Graduate Tuition Waiver
Subject to funding availability, partial graduate tuition waivers are awarded on a competitive basis by the department to attract and retain diverse and international graduate students to the MSA Program who are believed to be unlikely to enroll without a tuition waiver. Furthermore, the waivers are available to those students who have not received a fellowship, graduate assistantship, or other award funding tuition cost. Tuition waivers cover a portion of tuition only. The student is responsible for paying the remainder of the tuition and the required fees.
The waiver is only applicable for a maximum of three credit hours of graduate accounting credit per semester. Being awarded a tuition waiver in one semester in no way guarantees the awarding of a waiver in a subsequent semester. Applicants must reapply each semester.
If the eligibility criteria are not fully met by the pool of applicants, the department reserves the right to reallocate funds based on natural merit.
Eligibility
To be considered for a graduate tuition waiver, students must:
Be admitted as a student in the Master of Professional Accountancy (MSA) program and be in good standing.
Be enrolled as either a full-time or part-time student for the semester a tuition waiver is applied for.
Have a minimum 3.0 graduate GPA. Newly admitted students must have a minimum 3.2 cumulative GPA (on a 4.0 scale) for the last 60 hours of the undergraduate degree.
Have not received an assistantship or any other awards funding tuition costs.
Contribute towards the university, college, and department goals of enhancing and retaining diversity on campus.
Application Process & Selection Criteria
Students must complete the Tuition Waiver application form found on the Graduate School Website.
A written statement that explains your reason for applying for the tuition waiver based on your contribution towards diversity; academic performance; progress in the program, and/or financial need must also be provided with the application form (500 words max). All tuition waiver applicants must submit the required Statement of Registration Compliance page of the application. The application form, Statement of Registration Compliance, and the written statement should be submitted as an email attachment to mktrimb@ilstu.edu.
The department will review all applications and make award decisions based on: diversity statement, GPA, GMAT (if applicable/optional), demonstrated progress in the program (or promise for progress for newly admitted students), and expressed financial need.
Deadlines
All completed application materials must be received by the following dates:
- August 20th (for Fall consideration)
- January 20th (for Spring consideration)
No summer support will be allocated. No tuition waiver applications will be accepted after deadlines. Award decisions and notifications are made within two weeks after the deadline via postal mail and/or email. The applicants have one week to accept the waiver before it is reassigned.
An email will be sent to all graduate students from the graduate coordinator before the deadline if applications are not being accepted for a specific semester.
Other Graduate Funding
There is information on the Graduate School website regarding two other tuition waiver programs for specific student groups.
International Graduate Tuition Waivers
The Department of Accounting and Business Information Systems does not have scholarships for graduate students. However, the Graduate School website has information on some scholarships or fellowships.
External Scholarships
The Scholarship Resource Office in Financial Aid provides assistance to prospective and current students in identifying scholarship resources that could help fund their educational costs. Please contact the Financial Aid Scholarship Office regarding outside scholarships. The Scholarship Resource Office can be reached at (309) 438-2740.
Student Employment
(Graduate Assistantships and/or part-time student jobs)
Students interested in seeking part-time employment may search both on and off campus employment opportunities using the Illinois State University Jobs website. Graduate students may apply for any graduate assistantships they are qualified for on campus.