DecisionMeister

So, the $37K is for the whole PhD and both offers include health insurance. The cost of living compared to stipend gives me about the same amount of money in each place, except that UChicago has graduate student housing which makes the cost of living lower than living in the regular city and therefore makes the $37K a bit more money than the $28K. I just know that I would really appreciate even a few thousand dollars more per year (that could make a difference in my quality of life) but I don't want to appear to the professor(s) that I'm interested in as if money is the main motivation for me. If I did contact the department, who do you ask about something like this? Has anyone heard of a SUCCESSFUL bargaining situation for grad school (where the person asking got more money)?

So, I've been accepted to UChicago's IME program and Washington University in St. Louis' engineering program without an interview. I was already sort of leaning toward WUSTL's PhD program for one of the professors there, but the stipend for WUSTL is $28k while the stipend for UChicago is $37K, which is quite a big difference. Is it appropriate/is there a way to bargain with WUSTL, because if they raised their stipend I might be more willing to go there, but I really don't want to offend anyone.