Starting next semester, all Hopkins students pursuing master's degrees at the Whiting School of Engineering will receive a 50 percent tuition grant.
Previously, financial aid for master's programs in most engineering departments was determined by merit, with the exception of some combined BA/MS programs. Now, to encourage more students to continue on to earn their master's, grants will be awarded to anyone with a Hopkins undergraduate degree.
According to Nick Jones, Benjamin T. Rome dean of the Whiting School of Engineering, the University's decision is a standardization of their aid policies for all graduate engineering programs.
"What we decided to do was to rationalize and standardize [tuition grants] across the school," he said.
Tuition for a full-time master's degree program for the 2009-2010 school year is $39,150, so the grants will be offering almost $20,000 per student. Jones said that the grants will be especially helpful for students for whom finances are tight.
"We felt that this was a good way to offer some additional support to Hopkins students who were interested in pursuing an advanced degree," he said.
Although the University's decision will ease the burden on students during the recession, the grants are not a temporary measure, according to Edward Scheinerman, vice dean for education and professor of Applied Mathematics & Statistics at the Whiting School.
Students who did not attend Hopkins for their undergraduate degree are also eligible for aid, but it is merit-based and awarded on a case-by-case basis, Jones said.
"What's special about this program is that we're saying that for anyone who's been a Hopkins undergraduate, we're offering the 50 percent tuition grant, no questions asked," he said.
An undergraduate major in engineering is not an eligibility requirement: the only criteria is earning admission to a graduate program in engineering and a bachelor's degree from Hopkins.
"Basically what we're saying is that if you graduated from Hopkins, you clear the merit bar - we know you, we know who you are and we know the sort of education you've had from Hopkins as an undergraduate, so you're automatically over the bar."
Jones noted the similarity between the master's grants and the Baltimore Scholars Program at the undergraduate level, a program that guarantees 100 percent of undergraduate tuition to students who are admitted to Hopkins from a Baltimore public high school.
While some students choose to pursue graduate school to wait out a tough job market, there are other advantages to pursuing an advanced degree, according to Jones.
"I would say that increasingly with the complexity of engineering jobs, master's degrees are well-sought after," he said.
"We think there is a large and a healthy demand out there for master's students, and I anticipate with time that demand will continue to increase."
According to Scheinerman, plans to offer the grants have been ongoing.
"Several months ago we began the process of ensuring that these master's tuition fellowships would be available for all [Hopkins] concurrent bachelor's/master's students and for all [Hopkins] alumni returning for a master's degree," he wrote in an e-mail to the News-Letter.
In cases of five year combined programs, the tuition grant would only be given during the master's component of the program.
Scheinerman also noted that providing the grants would not only benefit students but also the University itself.
"First, we think extremely highly of our own students and would like to encourage them to stay for a fifth year to get a master's degree. The result of this will be even stronger graduates of Hopkins and that adds to our excellent reputation," he wrote.
"Second, we believe that this grant program will make Hopkins more attractive to prospective undergraduate students."
The engineering students spoken to for this article agreed that the program was an incentive for attending graduate school.
Ariella Cohain, a sophomore biomedical engineer major, felt that the grants would attract many Hopkins students to the University's graduate engineering programs.
"Why wouldn't it," she said. "It's half-off at a great engineering program at a great school. I don't see how you could not consider it."
Akshay Krishnaswamy, a freshman chemical and biomolecular engineering major, agreed.
"When I look at applying to grad programs I'll definitely apply here now," he said.
Ryan Harrison, a senior biomedical engineering major, has not considered attending Hopkins for graduate education and plans on pursuing a doctoral degree at another institution.
"I've been at Hopkins since I was 15 years old doing research, so I've been there for about six or seven years at this point. So, it's about time for me personally to move on to another institution," he said.
However, Harrison still felt that the combined degree program could be very popular for students interested in earning a master's.
"If I were going to get a master's degree, the thing that would attract me the most is the combined program," he said. "I think the combination of that last year being half-price and the combined program where it's five years, for the BS and the master's, that's very attractive."
Hopkins students pursuing a doctoral degree will not be eligible for the grants program, even if they earn their master's while pursuing their doctorate.
However, there are other financial aid accommodations for these students. Doctoral engineering students receive an 80 percent tuition grant from the dean's office, and the other 20 percent is usually covered by a stipend or other sources of aid, Jones explained.
The grants also apply to the master's component of the Whiting School's combined BA/MS programs. Scheinerman hoped that the grants would increase student interest in these programs.
Students are not required to apply for the master's program immediately after graduating: They can do so at any time.
Jones also said that the program might provide an incentive for many students who went into the workforce after graduating with their bachelor's degree to return to Hopkins and complete a master's.
"It really represents a commitment to our undergraduates for life, basically," Jones said. "You can come do this when you're 60 if you want."
