About Lipscomb
Financing your Graduate Education
A graduate education is an important investment and you may be concerned about how you will finance it. Therefore, we would like to give you an estimate of the costs you will incur as well as some of the payment options available to students in our graduate programs. The most significant expense is tuition, which will be $825 per credit hour during the 2012-2013 academic year. Since a full-time student typically enrolls for 9 hours, a semester’s tuition would total $7,020. In addition to tuition, you should budget money to pay for books/supplies and a parking decal.
Because our evening/weekend classes will work around most employment schedules and only the MFT program requires students to be full-time, many of our students choose to attend school part time (3 or 6 hours) and work full-time to earn money for expenses. Others also receive assistantships and student loans. Each of these options is described below.
Graduate Assistantships
A limited number of assistantships are available in our department each year. Graduate Assistants typically work 10 hours per week in our department, assisting professors with their teaching and research, tutoring undergraduate students, and assisting the graduate program directors with recruitment activities. In exchange for their work, our graduate assistants get half of their tuition paid by the department. The availability of these assistantships varies from semester to semester depending on faculty needs and the availability of funds. To apply, contact the department for information once you have been admitted as a student.
Federal Student Aid
Graduate students taking 6 or more hours of classes are eligible to receive subsidized and unsubsidized student loans. These loans allow students to borrow money for education-related expenses. For more information about this program, click here. The first step to applying for federal loans is to fill out a FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. You can fill out the FAFSA at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov. It normally takes about a week for this form to be processed and the results available to schools where you have been accepted. Once you are accepted to Lipscomb, our financial aid office will be able to access your information and provide you assistance with processing your loans.
If you have questions about financial aid, you may contact Lipscomb’s Financial Aid Office by phone at 615-966-1791 or 800-333-4358, ext. 1791 and by e-mail at financialaid@lipscomb.edu. The financial aid office is located on the first floor of the Crisman Administration Building.
Tuition Management Systems (TMS)
If you're looking for a convenient, simple way to manage your payments, consider our Tuition Management System (TMS). TMS allows you to spread out your expenses by paying tuition in monthly installments. For a small enrollment fee, you get personal account service, automated account information available 24 hours a day and easy online access to your account through www.afford.com/lipscomb.
Career Development Center
If you are seeking employment to help you pay for your education, Lipscomb’s Career Development Center (CDC) has a variety of services available to students who have been admitted to the university. They provide a continually updated database of full-time and part-time jobs that are available, resume writing assistance, interview preparation, and job search assistance. The CDC is located in the basement of The Bennett Campus Center and is open from 7:45am to 4:30pm each weekday. They can be contacted by phone at 615-966-1792 or 800-333-4358 ext. 1792, and by email at careerdevelopment@lipscomb.edu. Their website is at http://careercenter.lipscomb.edu