stuckinthemiddle

Asking for the offer letter got me the information I have. I guess I could go back and ask strait up what "anticipating your appointment" means and if there was any potential for greater funding, but I feel like I don't have much leverage given that they haven't given the straitest of answers on the offer

I have a few offers for graduate schools, but the one who's program I am most interested in has a sort of vague offer. I was asked to please make a decision as quickly as possible, but I wasn't given an official offer letter when I asked about it they said they generally give offer letters closer to the start of the school year, but they were able to tell me: "we anticipate your appointment to be $XXXXX a year (which is a number I find to be on the low side given cost of living) as a .XX FTE (less hours than I've been offered at another school)" So what do I do if I'd like a little more money, but I don't feel like my offer is set in stone? Does this mean that I could accept and then the amount or number of hours could change (either up or down)? What would you do?

So I understand negotiating for a larger stipend or fellowship when you have 2 or more schools competing for you, but I'm in the interesting situation of having offers from different departments at the same school. One has a little bit better funding package than the other. Do the rules of negotiating change when you have 2 departments at the same school and you will presumably have to interact with members of each department regardless of the program you select? Does looking greedy hurt you here more than it would with two separate schools? Thanks for your help