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Searching for Financial Aid
Reference Books and Government Documents
Journal Articles and Electronic Databases
Selected Internet Resources
There are a variety of sources of funding for post-graduate, doctoral, and further research studies after completion of the baccalaureate degree. Grants, awards, loans, stipends, fellowships, scholarships, internships, assistantships and work-study programs are among the many types of financial assistance available.
A first stop for all students should be the UNH Office of Financial Aid. Visit their website for an overview of available programs and, for specific questions, e-mail them at financialaid@newhaven.edu, phone them at 203-932-7315, or stop by in person at 118B Maxcy Hall. You can also contact the Career Development Office at 203-932-7342 (CareerDev@newhaven.edu) and the Experiential Education Office at 203-932-7236.
It is always in the student's best interest to be an educated consumer. New financial aid opportunities arise constantly and some diligent research on your part may well turn up opportunities others are not aware of. This guide will hopefully assist you in the process. If you intend to pursue graduate studies at another institution, be sure to contact the financial aid office there. These offices all have the personnel, the training, the resources, and the greatest familiarity with funding programs unique to their own institutions as well as those programs available to students everywhere.
►Be aware of the categories of agencies and organizations that are potential funding sources. Many have scholarships, reduced loan rates, and other funding opportunities. Eligibility requirements vary and may include student or family membership in an organization, employment with a company, minority status, ancestral background, state of residence and other criteria. These categories include, but are not limited to:
- Academic fraternities and sororities
Think: Alpha Phi Sigma (Criminal justice), Sigma Phi Alpha (Dental hygiene), etc.- Banks and financial institutions
Think: People's United (Bridgeport), NewAlliance (New Haven), Bank of America, etc.- Business, labor, and professional organizations
Think: AFL-CIO unions, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, National Fire Protection Association,
Society for Human Resource Management, etc.- Commercial, credit card, and shopper clubs
Think: American Automobile Association, MasterCard, Costco, etc.- Companies and corporations
Think: Denny's, Kaiser Permanente, McDonald's, Merck, Microsoft, Xerox, etc.- Educational organizations
Think: American Association of University Women, National Education Association, etc.- Government and quasi-governmental agencies
Think: Fulbright Program, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, state agencies and departments of education- Health research organizations
Think: American Cancer Society, Autism Society of America, etc.- Military service organizations
Think: Daughters of the American Revolution, Veterans of Foreign Wars, etc.- Private foundations and charitable trusts
Think: Kellogg, Getty, Guggenheim, Pew, Woodrow Wilson, etc.- Religious and ethnic organizations
Think: Knights of Columbus, NAACP, The Kosciuszko Foundation [Polish ancestry], etc.- Service organizations
Think: Elks, Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis, local chambers of commerce- Sports-related organizations
- Think: American College of Sports Medicine, NCAA, Women's Sports Foundation, etc.
► Use library catalogs (ours and others), electronic databases (available at UNH and elsewhere), online bookstores like Amazon, and Internet search engines like Google to discover funding opportunities by looking for relevant keywords and phrases. Use quotation marks to enclose phrases. There are dozens of possible keyword and phrase combinations. Start with simpler search strings and add terms to make the search more specific, as necessary. Leave out the ‘ands' in Google searches. Some examples:
grants and "higher education"
chemistry and "graduate students" and "financial aid"
scholarships and "graduate study" and "community policing"
government and "financial assistance" and autism and research
post-graduate and fellowships and psychology
kiwanis and research and funding
► The goal here is to identify:
- individual organizations and agencies which provide funding;
- directory listings of such providers, both online and in print publications;
- Websites that offer search-and-approach advice on funding providers.
► See our list of websites and some advice on potential scholarship scams in the Selected Internet Resources section.
Reference Books and Government Documents
Find the books below by call number in the reference collection on the library's entry level; access online government documents from the library catalog by clicking on the ‘Linked Resources' bar after you have selected the item. For documents not online, come to the Information Desk for staff assistance and retrieval.
Application for new fellowships, Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program.
