Whats the difference between different types of funding?

[econsgirl]

Whats the difference between different types of funding?
I'm an international student and am not very sure how funding options differ. Ie. TA-ship/Fellowship/NSF... etc. Are there any other forms of funding apart from these?

Also, when people put under "profiles and results" and they mention XXX school with 17K. Is this 17K include the tuition fees that you have to pay? Or does it mean that your tuition fee is waived and in addition you get 17K?

Lastly, does anyone know what % of students in a top 10-30 US university gets some form of funding?

Funding is of high importance to me. When I mention to some of my friends about financial issues, they will say "Oh, usually PHDs are funded anyway." After reading threads on this forum, I'm not so sure anymore...

*orginally posted under PHD Econs but I decided to repost it here

[eagle uk]

I am also in the same dilemma. I have recently applied to Texas A&M University to study petroleum engineering and funding is very important to me as well. I want to know which of Teaching Assistantship, Graduate Assistantship, Research Assistantship and fellowship is more rewarding. Somebody, please enlighten us.

[asquare]

I've written a post on the econ PhD forum (FAQs about funding)that may answer some of your questions. If not, post your questions at the end of the thread and I'll see if I can help you out.

[feroz_apple]

econs.....
for MS/PHD for international students , TA/RA are the most common form of funding, tho some schools offer u loan but that is after u spend some
4-6 months there on ure personal funding.
Ure friends are wrong because many of mine didn't get any kind of aid except student loans. the funding for most universities basically depend upon ure GRE general/subject scores, GPA and all those yarddsticks that are used to measure a candidat'es potential during admission, plus need.
TOP universities offer funding to all sudents that get admitted so dont bother if u have aready been admistted in those