Eigen

Drama is unavoidable. Embrace it and dive in! Academia is all about the drama. And the politics. Learn to play early. Without the drama, we would have to focus entirely on our research! Then we'd become social recluses.

One problem that you will run into, is that a number of schools have a minimum cutoff of 3.0 that isn't decided by the departments, but the schools as a whole. And getting around that cuttoff ranges from simply very difficult to impossible, depending on the school. Almost any GPA above the cutoff with the rest of your background shouldn't be nearly as much of a problem- research experience and your LoRs are what really matter. It's like a step function. The difference between a 2.98 and a 3.02 can be huge. You also are going into a pretty competitive area (Analytical) with far fewer programs offering Analytical PhDs than any others, but still a large number of applicants.

It depends. There are a number of programs in Chemistry where you might take a pay cut with an external fellowship over the base stipend. Worth it for the prestige, but not helpful with funding travel and such. Most smaller fellowships that will stack with internal funding/stipends are going to be internal fellowships, not external fellowships. And each institution has rules on how many of these they will allow you to stack, and whether or not it will reduce your stipend from the school. In other words, you don't usually look for external funding as a source of increased income. You look for external funding as a source of prestige, and/or for a bit more freedom from studies. Also, in general, things you apply for as a graduate student in the US are more commonly fellowships rather than scholarships.

Or, something didn't come through and no one got the increase to 30k. And different universities do things differently- here, you keep whatever stipend you started on, you don't get a "raise" even if successive generations of grad students do. So it's common for the senior grad students to be making less than the newer ones.

I don't personally know of anyone, but the other restriction on most government fellowships is that any other funding cannot request *anything* of you. So industry fellowships that require something of you other than just receiving the money are most likely out from that. Best person to talk to would probably be the program officer for the government fellowship(s) at your university- mine has been really helpful in sussing out all the details for the NSF.

Tuxedo Tuesdays!

I wouldn't try to negotiate your salary in your second year. It's kind of a "once you accepted it, you accepted it" kind of thing.

A friend and I try to pick a day a month and do 3-piece-suit lab days. I've got an old seersucker suit that I favor, he goes traditional pinstripe.

During the summer when it's hot here, most of us wear gym shorts. Including the faculty. During the start of the semester, we may transition to cargo shorts instead. Including the faculty.

Most schools for a chemistry PhD will fully fund all of their accepted students with either a Teaching Assistantship or a Research Assistantship. You don't usually need to look for external fellowships (not scholarships). For international students, within the US many of the external fellowships are only open to US citizens, so you'll want to look to your home country for possible funding sources.

Just like any job negotiations, PhD stipends can be negotiated. They aren't set in stone. There are risks, but departments and programs frequently have more money lying around that they can use to attract high quality applicants, or use to lure the "best" applicants away from another school with a better offer. Often there are lots of small internal awards and fellowships (or such things can be made) that will allow some variation in stipend levels. Even before you choose a PI and do rotations, your file has more than likely been circulated, and the entering class was chosen by different PIs being interested in some of you. And even though you might hot have done this, there are frequently several people that have been in touch with particular PIs, and came to this school strictly to work with then. And even the admissions committee will have students that they've targeted for recruitment that they'll try to get more money from some source for to "lock in". It's the same reason different assistant professors starting off will make different amounts. Each of you was different, and in each case the school was competing against other schools for offers- some the school wanted to compete with more than others. I'm not saying that each of the entering cohort is going to be ranked and offered different amounts, but in a class, there's a definite chance that there will be some higher and some lower offers than the standard. Even though stipends are common in the sciences, it's still best to think of them as a type of scholarship- the best students will get the most in scholarships. And it's not like you're all applying as a blank slate with no background. While most schools just won't offer admission without a stipend, minor variations in terms of a few grand here or there isn't something I would consider uncommon. It's also worth noting in this context that Ktel is in Canada, which does things distinctly differently in terms of funding than what I would consider the US norm, from past discussions on similar issues. But in the end, you seem to be focusing on something that isn't a big deal, and you don't even know is true. I would recommend you just focus on yourself, and not try to figure out or compare to others. Is what you're making a fair deal and enough to live on? If so, you're doing fine. It doesn't matter if someone else is making a little more. Comparing yourself to others starts down a very bad road for grad school, imo.

We've had more than a $5k variation some years in our incoming class. Between fellowships and different levels of support, we have somewhere around a $10k spread in stipends between different people of different years in our programs. If people focused on it, it could become a big issue and create rifts and bad feelings. But no one does, and things work out pretty well. The department was just straight up willing to pay some students more than others. So to answer your question, I've seen a number of letters go out, and they aren't the same. Many of them are the same, or very similar, but not all of them. There are definitely "typical" stipends within a program, within a year- but then there will also be people who make more, or less. And it's well possible that the current grad student was misinformed. I was told when I was coming that one fellowship that the offers increased by about $2500 per year- but then it didn't increase my year, and hasn't increased thereafter. You can do yourself a lot of damage comparing what you're making to what other people are making, but in the end, what matters is what you were offered, and what it was worth to you. The school made you an offer, and you accepted- comparing that to the others won't help, and isn't always an equivalent thing. But you keep coming back to "fair" in your posts. There's nothing "fair" in how much you get paid vs. how much someone else does- you're all different people. Just like different employees at a company will make different amounts. Maybe one of your classmates negotiated based on the offer from another school.

