How Graduate Students Finance Their Educations

The proportion of graduate students receiving federal financial aid, the average amount they received and the average amount of PLUS loans they borrowed all were higher in 2015-16 than in 2003-4, according to a new report released by the U.S. Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics Friday. The report, "Trends in Graduate Student Financing: Selected Years, 2003-4 to 2015-16," compares data from the last four administrations of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, creating a portrait of the changes in how master's and Ph.D. students finance their educations.