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In the sense, when you say aided, I understand I can have TA/RA, but I'm not too clear whether getting aid means I have to not spend any money (or maybe a small part of my money) or does it mean working on campus? This is a very naive newbie question. I'm sorry for that.

There are a few kinds of financial support:
1) TA - Teaching Assistantship, you have to teach/facilitate a course
2) RA - Research Assistantship, you do research for a prof (this is usually rare)
3) Entrance scholarship (if they want to offer an incentive for you to accept their offer)
4) Graduate scholarship/Stipend (this one covers your living expenses)
5) Tuition-waiver (exemption from paying tuition)/

There are others (merit scholarships, external scholarships), but these are the main ones that are offered by universities.

Normally, a school offers you either (1) or (2), not both. If you're an exceptional candidate, they might offer you (3).

Some schools don't distinguish between (4) and (1) & (2). U.S. schools generally give out assistantships which pay enough to cover all expensese.

As for (5), this normally depends on the school. Some schools have what they call Half-TAships and Full TA-ships. A half-TA means you can TA one semester in a year, whereas a full-TA means you can TA two semesters. If you get a half-TA, normally you either get a half-tuition waiver or a full one.

Normally, when you get a TA-ship, the school will automatically give you a full tuition waiver. A half-TA will usually get you a partial tuition waiver. But this is highly department-specific, so you must check with the department you're applying to.

1) As far as I understand, RA/TA is something one does to supplement his expenses, and to some extent the fees. This has to be checked with the professors before applying to any university. Please could you shed some light here ?

You are usually offered a RA/TA either:
1) upon acceptance
2) after acceptance, and after you have emailed some profs asking for free positions (if the school encourages you to do this)
2) after 1 semester of attending the school

It depends on the school, but normally a TA/RA income is enough for you to live on. And as I said, in most U.S. schools, if you're offered a TA/RA, the tuition is usually automatically waived.

2) Aid, would be something similar to the RA/TA or is it something like a scholarship? I understand not all universities provide aid, but won't all students flock the ones who do, so what are the factors when a university selects you for aid?

For the most part, financial aid is a blanket term for all the forms of financial support I've described above. Most international students go to schools that provide financial aid.

As for how school decide which candidates to fund, well... if I knew that, we wouldn't need this forum, would we?

But in general, schools that offer funding to M.S. candidates fund the best candidates, or candidates who fit a certain profile.

3) How do my acads affect my chances of getting aid (broadly assuming I score good in GRE)?

Very important.
Financial aid in many schools are competitive, so you'll only get aid if you're among the best candidates in the pool.
The GREs can sometimes determine if you'll get aid or not. Depends on the school policy.

4) How much money of my own (my parent's, I've got none) will I finally spending apart from the Exam fees, school application fees, visa, plane ticket etc., if I do get aid ? Will I have to take a smaller loan in case I do get aid?

Usually you need just enough to settle in. This varies from place to place, but maybe US$1500 to $2500? I'm not sure.

To give you an idea of the magnitude of the stipends: (these change from year to year, and depends on various factors)

University of Michigan - Math Ph.D. - about US$20,000/yr
University of Illinois - ChE M.S. - about US$22,000/yr
University of Minnesota - ChE Ph.D. (before qualifiers) - about $18,000/yr

5) W.r.t point 4, how much aid does a univ normally give to a student?

Either full, partial or none.
Full = enough to live on
Partial = may need to supplementary income to survive
None = forget it.

6) Do good univs offer aid, or only the less known and low rated univs offer aid?

Depends. This varies from university to university, and department from department.
Many good and bad universities offer financial support.

You'll also find that some departments offer aid while others don't.... in the same university.


As you can see, it's very difficult to answer general questions like the one you've just posted. If you narrow it down to specific departments in specific schools, you might get a better answer.