Tuition and Financial Aid for the Online Health Law and Policy Programs

Junaid Syed: Hey there, everybody! Thanks so much for joining. We'll give it just a couple seconds here, a few seconds to kick things off so we can have, give folks time to log on.

Junaid Syed: All right, hello everyone, welcome. Thank you for taking time out of your day to join us. Today we're going to talk about Hofstra Law's online health law and policy programs.

Junaid Syed: But we're also going to spend a good amount of time addressing something that is obviously an important part of the decision to go back to school, which is how to pay for it. We know that pursuing a graduate education is a significant commitment, not only in terms of your time and energy, but financially as well. So our goal today is to give you a better understanding of, what the program…

Junaid Syed: look like themselves, what the online experience feels like, and then really demystify the tuition, financial aid, and payment process. Hopefully by the end of our time together, you'll have a much clearer picture of both the academic opportunity

Junaid Syed: and financial, financial considerations involved. With that said, we'll turn our attention to the agenda for today. A quick look at what we'll cover. So.

Junaid Syed: I'm going to start by giving you an overview of the Healthline policy programs, and explaining some of the differences between the various offerings, the MA, the LLM, and the Graduate Certificate. We'll talk a little bit about what it actually means to be an online student at Hofstra, particularly for those of you who may be balancing graduate school with full-time career, family responsibilities, and so forth.

Junaid Syed: From there, we'll transition into tuition and financial aid. We'll talk about the different ways that students can finance the program, some of the resources that are available to help you think through those options.

Junaid Syed: We'll also cover admissions information, important dates that are coming up ahead of the spring semester, which begins in January, and we will leave time for questions at the end. Please feel free to jot down questions as we go. There's a good chance that we'll answer some of them during the presentation, but we'll make sure there's an opportunity to address anything that's still outstanding during the Q&A portion.

Junaid Syed: portion. You can use the Q&A function to send your questions in, and we'll be happy to answer those.

Junaid Syed: With that said, my name is Junaid Syed. I'm an Admissions Outreach Advisor. I work with prospective students. I'm one of the first people that they speak with when they begin exploring one of these programs. My role is to really help you understand your options, talk through your background and goals.

Junaid Syed: And help you navigate the admissions process if you decide that Hofstra is the right next step for you. And I'm joined today by my colleague, Dana, so I'll toss it over to Dana to introduce herself. Hi, Dana.

Dana Shluger: Hi, thank you everyone for joining us this afternoon. So my name is Dana Shluger, I'm the Associate Director of Financial Aid for the Law School. I've been working at Hofstra Law for a little over 7 years now, but I've been in higher ed for about 16. So I am your point of contact for anything related to financial aid, student account matters.

Dana Shluger: Really anything that has to do with money and financing your education.

Dana Shluger: You definitely want to talk to me about that.

Junaid Syed: Awesome, thanks for saying hello, Dana, and I think people will be comforted to know that they don't just have to take my word for it when it comes to the money portion of the presentation. We brought in the experts, so…

Junaid Syed: really excited for the audience here to get to hear from you a little bit later. So let's just go through some of the program overviews for now, breaking down the three different options, which…

Junaid Syed: is really one of the first questions that I receive is which program is actually right for me. The Master of Arts in Health Law and Policy is designed for professionals who do not already hold a law degree. It is a 30-credit program consisting of 11 courses that you complete over the course of 2 years.

Junaid Syed: What's important here is that you do not need to be an attorney to study health law. In fact, this program can be particularly relevant for professionals working in areas where healthcare and regulation increasingly overlap.

Junaid Syed: Turning our attention to the LLM in Health Law and Policy, this is specifically designed for law school graduates who already hold a JD. It's 25 credits, that you complete over 9 courses.

Junaid Syed: across 18 months, so a year and a half to complete. If you dig into the details, the only real difference between the MA and the LLM

Junaid Syed: is, the MA program starts with two foundational courses that kind of set the stage for everything else that will come later in the program, and those two introductory or core courses are considered, or are important for non-attorneys to take.

