Communication Sciences & Disorders – Scholarship & Financial Aid

Saint Luke's College of Nursing and Health Sciences Dean’s Scholarship

The Saint Luke's College of Nursing and Health Sciences Dean’s Scholarship awards two eligible students entering the Communication Sciences Disorders Master’s program $10,000 each, which will be dispersed over the two years of the program ($5,000 first year; $5,000 second year). Application details are made available upon acceptance to the program.

Athletics Graduate Assistant 

We have several openings for Athletics graduate assistants. Reporting lines vary depending on sport or assignment. GAs will report to a coach, athletic trainer, or administrator.  Specific opportunities vary from year to year, but in general, we may have GAs serve in the following areas: 

• Coaching (Contact the sport head coach to inquire about an opportunity, unless noted otherwise) 
• Softball
• Baseball
• Women’s Volleyball
• Men’s and Women’s Soccer
• Men's and Women's Basketball
• Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse
• Strength and Conditioning (CSCS) – Contact Assistant AD for Sports Performance and Student Wellness/Head Athletic Trainer 

Administration (Contact Associate Director of Athletics, Michael Koehler, to inquire about these opportunities): 

• Event Management (setting up, breaking down, and working at game events)
• Event Marketing and Promotion (social media and website work to enhance presence and awareness of game events and team accomplishments)
• Event Live Streaming (event production or camera operator of broadcasts of game events)

Use the Athletics Staff Directory to contact the coaches or administrator. 

*All GAs are expected to coordinate expectations and schedules with the academic and clinical faculty.

CSD Student Work Opportunities

Assistantships - Departments within the Saint Luke's College of Nursing and Health Sciences have paid assistantships available to students for assistance with faculty research, administrative tasks, departmental initiatives, or teaching assistance. 

Paid Work Study- Undergraduate and Graduate students can qualify for work-study funds and assist with faculty research, administrative tasks, departmental initiatives, or as a TA.   

Positions are open for applications typically at the beginning of each semester. Please reach out to the department directly for more information on openings. 

Financial Aid
Most students need financial assistance to fund a graduate education. Unfortunately, there are fewer scholarships and grants for graduate education compared to undergraduate. That means that most students borrow money to help pay for their education while in our CSD program. This short document will give you some of the basics of borrowing money to fund your studies in the CSD program. You can find more information on the web or by contacting the Financial Aid office at Rockhurst at 816-501-4600.

“Cost of Education”
Students are eligible to borrow enough money each year to cover the “Total Cost of Education”. This is the sum of tuition and fees plus an estimate for books, room & board, transportation and personal living expenses. 

Although it is possible to borrow up to the cost of education, we strongly encourage you to borrow only as much as you absolutely need to fund your education and don’t take on extra debt if at all possible.

Student Loans
Graduate students typically borrow money to support their education through the federal Stafford loan program and the federal GradPLUS loan program.

Students can borrow up to $20,500 per year through the Stafford program. Since this is less than the total cost of education for the first two years in the program, most students borrow additional money from the GradPLUS program during those years.

Money borrowed through the Stafford program is loaned at fairly low-interest rates. Interest begins accruing while the student is in school, but the student is not responsible for paying any of the loan or interest back until after graduation. Loans through the GradPLUS program are similar in that they have fairly low-interest rates and accrue interest without an obligation to begin repayment until after graduation. 

(The Stafford program used to differentiate between "subsidized" and "unsubsidized" loans. Subsidized loans did not accrue interest while the student was in school. However, the federal government recently eliminated the Stafford subsidies, so all Stafford loans now accrued interest while the student is in school.)

For more information on these two programs, see:
staffordloan.com
studentaid.ed.gov

Also, become familiar with:
studentaid.gov

This is the web site that you’ll use to track information, sign electronic authorization forms and do loan counseling.

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
If you’ve never applied for financial aid before, you’ll need to submit a FAFSA so that Rockhurst can verify that you are eligible for financial aid. You can start the process online at: fafsa.ed.gov

Financial aid for your first semester at Rockhurst (summer) will be covered by “last year’s” FAFSA, while financial aid for fall, spring and next summer semesters will be covered by “this year’s” FAFSA. For example:

• Summer 2021 will be covered by the FAFSA submitted in 2020 (for the 2019 earnings year)
• Fall 2021, Spring 2022 and Summer 2022 will be covered by the FAFSA submitted in early 2021 (for the 2020 earnings year)

"External" Scholarships
FastWEB (Financial Aid Search Through the Web) is the largest and most complete scholarship search on the Internet. It provides free access to a searchable database of more than 400,000 private sector scholarships, fellowships, grants and student loans. Students are encouraged to seek scholarship funds from outside of Rockhurst.

"Internal" Scholarships and Non-Loan Financial Aid
At this time, our department offers a few “internal” scholarships. Most are in the neighborhood of $500 to $2,500 dollars and none are available prior to beginning the program.

Be Smart, Be Frugal, Plan Ahead
Our Financial Aid office encourages students to take out as little Financial Aid as possible since you’ll eventually pay it all back…with interest! We encourage students to think ahead about how much they will have to budget each month after graduation to make loan payments. Web sites like StudentLoans.gov and BankRate.com have calculators to help estimate monthly payments as long as you know:

• How much money you have (or will you have) borrowed
• How many years you will have to pay off your loan(s) (typically anywhere from 10-25 years)
• How often you will make payments on your loan(s) (typically monthly)
• What interest rate you will pay on your loan amount(s)

To answer questions about what criteria are needed to renew federal, state, and institutional awards, view Eligibility and Scholarship Renewal.

Find Out More

Office of Admission and Financial Aid
1100 Rockhurst Road
Kansas City, Mo. 64110
(816) 501-4600
(800) 842-6776
financialaid@rockhurst.edu