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Dear prospective graduate students, congratulations! Now here's a word of warning as you decide which offer to accept and which to turn down. Programs may go out of their way in order to make their offers look more competitive than they are. One way they may do this is by describing the highest possible level of funding available and allowing prospective students to interpret this level of funding as "normal". A real-life example, vaguely described: At one ("top ten") program last year, official financial offers - in which the reality of the funding situation was finally brought to light - were not distributed until well after the deadline of April 15. In this case, some of the prospective students asked for the official offer before committing and were told that there was no need to pursue that formality. The students were told that everything discussed in person and by unofficial email was "binding". When this cohort finally got its letters they learned they were actually going to make $5k less per year than they had thought, since they hadn't been alert to what was effectively a loophole in what was discussed in person and by email. And since these letters weren't distributed until well into May, it was too late for anyone to change his or her decision. So in short, get your OFFICIAL financial offers in writing before committing anywhere and then read through them carefully. Programs are competing for the top students, and some are willing to go so far as to mislead prospectives in order to get them to commit.