College-Based Awards

The difference between getting a good job and a great job can weigh heavily on what college you graduated from. The same goes for scholarships: If you decide to further your education beyond your BA or BS, your alma mater may be able to provide significant scholarships if you elect to complete your graduate studies there as well.

Besides the actual financial perks – which can range from a few hundred dollars per semester to over 50 percent of your total tuition cost – there are countless other benefits to returning to your undergraduate stomping grounds. You spent four or more years of your life there so you are already familiar with the campus layout, you know how registration processes work and you may even have an existing rapport with past professors, who can provide a valuable "in" with instructors teaching in the graduate school. These aspects may not immediately factor into your decision-making process but they will certainly give you a leg up on students from other schools.

But back to the money, the real reason you clicked through to this page. Here are some discounts, awards and scholarships available to alumni from colleges across the country:

• Assumption College: This institution offers a 50-percent Standby Discount for Assumption alumni (with bachelor or graduate degrees) and their spouses on a space-available basis.
• Champlain College: Champlain’s Committee for Integrated Studies gives graduate students the opportunity to win a $1,000 scholarship toward their first three-credit course taken within the program.
• Connecticut College: Graduate students are eligible for the Phi Beta Kappa, Delta of Connecticut Scholarship; however, the number of scholarships awarded each year and the size of each scholarship varies with the quality of the applications and the amount of money donated to the fund each year by members of the Delta chapter.
• Lesley University: Lesley Alumni are entitled to a 10-percent tuition reduction on most on-campus courses.
• San Francisco State University: SFSU’s Alumni Scholarship Association grants scholarships of $1,000 each to graduate applicants with at least a 3.25 cumulative GPA and who are enrolled full-time.
• Stanford University: Stanford offers a 15-percent break for members of the Stanford Alumni Association. (FYI: A valid SAA ID number is required to cash in.)
• University of New Haven: UNH Alumni can receive $300 off each graduate course; that amount is upped to $400 for students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher.
• University of Pittsburgh: Incoming or currently enrolled Pitt graduate students who also received his or her undergraduate degree from Pitt are eligible for a one-time $5,000 graduate scholarship.
• University of Scranton: Alumni who have earned a baccalaureate degree are eligible for 50-percent tuition reduction.
• University of Southern California: USC graduate students who have also received their undergraduate degree from the university are eligible for the $2,500 Rockwell Dennis Hunt Scholastic Award.
• University of Wisconsin at Madison: Madison’s Computer Sciences Alumni Scholarships provide a stipend of $2,500 to $5,000 for entering graduate students with high academic achievement.