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Cost of living varies, yes, there is no doubt about it. But being told by the program that I should be fine in having ends meet (on basis of their estimate from which they determined the stipend amount) but that estimate doesn't cover tax. Not that I think there is anything I can do about it (as you mentioned)...

One university is offering full funding (full tuition, health insurance, and stipend) for 9-months period but in return I am not allowed to hold any other employment. Their stipend amount is exactly their estimate of cost of living but since they did not take tax into account, the stipend will not actually cover the living with their standard (the bare minimum). I think this is a mis-calculation issue but the school thinks it's a case with individual needs/preference and therefore not willing to explore how to modify. Any thoughts on this?

Just my two cents: 1. Culture, ethnicity, and race are not the same. I think a lot of people are mixing them up, leading to miscommunication. 2. There is no such thing as Asian culture. There are, for example, Chinese, Indian, & etc culture. However, Asian-American culture (rising from reaction to perceived imposition of Asians as one race from society/US) exists. If you go outside of the States, "Asian culture" is non-existent because there simply isn't a group that foms under that idea. One of few reasons why rather the idea of Asian-American culture might make sense. 3. Race is heavily determined by what people see. Common example: the current president is half AA but people tend to categorize him as AA. In the States, Asians are grouped as one race but if you go to other nations, 2 people considered Asians in the States are considered as individuals with different racial backgrounds (e.g. Koreans may think Indians are of different race. Chinese may think Japanese are of different race.). What people see and group accordingly is dependent on what they *perceive* to be salient physical features (e.g. skin color, nose shape/height, eyes, etc). 4. Race does not translate into culture. Say a male is born in Japan, never stepped outside of Japan until 28 y.o. and he speaks Japanese only. He is caucasian but that does not mean he is culturally American (or West European). Say an AA girl was adopted by Korean parents when she was born and grows up in Korea as Korean. These are actual cases. 5. Cultural and Ethnic backgrounds -- they are not the same either. In the above example, the caucasian boy who was born in Japan is of Italian descent. So, that would mean he has an Italian ethnic background but culturally Japanese although his race would be considered caucasian (from an American point of view). Now, let's flip all this around in a different example and see if it sounds "unique". Say a girl born in Vietnam adopted by caucasian parents at birth, grew up in NY, speaks English only, and may or may not be aware of Vietnamese culture but do not identify with it as "own" culture. She has Vietnamese-American and Vietanamese friends. She would be Asian in terms of race, with Vietnamese ethnic background, and of American culture (more likely). Now when I present this example, people in the States usually don't see the significance of differences between race, culture, and ethnicity. But they tend to spend more time paying attention to the case of boy born in Japan because that is "unusual" to many people here. Again, just my two cents.