Just a decade ago, a Bachelors degree was your ticket to a good career and opportunities for promotion. Today, it is barely enough for an entry level job in the office. Some companies, especially specialist IT firms, will only hire Masters and PhD degree holders. In certain fields of work, the job market is being flooded by foreign professionals with postgraduate degrees. One example is IT, where there are many Indian professionals with Masters degrees subsidised by their government. While there are no federal government grants to subsidize postgraduate college education for US citizens, women, at least, have some scholarships available to them courtesy of several non-profit organizations.
These Masters and MBA grants for women tend to have rather strict criteria. Unlike two or three decades ago, in the 80s and 90s, there is less money being awarded now. Today, the gender gap in both the workforce and higher education has greatly narrowed, and is no longer seen to be socially destabilizing. This is why there are fewer charities for women in the US, and fewer of those remaining are still offering postgraduate scholarships.
However, it is actually easier for a woman to get postgraduate college education nowadays. In the past, if you did not want to study your Masters or MBA degree full-time, your only alternative was on-campus evening classes. This, of course, is a serious problem for mothers who have to take care of their children. But the great increase in online university courses has changed all that. The great flexibility offered means that any woman with children can still find time to fit in her studies. The greater public acceptance of online college degrees also means that more organizations offering these MBA grants for women are also awarding their scholarships to women taking these online degrees.
Generally speaking, two different types of organizations award postgraduate scholarships for women. The first are women's charities. One example is the Philanthropic Educational Organization. They have three main educational aid programs, one of which is a scholarship program for women pursuing postgraduate education, and another is an alternative student loan program (4% interest for $10,000).
The second type of organization offering Masters/MBA grants for women are women-only professional associations and women's chapters of professional associations. Organizations like these perceive an imbalance in the number of men and women in their field of work, and try to get more women involved. An example of this are the Education Foundation For Women In Accounting and the Computing Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research.
Of course, there are also other parties not so easily classified, like the Selected Professions Fellowships. This organization offers scholarships to women studying postgraduate courses in fields dominated by men. As at 2010, they consider these to be Mathematics, Engineering, Computer Science and Architecture. For minority women, they also offer scholarships for postgraduate degrees in Law, Medicine and Business Administration.
Something that many prospective postgraduate students overlook are government-subsidized student college loans like the Perkins and Stafford loans. Such loans are often undertaken for undergraduate studies, but tend to be forgotten for postgraduate studies. Just like for a Bachelors degree, a Perkins loan for a Masters degree is offered by the college and a Stafford loan is offered by a private lender (e.g. a bank). Because these loans are subsidized and/or guaranteed by the federal government, the interest rate is lower than a commercial student loan and the repayment terms are also more favorable.
While the gender gap in the workplace has narrowed, women still need to work harder and have better qualifications than men to get ahead in their careers. With the postgraduate degree and MBA grants for women available today, it makes sense to get at least a Masters degree.
Article by Katherin T. of Singlemomhelp.info
