The Office of Graduate Admission works with all admitted graduate students to help you understand the costs associated with attendance, funding options, and more. We know you likely have several offers of admission: since each graduate institution handles funding differently, this page serves as an introduction to MICA's scholarship practices. 

At MICA, there are two primary sources of assistance: scholarship and financial aid.  Once you've read through this information, visit our Cost of Attendance and student budget calculator page. 

Scholarship

At MICA, partial, merit-based scholarship is the primary way the Office of Graduate Admission can support your studies. In your admission email, you received information about your scholarship offer and amount. The Graduate Scholarship Committee considers all admitted students for all available funding and includes that with your offer of admission. These awards are offered in the form of tuition credits; they will be applied directly to reduce the cost of tuition. Our scholarships are offered with 'no strings attached,' meaning the scholarship offer is made based on the strength of your application. MICA graduate students are not required to perform any services during their studies to maintain their scholarship. The only condition to maintain your scholarship is that you remain a full-time student in good financial and academic standing. 

Many graduate candidates ask if MICA offers fellowships or assistantships: as a small private college, MICA is not able to offer those types of awards, as many larger universities do. Most fellowships and assistantships require students to work or teach to receive those awards. Larger schools often use their graduate students as a labor force — so they can offer larger awards in exchange for additional work. At MICA, we do not require graduate students to work. 

While MICA does offer graduate student employment, it is not part of the scholarship awarding process. 

External Scholarship

While locating external can be very challenging on the graduate level, it can definitely be worth doing research. External scholarships would be any awards offered by 3rd party organizations that don't have a direct affiliation with MICA. 

While MICA does not officially endorse or publicize any specific scholarships, we have compiled a list of known awards to share. This list is intended to be a source of inspiration more than an exact guide; you can review this list to get a sense of what kinds of awards are available to compliment your own research. 

MICAgrad: External Scholarships (Google Document)

Financial Aid

Financial aid generally refers to federal student funding, most often given to US citizens and permanent residents and other eligible non-citizens in the form of federal student loans. Students can file the FAFSA form to be eligible for federal financial aid, which will usually cover the full cost of attendance minus scholarship funding. MICA's Graduate Financial Aid Counselor,  Ina Nallbani, is available to work with you on any questions about the FAFSA or student loan process. 

International students are not eligible to file a FAFSA form unless they have a co-signer who is a US citizen or permanent resident. Many international banks do offer student loans to assist international students with their studies; we recommend consulting financial institutions in your home country to see what options are available. 

Note on 2024-25 FAFSA Issues

As you may be aware, the Department of Education launched a new FAFSA process for the 2024-25 academic year. The launch has had multiple issues that have slowed the delivery of the FAFSA forms to colleges and universities, resulting in delays in delivering aid packages to admitted students. 

While this delay does affect graduate students, the graduate-level aid process is simpler as grad students do not have access to federal need-based aid programs like Pell Grants. The federal government generally considers graduate students as 'full-need,' meaning they will offer a combination of Stafford and Grad PLUS loans that will cover the full cost of attendance minus scholarship. 

Accordingly, admitted graduate students who have filed an eligible FAFSA can expect to receive a student loan package that combines Stafford and Grad PLUS loans in an amount sufficient to cover the cost of the program. 

Student Employment

As mentioned above, MICA does offer some graduate student employment positions — however, these are not awarded during the admission process. Graduate student employment is completely voluntary. Students are compensated in the form of stipends, which are issued as bi-weekly paychecks. These positions are open to all graduate students, both domestic and international. 

While graduate student employment stipends are definitely helpful they are not large enough to cover the difference between scholarship and cost of attendance. 

Building a Student Budget

When comparing offers from different institutions, it is important to balance the cost of attendance against the scholarship offer you've received. Our counselors in the Office of Graduate Admission are available to talk through costs, scholarships, and other considerations! Before making your final decision, we recommend scheduling some time to chat with a counselor one-on-one. 

Scholarship Appeals

The Graduate Scholarship Committee awards all admitted students with some form of Graduate Merit Scholarship. Awards are based on the application review and the availability of funding. It is possible for admitted candidates to appeal to the Graduate Scholarship Committee to be considered for additional funding; however, there is no guarantee that additional funding will be available. 

When admitted candidates decline their acceptance, a portion of their scholarship may be re-awarded to other candidates. Availability of funding depends for award adjustments depends on how much scholarship has been returned and how much scholarship remains in the awarding budget. Please note that MICA cannot award full-tuition scholarships. Candidates wishing to request additional funding can complete the Scholarship Appeal Form here.