Financial Aid

SSA makes every effort to help students by offering exceptional scholarship assistance as well as facilitating other forms of financial assistance.

• Last year, more than 95 percent of master's students received merit- and need-based tuition scholarship/gift aid. Each year, SSA awards full and partial tuition scholarships.
• Although scholarship/gift aid is awarded for one year, 99 percent of scholarships/gifts were renewed for second-year students last year.
• Additional scholarship and fellowship opportunities are available for second-year students, including some paid field placements (internships).
• Financial aid to SSA students is comprised of donor-sponsored scholarships totaling nearly $1 million annually, coupled with support from the School’s general operating fund, the annual alumni fund drive, and various student loans funds.  Aid to students from all of these sources totaled more than $4 million in the 2010-2011 academic year.

• All students admitted into the SSA doctoral program receive full funding, which covers up to five years of tuition and fees. In addition to institutional support, SSA doctoral students have been very successful in obtaining competitive fellowships, such as the CSWE Fellowships for Minority Students and NIH Dissertation awards. Through resources such as the Bernece Kern Simon Teaching Fellowship, SSA offers students training and teaching opportunities.

• Students supplement SSA scholarship awards with federal and University loans and work study.
• Applicants meeting the early admission deadline (December 1) who have filled out the FAFSA form, will receive a preliminary letter of federal financial aid eligibility (federal student loans and work-study) within a couple of weeks of their admission decision so that they can make an informed financial decision.

Applicants using regular admission deadlines (January 15 or April 1) who have filled out the FAFSA, will receive the standard letters of federal funding eligibility.