External fellowships

[jackson23]

Ok, here goes another question related to our financial situation as phd students.

Lets consider the following scenario. You get admitted to a school that with full funding (tuition + living expenses) for 4/5 years.

Lets say you get an external fellowship either upfront, or along the way.

Does anybody have any experience about the way in which universities deal with this stuff?

Upfront I heard they usually tell you that they adjust the funding provided by the university proportionally to the external funding received. They dont leave you worse off, of course, but they reduce their funding either in the full amount of the external funding, or in something close to that. Thats what they claim, upfront.

In practice, how does that work? What if you need the extra money, to support a family, to support part of the education of a spouse, etc?

Even if neither of such cases apply... some of those more justified situations... how bargainable has the external funding been in practice?

I would be really interested to hear some experiences you've had about this. Of course, any bargaining should ideally be done before accepting admission. Or, when you first hear of the external funding. In any case, suggestions about this issue are appreciated.

[jackson23]

Adding to my post... I hard in some cases they waive you the teaching assistanship responsabilities...

I assume, without any real information, that they would be OK with keeping my TA responsibilities, paying me for them, and letting me get my external funding.

[asquare]

Basically, you can do hourly TA or RA work and get paid for that on top of your fellowship. You will not get a stipend from the school and another one from the fellowship. and the school will not "pay" you for the cost of your tuition that they would have covered if the fellowship did not.