FAQs about funding

[asquare]

My understanding is that international students have to pay US taxes unless their government has a special treaty with the US. International students who are considered residents for tax purposes have to pay taxes on all of their income, while non-residents for tax purposes only pay taxes on income received in the US. Here is a link to the relevant IRS document, and here is some guidance from U-Mich.

[Ancalagon The Black]

How about other supplementary forms of assistance like tutorship, grading etc.? As in, not a full 'TA' or 'RA' but something which has lesser responsibilities?

Can they be combined with a TA?

[asquare]

Originally Posted by Ancalagon The Black

How about other supplementary forms of assistance like tutorship, grading etc.? As in, not a full 'TA' or 'RA' but something which has lesser responsibilities?

Can they be combined with a TA?

Tutoring is usually "under the table" -- paid in cash and not reported for tax. Technically you should pay tax on anything you earn as a tutor, but almost no one does. So, tutoring tends not to be governed by any rules at all.

Grading is paid by the department so is subject to its rules. Different schools may have different rules. Here at U-Mich, hourly work like grading, exam proctoring, and even hourly RA work can be combine with TA, RA, or fellowship funding. However, there are limits on the number of hours international students can be employed, so that could affect things if your TA or RA position was already for the maximum number of hours.

[Ancalagon The Black]

Excellent clarification asquare !! Why isn't this thread stickied yet?

[doubtful]

I TA but I never tutor.. lack of time ... and don't feel like tutoring classes when I am already TAing..

[kuejai]

Asquare is right. I'm from Thailand, and currently in the US right now. For me I have tax treaty for $3000 per year. That means you don't have to pay tax if you earn less than $3000. I'm sure that India probably has a treaty with the US as well. However, if you are in the US more than 5 years(calendar year), you will consider "resident alien"(I really hate this word), then you have to pay tax. However, if you pay for tuition and such, you can get tax refund back also. Now it depends on how much you make. The refund will follow that.

[pevdoki1]

When people say "resident alien", I think of: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...gigeralien.jpg

[asquare]

pevdoki1, would you mind editing your post to include just a link, not a picture? It's really frustrating to have informative threads get junked up with distracting pictures. Jokes are one thing, but these pictures make threads slower to load and harder to follow.

[kuejai]

I got accepted at Vanderbilt without funding. I'm wondering if there's a way for me to at least getting grading job or something like that?

[asquare]

kuejai, part time jobs vary from department to department. At U-Mich, we get e-mails through the department list from faculty looking for graders, exam proctors, and the like. It's hard to know for sure in advance that you could pick up some grading work, and the work often isn't steady enough to pay the rent. But at least in my department, there are frequent advertisements for jobs that pay around $16/hour.

Are you planning to visit Vanderbilt? You could ask current grad students if it's easy to get grading, proctoring, or tutoring jobs. Remember that you'll be really busy your first year, so you don't want anything with too inflexible a schedule. That's particularly something to look for with grading: often, faculty want exams graded at the exact time you are studying or finishing papers.