Also in print: GovDocs ED 1.94/3:Application for new grants under the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Program. GovDocs ED 1.2:G 76/15
The college blue book. Vol. 5: Scholarships, fellowships, grants, and loans.
Ref. LA226 .C685 1993The complete grants sourcebook for higher education.
Ref. LB2336 .B38 1995Directory of financial aids for minorities. 1995-97.
Ref. LB2338 .S34Directory of research grants.
Ref. LB2338 .W55 1990Doctoral dissertation research grant program: empowering a new generation of urban scholars.
Gov. Docs. HH 1.2:D 65Federal student aid handbook.
Also in print: GovDocs ED 1.45/4:Financial aid for lifelong learning.
Also in print: GovDocs ED 1.310/2:452365Financial aid for minorities in health fields.
Ref. R693 .F56 1993Financial aid for study and training abroad.
Ref. LB2337.2 .F576
The foundation directory.
Ref. AS911.A2 F65 1998Foundation grants to individuals.
Ref. LB2336 .F598 1993National directory of corporate giving.
Ref. HG4028.C6 N37 1997National directory of scholarships, internships, and fellowships for Latino youth.
Ref. LB2338 .C66 2003Research-study-funding... guide for historians and social scientists.
Ref. H62.5 .U5 R467 2005Scholarships, fellowships, and loans.
Ref. LB2338 .S35 2001Student loans driving you crazy?: A borrower's guide to direct consolidation loans.
GovDocs ED 1.8:ST 9/10/2003
► Look in bookstores and other libraries for more recent editions of the above as well as for the following, which are not in Peterson Library:
Annual register of grant support. National Register, 2007
Cash for grad school: The ultimate guide... Harperresource, 2004
Getting money for graduate school. Peterson's, 2002Paying for graduate school without going broke. Princeton Review, 2005
Journal Articles and Electronic Databases
Searching for periodical articles in subject areas of research interest and academic study can help in your quest for financial support, both in identifying specific funding sources and by giving you a sense of what is happening in funding opportunities in general. Be sure to note the funding sources and names of sponsoring programs given in articles and follow them up online.
Multidisciplinary databases like Academic OneFile can be as useful as subject-oriented ones like CINAHL. You can also browse current issues of individual publications that cover current events in higher education. All periodical titles to which you have access are found by clicking the Journals at the MKP Library link on the library home page. Some major ones are hyperlinked here:
Black issues in higher education
Diverse issues in higher education
Graduate journal of Asia-Pacific studies
Graduate journal of social science
Hispanic outlook in higher education
International higher education
International journal of doctoral studies
International journal of private higher education
Journal of geography in higher education
New directions for higher education
► Access all library databases via links on the library home page or click on the individual databases below. Enter your 16-digit UNH ID number when instructed.
Library Subscription Databases - Grants
IRIS (Illinois Researcher Information Service)
The IRIS Database, updated daily, currently contains over 8,600 active federal and private funding opportunities in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. In addition to funding opportunities for faculty, the IRIS Database also contains fellowships and scholarships for grad students and undergrads. Users can search IRIS by sponsor, deadline date, keyword, and other criteria. Most IRIS records contain live links to sponsor websites, electronic forms, or Electronic Research Administration (eRA) portals.Library Subscription Databases - Periodical Indexes
Academic OneFile
Try graduate and education and finance as search string. Be sure to check under all tabs: Magazines, Academic Journals, Reference, and News.
CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing Allied and Health Literature)
Try "funding source" as a search string and then look at the ‘Grant Information' field for the program that funded the research.Engineering Village 2 - Compendex
Try "engineering education" and funding as search string.
Health and Wellness Resource Center
Try "graduate medical education" as search string.Professional Collection (Education)
Try "scholarships (financial aid)" as search string. Check under all tabs.
ProQuest Education Journals & Wilson Education Abstracts
Try "graduate studies" and scholarships as search string.ProQuest Computing
Try graduate and scholarships as search string.
PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
Try "DE funding" as search string in PsycINFO to get full-text articles from the other two databases. Note the "Grant and Contract Activity" list that is published annually in the July-August issue of American Psychologist.Free Online Databases
Homeland Security Digital Library (U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security)
Try "graduate students" and funding as a search string.PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
Try graduate funding as a search string.ERIC (U.S. Department of Education)
Try "graduate study" and "financial support" and set ‘Search in' to ‘Descriptors.'
This is a selective list of well-known, reputable, and representative websites. There are thousands of separate agency and organization sites, not to mention company websites, on the Internet. Look for ‘Foundation' or ‘Education' or ‘Community Service' links to zero in on funding programs. Directory-type sites, like FastWeb and The Foundation Directory, attempt to canvass the entire universe of financial aid resources, or a segment of that universe within their stated guidelines. As you search, these sites will often begin to duplicate references to the same funding opportunities. Spend a few minutes looking at each of the sites given below before prioritizing them for their usefulness to you. Registration and fees may be required for some services.
►Let the buyer beware! The old Roman proverb Caveat emptor is worth repeating and heeding here. websites that ask for money up front, guarantee getting scholarships for you, or ask for credit card or bank account information, etc. could well be scams, regardless of how official they make themselves look and sound. The FinAid site has tips on how to recognize these scams and how to report them to the proper authorities.
►Take precautions with any personal information entered online, both vis-à-vis the websites you are trusting and the "tracks" you are leaving behind. At public computer terminals, clear search history and passwords in Internet Explorer by clicking on ‘Tools' and then ‘Internet Options' and then ‘Delete all' under ‘Browsing history.'
American Psychological Association
Funding links for psychology students including dissertation research, minority fellowships, and travel awards.
The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
The "granddaddy" compilation of federal assistance programs, many of which are available to individuals.
Covers federal and CT state programs, including the CT Student Loan Foundation; many useful links to community and national programs.
An offshoot of the Monster.com career-search family with info on 1.3M scholarships worth $3B. Links for ‘Scholarships,' ‘Colleges' (profiles and scholarship programs), and ‘Jobs and Internships,' all cover graduate-level students and funding.
An award-winning site, touted by many as a first stop for students for advice, tools, and financial aid information on the Web. Created by Mark Kantrowitz, a noted financial aid and college-planning author.
Under ‘Welcome' drop ‘Information for' down to ‘Individual Grantseekers' for online training and tutorials. Under ‘Tools and Resources' find Foundation Grants to Individuals Online, billed as the only online source of foundations making grants to individuals. Access for $9.95 per month.
Graduate Scholarships, Fellowships, and Loans
From Michigan State University Libraries, a very useful set of Web links, databases, books, and announcements. Databases are mostly limited to use by MSU students.
Grants & Fellowships. From the Humanities Grant Development Office at The University of Kansas, an excellent guide that maps strategy as well as providing useful links for students seeking funding for graduate work.
A federal government site with information on over 1,000 grant programs worth $400B in annual awards for organizations and individuals. By registering once on this site, you can apply to 26 federal grant-making agencies.
An extensive funding-opportunities database that is maintained by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, publishers of the journal Science.
The New England Board of Higher Education
NEBHE is a cooperative effort of all the public colleges and universities in New England to offer significantly discounted tuition rates to residents of the six states who enroll for programs not offered in their home states.
The SLM Corporation is now a private entity, but still subject to government oversight. It is the nation's leading originator of funds for education. The website gives info about government programs as well as many additional loan opportunities.
An online site that doesn't lend but allows you to compare rates and options for federal and private loans. Other such sites include eStudentLoan.com.
The U.S. Dept. of Education's principal site explains the various federal programs available to students and links to the all-important FAFSA form. Look for the ‘College' and ‘Graduate School' links on the left.
Billed as the "student gateway to the U.S. government," this site has many useful links. Look for ‘Graduate fellowships' under ‘Career Development' and ‘Scholarships and Grants' under ‘Pay for your education,' etc.
Any questions? Come to the Information Desk, call us at 203-932-7189, or e-mail us.
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