FAQs about funding

[asquare]

First, this post is not the final word on funding! I'll explain things to the best of my knowledge, but you should always talk directly to the departments that admit you, and to legal/financial advisors if appropriate. Second, other TMers should feel free to add additional questions or answers, or to correct any errors I make.

 

With that out of the way, here are some issues that seem to come up often:

 

1. What are the differences between types of funding?

There are four main types of funding: tuition waivers, fellowships, research assistantships (RAs) and teaching assistantships (TAs). Tuition waivers are the most limited type of funding. They provide either reduced tuition or free tuition, but do not pay stipends and may not cover health insurance. The other three types of funding typically include a full tuition waiver, health insurance, and a living stipend.

 

Fellowships are "free money." You don't have any work obligations in return for the money. Fellowships may be funded by the department, the university, or an outside organization. Common and prestigious outside fellowships that American students can apply for are the NSF and the Javits fellowships. Some fellowships are available to students based on their research interestes (for example, U-Mich has fairly generous fellowship funding for students interested in studying retirement or aging.) Other fellowships are designated for minority students, students from specific countries, etc. Many public universities provide "dissertation fellowships" that students in various departments can apply for in their final year of graduate school. You can do a Google search to learn what outside fellowships are available, and after you start graduate school, your department will probably tell you about university fellowships you can apply for. Fellowships are usually year-by-year; some of the big outside fellowships guarantee three years of funding.

 

RA positions are typically though not always specific to a faculty member -- they obligate you to do X number of hours of work per week for Professor So-and-So. X is usually around 20, though the actual work load can vary widely depending on your relationship with Professor So-and-So. Sometimes, faculty use RA positions to fund co-authored work with students, which is a great deal if you can get it! The actual tasks can vary widely; you could be doing coding, data collection or cleaning, literature reviews, editing, or anything else related to the research process. These positions are sometimes funded by the department, and sometimes come out of the professor's research budget. They are typically not offered to incoming students, but are instead offered by a professor to a graduate student he knows and has worked with before. A great way to get an RA position during the school year is to do RA work over the summer, when there are no tuition bills to be paid, making you a cheap hourly hire ;) and doing a great job. RA positions are usually semester-by-semester or year-by-year.

 

TA positions are perhaps the most common type of funding for graduate students. In the typical TA position, you lead two discussion sections per week for a large lecture course, plus hold office hours and have some grading responsibilities. The professor you work for ultimately dictates the working conditions; TA jobs usually take around 15 to 20 hours per week of time. Some schools hire first year students as TAs and others do not. TA positions, like RA positions, are semester-by-semester.

 

2. Which type of funding is best?

Fellowships, because they are "free money," are usually considered the best type of funding. Fellowships also have prestige attached to them, and may provide larger stipends than other types of funding.

 

After that, it depends on your goals. Personally, I think RA>>TA, because RA work gives you experience doing research, lets you observe the research process up close, and may lead to research of your own (if, for example, you learn how to use a complicated data set, or get really familiar with the literature in your field). RA positions can also help you build relationships with faculty.

 

Doing at least one or two semesters of teaching can be important for those seeking academic jobs. People who want to teach at liberal arts schools might want to teach even more than that, and might want to TA for more advanced courses than Econ 101.

 

3. What if I'm not offered funding when I am admitted?

This is a really tough, and common, situation -- especially for those attending public universities. The first thing to keep in mind is that while first year funding can be hard to secure, almost all schools have sufficient TA positions for students in their second year and beyond, provided the student maintains "good standing" (which means a certain GPA and passing exams on schedule). While a year's worth of tuition and living expenses is a lot of money, it's not a lot relative to what you will earn after you graduate.

 

Also, sometimes funding becomes available after the initial offers are made. Schools make more admissions offers than they expect to have students in the entering class, but they do NOT typically make more funding offers than they can afford to give out. When a student with funding turns down an offer, then the school will offer the funding to someone else.

 

If your first choice school does not offer you funding, IMO the best thing to do is to be honest. Tell the school that you are interested in attending, but funding is an obstacle for you. If you have a funded offer from another school, it is appropriate to let the admissions director at your first choice school know. If you absolutely won't attend without funding, you can say that, but don't expect the school to cave immediately. This issue has been discussed in more detail on this old thread.

 

4. When is the last date that funding might be offered?

Funding is reallocated right up until the start of the semester. Some people do get offers late in the summer, but you probably shouldn't hold your breath.

 

5. What does the April 15 deadline mean?

April 15 is the last day you can turn down an offer of funding at one school in order to accept an offer of funding at another school. You can accept a school and back out later, and schools can offer you funding after April 15. Schools cannot require you to make a decision before April 15. This deadline is the result of an agreement between the many schools that form the Council of Graduate schools, and you can read about it here.

 

6. How much money are we talking about here?

Stipends usually range from about $12,000/9 months to $26,000/12 months. Schools in areas with lower costs of living typically give smaller stipends, and public schools tend to give smaller stipends than private schools. Public schools are also more likely to consider the stipend a 9-month payment, while private schools often build in summer funding.