Junaid Syed: The LLM program does not start with those two classes, because everybody who's in that program already has a JD or equivalent.

Junaid Syed: So it's unnecessary for them to take those classes.

Junaid Syed: And then we have the Graduate Certificate in Health Law and Policy, which is really available for both lawyers and non-lawyers. This is the shortest option. It's 4 courses that you complete, over roughly 5 to 7 months, certainly under 8 months to complete the graduate certificate. The certificate option can be particularly attractive for someone who wants

Junaid Syed: Focused exposure to health law without immediately committing to a full master's degree.

Junaid Syed: What I really love about the certificate option, and students that I've worked with who have enrolled in that program, is that the credits that they earn

Junaid Syed: in the graduate certificate, as long as they maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher, those credits are directly applicable to the MA or the LLM program.

Junaid Syed: Which is really nice. So if you're in good academic standing, once you've earned 9 units of credit and completed those 4 classes, you can, jump into one of the other full master's degree programs and not have to repeat any coursework, which is great, so…

Junaid Syed: Yeah, those… those are… that's kind of a high-level overview of the three, health law and policy offerings. So, hope that was helpful.

Junaid Syed: We'll turn our attention now to.

Junaid Syed: a bit of a program overview. So, there are a few characteristics that all three of these programs share. First of all, they're 100% online and fully asynchronous. And that's an important distinction. Asynchronous just means that you aren't required to log into a classroom, say, every Tuesday at 6pm.

Junaid Syed: For example, there's flexibility built into the experience, which is particularly important because many of the students enrolled in these programs are full-time working professionals, many of them working within the healthcare sector, and so they have really demanding schedules, they need that level of flexibility in order to pursue one of these credentials.

Junaid Syed: Another important component is who you're learning from. The faculty include practicing attorneys and healthcare officials, and some of whom teach at Hofstra's School of Medicine.

Junaid Syed: The program has a partnership with Northwell Health, which is one of the largest hospital systems in the region, and when you look at the curriculum, this isn't a general degree with one or two healthcare courses added into it. The curriculum is specifically immersed in health law, and I know we really like to use those

Junaid Syed: the words fully immersive when we talk about these programs, because that's really what they are. Health law and policy is the sole focus, of these programs.

Junaid Syed: The larger objective is to build what we describe as legal literacy, the ability to better understand and navigate the legal and regulatory environment that surrounds healthcare today. For professionals who work in healthcare, compliance, administration, policy, risk, or related fields.

Junaid Syed: That can add an entirely different dimension to the expertise that they already bring to the table.

Junaid Syed: Let's talk a little bit about the online experience. Whenever… Oh, here we go.

Junaid Syed: The online experience. Okay, whenever I talk with prospective students about an online program, one thing that I like to emphasize is that flexibility doesn't mean that you're simply handed material and left on your own. The program is asynchronous, so you have flexibility around when you complete your work, but there are still multiple ways to engage, which is something that I love to talk about, and

Junaid Syed: you know.

Junaid Syed: one of the ways that you can engage is that the learning modules that you're exposed to in this program are interactive. There are discussion boards that are collaborative.

Junaid Syed: You have access to Hofstra's digital library, and the platform is also mobile optimized, so you can kind of take it with you on the go. A lot of the candidates that I speak with travel, for work, or just personally, and, you know, it's incredibly important for them to be able to

Junaid Syed: you know, have access and work toward completing coursework so that they can make progress with the programs despite, you know, whatever is going on in their lives. There are optional

Junaid Syed: weekly live virtual sessions, which are incredibly important, I think, for many of the students in the program, if you are able to attend. If you are not able to attend.

Junaid Syed: then recordings are available, to, you know, students who are enrolled in the classes, but just couldn't make it to a live synchronous session. But that is just another opportunity to interact, get some screen-to-screen time with your professor and other students who are enrolled in the same class as you. You'll have access to faculty, technical support, career services, there are networking opportunities.

Junaid Syed: You'll also have a dedicated student success team. When you're applying to a program, you'll work with me throughout the application process. Once you're admitted to the program, I would actually introduce you to a student success coordinator who will be helping with your onboarding and providing support to you throughout your time as a student.

