MaxFreakOut

Oh I get it, since they're competitive nobody wants to detail the good ones. The meritocracy and all that . . .

OK I've cooled down. How do I do this? Where do I look for the mysterious 'extra mural' grants I've heard whispers of? My GA is unsympathetic and unhelpful.

Why does so much of this have to be a mystery? I only got two years of funding outlined, the second year I lose money and am told I need to 'hustle' to get TA positions in other departments, I mean wow! There's these 'extra mural' grants that apparently are competitive that I can try for after the first year? Really how does this work? I just want to be able eat and do my research and pay crazy rent, but even that appears to be asking too much for this 'privilege' and 'honor' I've worked so hard for, but it's more like I triggered some kind of capitalist sucker's game, me being the sucker?

The previous funding thread, while very extensive, had a major flaw: tuition and gross award were not separated in the survey. I need to know is your tuition waived or covered by TA ships. Saying you get 36k with tuition covered, does that mean you have 36k to spend at your discretion or is tuition extracted from that amount? See what I'm getting at, I need detailed break downs not summations to see just how hard I'm getting screwed! Thanks! For example my first year MA/PHD is 25k tuition 'covered'. That means subtract 15k from 25k. Health Care is 'covered' too, subtract another 2.4k. In addition I work two thirds of the year TA ing. So my 'stipend' which is really my salary is 8k . How am I to make this work for 7 years? This is a no win deal is it not?

This thread is exactly what I've been searching for, but the data is almost useless. I need gross funding separated from tuition. A precious few surveys indicate the difference. There is a difference between waived tuition and 'covered' tuition. in my case, my school 'covers' my tuition by having me work as a TA. My total award is 25k, but I only see 8k after tuition and health care are extracted, plus I'm working for half of the 'award'. I was hoping to compare my package to others, but I think we need to redo the survey?