 

7. Is my funding taxable?

YES. Typically, taxes will be withheld from stipends paid for TA or RA positions, because those are "jobs." However, you still owe taxes on fellowship funding even if the taxes are not withheld! You are responsible for paying estimated quarterly taxes to your state and the IRS.

 

8. Who gets funding?

This is very hard to answer. Many private schools don't offer admissions unless they can also offer funding, so all students have funding. At public schools, it is much less common for the entire entering class to have funding. I believe at at U-Mich, about half of the class has funding for the first year.

 

9. If I'm not offered funding, does that mean I'm at the bottom of the class, that I'll fail my prelims, or that the university doesn't really want me?

No, not at all. Schools don't offer admission to students they don't think will be successful. But they are budget constrained, and they use their funding to attract the students they want most. Sometimes those are the students who are thought to have the most potential; sometimes those are students with specific research interests that influential faculty favor; sometimes there are other considerations. But many, many students who don't have funding in their first year go on to do very well. And no one -- not your fellow students, not your professors -- will know or care if you have funding. It's between you and the director of graduate studies.

 

I think that's all I have for the moment, but hopefully others will add comments and additional questions.

[constrainedoptimizer]

This thread has "sticky" written all over it. Thanks for the info!

[econsgirl]

really sweet post. i have a question.

 

is it common that schools don't waive your tuition fees but give u TA/RA-ships?

 

So say if you get 12K stipend a year from working as TA/RA, it will still not be enough since you have to pay for your tuition fees?

 

Or is it more common that schools give u TA/RA-ship on top of a waiver of tuition fees?

[buckykatt]

is it common that schools don't waive your tuition fees but give u TA/RA-ships?

 

No, it's not common. However, I have seen at least one school (sorry, don't remember which one, but not one of the top 10 or 20 IIRC) state on their web site that they do this. So always read the fine print. ;)

 

Great summary, asquare!

[eqtisadi]

I have a question...

What about wives (or husbands)? How much do they "cost"? I guess the department does not take dependents into account. Especially for international students, I think that can be a problem because of two reasons (1) getting permission to work (Visa issues) and (2) getting a job. Can anybody share some of his or her experience?

[buckykatt]

I suspect that the best you could hope for at most schools is some help with networking to find your spouse a job on or near campus (and even that might not help much for an international student). My practical advice would be to get in touch with the grad department secretary as soon as you're accepted and enlist their help.

 

Of course, for US students, spouses/dependents are taken into account when calculating financial need, potentially giving you the ability to borrow more. (Or less, if your spouse is making the big bucks. But that's a problem I'd like to have...)

[notacolour]

As another reminder to read the fine print, some schools are only able to waive tuition, not fees--which can be as much as in-state tuition for public schools! So then you of course have to factor that out of the additional money you're getting...

[econsgirl]

As another reminder to read the fine print, some schools are only able to waive tuition, not fees--which can be as much as in-state tuition for public schools! So then you of course have to factor that out of the additional money you're getting...

 

What kind of fees are this? Like orientation? misc fees? I'm an international student so how much does "in-state tuition for public schools" cost?

[asquare]

U-Mich technically doesn't waive fees, but they are less than $100/semester. They cover registration and student organizations (and are mandatory, even if you aren't taking classes or participating in student organizations...)

[Thesus]

Fees can really add up. The full (heavily subsidized) tuition up here for graduate students is about $650 a semester, but fees are almost as much as that.

 

Is anyone conversant with how funding for international students is treated for tax purposes?

[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]

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/wikipedia/en/b/b0/Hrgigeralien.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.

[kuejai]

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.

 

I think I might wait until I hear answer from somewhere else and probably visit the school sometime in March. By the way, what do you about the program? Any suggestion?

Thanks for the info and congrats to you also

[sonicskat]

Kuejai,

That's really interesting that you didn't get funding from Vanderbilt. When I visited last spring they told me that all students are funded. Their website backed this claim up. I remember when I got accepted that I don't remember them explicitly stating funding...you might want to double check just in case...I can't imagine Vandy expecting a student to pay for tuition on there own... their price tag is incredible.

[Andronicus]

Kuejai,

That's really interesting that you didn't get funding from Vanderbilt. When I visited last spring they told me that all students are funded. Their website backed this claim up. I remember when I got accepted that I don't remember them explicitly stating funding...you might want to double check just in case...I can't imagine Vandy expecting a student to pay for tuition on there own... their price tag is incredible.

 

In the decision thread it says kuejai got into the MA program in economic development at Vanderbilt. Maybe they meant they fund all their PhD students.

[Thesus]

How often is housing part of the equation? I'm not necessarily talking them paying for your apartment, but even bumping someone else off the residence list for you.

[asquare]

I think housing varies from school to school. For example, there isn't excess demand for university-owned housing at U-Mich. Most students prefer to live off campus, and obviously the department doesn't have any leverage over that housing.

 

Many schools offer first year graduate students some sort of priority for university-owned housing, to make it easier to find somewhere to live when you are unfamiliar with the area. Similarly, some schools give students with children priority for some housing. I would guess, though I don't know for sure, that funded and unfunded students get the same access to housing.