Junaid Syed: At Hofstra Law. So, it's a really high-touch environment, incredibly supportive, and, you're kind of surrounded by people who are, you know, encouraging you, toward your goal of completing one of these programs.

Junaid Syed: That last piece about Student Success Coordinator is, I think, worth highlighting, because graduate school can feel very different when you're returning after being in the workplace for

Junaid Syed: 10, 15, sometimes 28, 30 years, you're not expected to figure everything out by yourself. There are resources that are available to you throughout the student experience to help you navigate the program.

Junaid Syed: The idea here is really to combine the flexibility that people want from an online program with the support and resources that you would expect, from an institution like Hofstra University.

Junaid Syed: So, we'll turn our attention now to the tuition and financial aid, portion of the presentation. Just a quick breakdown on tuition. The per credit cost for all three of these programs is $14.85.

Junaid Syed: Federal financial aid is something that Dana will talk about on a subsequent slide. If you are using federal financial aid, there's a Hofstra University-specific school code for FAFSA, which you see on the screen here, 002732. I know that Dana will be addressing the payment plan options that are available as well. So, with that said, I'll stop and just hand it over to Dana.

Junaid Syed: It's all yours, Dana.

Dana Shluger: Thank you. Okay, so, as Junaid mentioned, the cost per credit is $1,485, so that works out to be $7,425 per 5 credits.

Dana Shluger: Because the way the program is structured, you'll take 5 credits each semester. So again, $7,425 per semester for the 5 credits.

Dana Shluger: If you are interested in utilizing federal loans to cover the cost of the program, you can submit the FAFSA. So if you're interested in the spring semester, that would be the 2026-2027 FAFSA, and you would submit that at studentaid.gov.

Dana Shluger: So, if you apply and are admitted, you'll receive a financial aid package after you're registered for the semester. And then at that point, that's when we review your federal loan eligibility. So, as long as you have not exhausted your eligibility and you still have graduate-level loan eligibility remaining.

Dana Shluger: We would then offer you an unsubsidized loan for a maximum of $5,740 per semester. Now, that number's probably different than what you've seen in the past. The standard per semester for full-time enrollment, is $10,250.

Dana Shluger: But, due to some new federal regulations that went into effect this summer, we are required to prorate loans for less than full-time enrollment.

Dana Shluger: So what we do is we take the 5 credits that you will be enrolled in, divide that by the standard 9 credits for full-time, and that gives us eligibility of about 56%, which is where we get that $5,740.

Dana Shluger: So, being that the maximum you can borrow is $5,740, and the cost per semester is going to be $7,425, there is going to be a gap remaining.

Dana Shluger: Federal loans do have an origination fee of 1.057%. That means that the Department of Education takes that small percentage before they disperse the funds to the school.

Dana Shluger: So if you are borrowing the maximum, what actually disperses to your student account per semester is $5,680.

Dana Shluger: So this leaves a balance remaining due per semester of about $1,745.

Dana Shluger: So, you can either just pay that in full out of pocket, you can apply for a private loan, we do have payment plan options, and so if you are interested in a payment plan, whether that's for that small balance or for the full cost of the semester, you can certainly enroll in one. We have a standard 5-month payment plan for the fall and the spring semester.

Dana Shluger: So what that means is It takes the balance and splits it equally into 5 installments.

Dana Shluger: So, if you're paying in full per semester, you're looking at about $1,485 per month.

Dana Shluger: If you are borrowing the maximum loans and then enrolling in a payment plan for the rest, that's going to be about $349 a month.

Dana Shluger: The fall payment plan starts in June and goes through October. The spring payment plan begins in November and goes through March.

Dana Shluger: So, don't be alarmed if you are admitted after November, or you need to catch up, and the payment plan just doesn't look like it works for you. That's one good thing about having a dedicated person for financial aid and student accounts, is I will work with you. So, if the standard payment plan, the dates, and all of that just doesn't seem feasible for you, just talk to me about it, and we can figure out an alternative payment

Dana Shluger: agreement.

