time and would like to be admitted to the program, contact the faculty member with whom you want to work before you apply as to the possibilities.
Cost of housing rentals in the Kalamazoo area
WMU’s housing office provides information about off-campus as well as on-campus housing. A survey of the 2010 graduate students revealed that 92 percent rented. The average rental or mortgage payment is $630 per month (ranging between $400-$1050) and about 31 percent split this cost with a roommate.