We are your partner for financial assistance.
Applying to graduate school is an exciting process. But we realize it can be overwhelming to understand how to fund a significant investment in your personal and professional future. We are here as a partner to help think through your individual needs together.
We guide you through the different steps to apply for financial aid, student loans, and to our limited merit-based fellowship and scholarship opportunities to help ensure that, if you are admitted to HKS, you can begin your degree program with sufficient resources. At the same time, we also encourage you to research and pursue external funding.
Importantly, we support our current students by providing financial counseling, leading financial wellness workshops, and, through the school, extending opportunities for students to work while enrolled at HKS in modest-paying positions so they can finish their degree programs without feeling overly burdened by debt.
Even with proper planning and support, you may still need to borrow significant resources to fund your graduate school experience. Learn more about our Loan Repayment Assistance Program and the Federal Public Services Loan Forgiveness Program, which support our graduates in modest-paying positions in the public or nonprofit sectors.
Harvard kennedy school Endowment
Though Harvard Kennedy School is housed at Harvard University—known for, among many things, its significant endowment—we have very limited scholarship and fellowship resources.
Harvard’s professional schools maintain their individual endowments. Those with long histories and significant numbers of alumni have substantial endowments. And those established more recently—like Harvard Kennedy School in 1936—have fewer alumni and, as a result, more modest endowments. The majority of our fellowship and scholarship funding is derived from current income and gifts. Nonetheless, we are focused on distributing as much financial assistance as possible to our talented students so they can make a difference in the world by answering the call to public service.
“The Mid-Career MPA Program is a hub for developing substantive relationships with future leaders, alumni, and the Harvard community as a whole. I was honored to be a Mallinckrodt Fellow. The support not only allowed me to advance my own education, but also to push for conversations about the Roma within the broader HKS community.”