Dana Shluger: It's just the most important thing is that all the payment arrangements are in place before you begin, because we want your focus to be on the academics of the program, and not stressing about the financial component.

Dana Shluger: So… and it… just… I just want to stress again, like, if it seems too strict, it's not. I am here to help you, so just know that, that yes, the standard payment plan is ideal, and so the university would prefer everyone to enroll in that, but again, we can be flexible to meet your needs as long as you communicate, and as long as all the payment options are in place.

Dana Shluger: prior to the start of the semester. I also do want to mention that

Dana Shluger: If you are a Northwell Health or a Catholic Health employee, we do offer a 10% discount, with proof of employment. So you would just need to get a letter from HR confirming your employment and send that over to me, and then we would get the 10% discount applied.

Dana Shluger: And then also, just to know about the employer tuition remission, some… some employers do offer, you know, $3,000, $5,000 per year, something like that, so you definitely want to talk to your HR department, about their specific guidelines.

Junaid Syed: Awesome. Thank you so much for detangling that, Dana. I know it's,

Dana Shluger: I know it can be a lot, and it can be very overwhelming, but so that's… that's what we're here for, really, to walk you through everything and make sure that you understand, you know, what you're signing up for, what you're getting involved in, and also to make it the easiest for you.

Junaid Syed: Wonderful. Well, thank you again for that, Dana. And by the way, if you're thinking about applying to this program, and, you know, you reach out to me and we work through the application process together, and you're admitted into the program.

Junaid Syed: I will connect you to Dana via email for one-on-one introduction, and then she can help, you know.

Junaid Syed: go over the details that she just went over during this webinar, but also, like she said earlier, you know, put together a plan that really works for you in terms of funding. So, you have support at the university that you can lean on, which I think is a really comforting thing.

Junaid Syed: So…

Junaid Syed: All right, and with that, wanting to transition us back to you actually taking the next step toward the program. For anyone who's considering joining in the upcoming spring semester, there are 3 dates here that I really want you to have on your radar. The priority application deadline is coming up on December 7th, which feels like ages from now, but it'll be here before you know it. I saw

Junaid Syed: somewhere yesterday that, yesterday was the official 100-day mark, between, now and Christmas. So, it'll be here before you know it. The final application deadline to apply for spring is January 4th, which just so happens to be a week before the, start of the semester, January 11th, so…

Junaid Syed: Still plenty of time left ahead of you if you are considering applying, or even just want to learn more about one of the programs, have a one-on-one conversation with me.

Junaid Syed: I'll show a slide in just a minute or two that has all of my contact information on it. Feel free to reach out directly. I'm here to, you know, even if you're not ready to apply, I'm here to just chat with you about the program, about your professional goals, and figure out if this is going to be a good fit, and if you decide that it is, then I'll be here to help support through the process.

Junaid Syed: Yeah, other than that, you know, wanted to just put up this slide here with

Junaid Syed: you know, the financial aid email address, the phone number that you can reach out to. If you have questions, please send those in. Use the Q&A function. You have Dana here if you've got tuition-specific questions or funding-specific questions.

Junaid Syed: And you've got me here for, admissions-related questions, so I'll give it a minute, and while we're waiting for any questions to come in.

Junaid Syed: I will keep my contact information on this slide here. Call me, email me, I'm really easy to get a hold of, working typical business hours. Sometimes I work Saturday mornings, so if you're incredibly busy and you can't make it work during the work week, I'll make some time to, you know, jump on a call with you for

Junaid Syed: A Saturday morning or something, if that might be easier.

Junaid Syed: But yeah, it looks like we don't have any questions coming in, so not a worry there. Just wanted to thank you all so much for your time, and for jumping on this call. I know it's a daunting… it can be a daunting thing, thinking about going back to grad school or going back to school. And, you know, you've got me here to help you through that process, and you've got Dana here to help with the funding aspect of it, so…

Junaid Syed: Yeah, really appreciate it, looking forward to hearing from you. If you have questions, we're here, but other than that, we really appreciate everyone's time, and thanks so much for joining.