53. Prioritize need-based financial aid graduate students.

Finance 09.6.24

Here’s what the federal government can do:

  • Congress should provide need-based financial aid to subsidize the cost of graduate education for students with lower incomes.

Here’s what state government can do:

  • State legislatures should appropriate state financial aid to subsidize the cost of graduate education for students with lower incomes.

Here’s what institutional leaders can do:

  • Higher education institutions should limit increases on tuition and fee prices for graduate school programs.
  • Higher education institutions should ensure that prospective graduate students have access to and an understanding of their financial aid options prior to enrollment.
  • Higher education institutions should establish recruitment and retention programs dedicated to students of color seeking to enroll in graduate programs.
  • Higher education institutions should cover the cost of graduate school application requirements for students with lower incomes seeking to continue graduate programs at the same institution.

For many career pathways, an education beyond a bachelor’s degree is a requirement or otherwise leads to career advancement and higher earnings. Students of color may face barriers to enrollment and attaining a graduate degree. Of the 57,596 doctorates awarded across U.S. universities in 2022, 5 percent were awarded to Latino graduates, 4 percent to Black graduates, and less than 1 percent to American Indian or Alaska Native graduates.[i] In addition to racial disparities in degree access and attainment, Black graduate students are more likely than their white peers to graduate from graduate school with loan debt.[ii] Without accounting for undergraduate debt, the average debt of master’s and doctoral degree programs alone is $78,118.[iii]

Programs such as the University of Maryland, Baltimore Meyerhoff Scholars Program seek to recruit, retain, and provide a network of support for students of all backgrounds who plan to pursue doctoral study in the sciences or engineering and who are interested in the advancement of underrepresented professionals in those fields.

[i]Black graduates were awarded 4 percent, Latino graduates were awarded 5 percent, and less than 1 percent of American Indian or Alaska Native graduates were awarded doctorates in 2022. Source: National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Survey of Earned Doctorates. https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/builder/sed?type=chart.

[ii]Hanson, Melanie. “Student Loan Debt by Race,” Education Data, May 13, 2024, https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-by-race.

[iii]Hanson, Melanie. “Average Graduate Student Loan Debt” Education Data, December 8, 2023,
https://educationdata.org/average-graduate-student-loan-debt.