Not sure where you're getting fair, or short end of the stick from. Different graduate students within a department will make different amounts- usually not hugely different, but certainly in the $1000 range. It depends on funding source, when they joined, and how competitive they were for funding. You can ask what others make, but it's not really considered polite, just like you wouldn't ask a fellow coworker how much they make.

Glad it worked out! But just to clarify, the letter didn't say tuition was 2127. It said last years tuition was 2127, but this year it might be higher.

Not Pajamas is what I was going to go with. But also, avoid other conspicuously inappropriate dress- some mentioned by Bfat. The idea isn't to dress up, but to not have your dress detract from your other contributions.

I'm not first, but I'm pretty early in my advisors lineup. It's been a great experience for me, personally. Being young, he's a lot more attentive and remembers what grad school was like, and also has what I would consider a lot more "timely" advice on the job market, applying for positions, post-docs, fellowships, etc. than older faculty because he just got finished with the process! It also means I've gotten a lot of experience in setting up a lab, protocols, grant writing, paper writing and so forth that I might not have in a more established lab. On a personal level, we have a lot more in common, so we have a good relationship outside the lab as well- we've both been married about the same length of time, both have spouses that are/were about the same time behind us in PhD programs, etc. He and his wife have definitely been helpful to us in looking at the day-to-day problems of a two-body situation, as well as how best to handle it. This isn't always the case, though- I've got friends working with other young faculty that have issues- too much micromanagement, want their grad students to be just like them, etc. And I've got friends working with older, established faculty that have either great relationships or issues. Long term, I think it doesn't matter so much whether your advisor is old or young, but rather how well you fit with them. I also have friends on either end of the spectrum for graduation time- the first two from our research group graduated below average, and some others in "young" groups were way above average. Seems to be on the personality of the advisor- either they see the benefit in helping you get out the door so you can go on to be an independent research since they identify with you, or they feel the need to keep you around to help boost their research career, since they're just starting off. But again, this seems to be dependent on the individual rather than their age. There are a couple of great topics on this same issue from the last year or so, you might find good advice there as well. Definitely some people who haven't posted here yet.

I don't know what problem you had with my response, it was solid advice. The runaround between administrative departments is common, the solution is to keep with it. If one person refers you to another, who refers you back, then go back to the original person and tell them you got sent back. The sooner the better, usually. It puts pressure on them to take care of it. And usually, your department is the one who has more "ownership" of an issue with their students- if you go back to them, they'll either need to send you to someone else, or call and find out for you. You're asking a question that is impossible for anyone here to answer- someone could have put the numbers on your account wrong, you could not be showing up as full time, there could be additional fees that aren't counted as part of a tuition waiver, there could be tax deducted from your stipend, etc. None of us can tell you that. The only people who can are the people on your campus who are actually dealing with it. But my guess from looking over it, is that (a) tuition increased, meaning that you'll owe 2758 rather than the 2127 they estimated, and ( that the reduction from 5850 to 5002 is from tax deductions, which about fits for the 15% reduction in the form of withholdings.But again, no one other than someone in your school or program can tell you for sure. Or, you're misreading the statement, and the 5002 isn't connected to your 5850 stipend at all, but is rather the portion of your tuition that the school is paying for the fall, leaving you with another 2758 to cover yourself. Rarely do stipends appear in online statements of account, they'll appear as paychecks over the semester. Which mean's it's just (a) from the options above- makes sense given the trends to increased tuition, coupled with the fact that they say 2172 was last years cost, but that it might increase for 2012-13.

So go back to the person in your program.

I'm guessing fees are also factoring in there. That said, this is something you should ask your program, not us.

I can't say for your field in particular, or necessarily speak to "top universities", but from what I've seen, instructors, especially with a masters, make about half of what a corresponding associate prof makes, in addition to the lack of job security (Tenure).

Three or four courses + a TA assignment and/or research is pretty common in my program, but these things will be very program dependent, so I'd suggest asking some current students in your program.

Could you clarify what about that is unclear? It might help with someone explaining it to you, as the statement seems pretty self-explanatory to me.

I just want to add in that the classes I took with my advisor were the least stressful classes I had. He and I already had a good relationship, and it made the whole thing easier. Questions, discussion, etc.

Teaching at the college level pretty much requires the terminal degree in your discipline. And I'm using terminal degree here, because, rarely, a masters-level degree is considered terminal (MFA, MBA) and is OK for teaching at the college level. But what you were told is pretty much correct- you need a PhD for a professorship. Is there any particular reason you're looking to change course to an instructor position rather than working on a PhD and going forward with the professor route? It's possible to get an instructor position at lower-tier universities with a masters, but you're going to be competing against people with doctorates, so the chances aren't great.

If we're talking about graduate programs, these are generally fellowships rather than scholarships. And I've not personally run across any fellowships that aren't based on academic effort, experience and potential.