TakeruK

Even in the sciences (I have been in Physics and Astronomy departments so far), TAing for free still means you are working for free, which means you are taking away a paid spot for a non fully funded student. In Canada, it would be against our collective agreements for the department/University to even offer students a "chance" to work for free, for this same reason. I guess this thread also captures a lot of different ideas on what it means to be a graduate student. In Canada, our stipends are clearly differentiated between RA work, TA work, and just stipend. My current funding is about 1/3 from my supervisor in form of an RAship (my contract states I shall work 20 hours per week to fulfill this contract), 1/3 from the department in form of a TAship (my contract is for 4.5 hours per week), and 1/3 from scholarships and awards (this is just free money). So, I am expected to work on my thesis research a minimum of 20 hours per week, and spend 9 hours per week TAing. The rest of the time (~20 additional working hours per week) I use it to attend courses, do homework, and work even more on my thesis research because I want to do a good job. That is, I should be making "minimum satisfactory progress" if I work 20 hours per week on my research because that's what they paid/expect me to do. I want to do better than this so I choose to spend more hours. So, since we have contract hours for everything, then it's not like we can spend less time on research to do more TAing. Also, how does your supervisor feel about paying you to do research but you spend some of that time doing TA work instead? When I TA, I don't spend less time on research, so it doesn't really balance out. Finally, I think some national fellowships are now allowing a small number of paid work while you're funding, because they want grantees to have teaching experience too? This is what Caltech told me even though I don't qualify for any of the awards, as a non-American. The bottom line is that just because the experience is good for us doesn't mean we should do it for free. In fact, precisely because the Universities know that we want this experience, they can exploit it and get free labour from us. When I am working as a TA, I am not a "graduate student that is learning how to teach", I am a "qualified person employed by the University to do the job set out in my job description/contract". I learn (to teach) by gaining experience, not because I am a student of the university. I feel that as undergrads, we should "work as hard as we can" in order to get good grades, impress our profs etc. As graduate students, I feel that I'm an employee more than a student, so I basically "work as much as I am paid to" for RA and TA work. For my own coursework, obviously I'm a student and not an employee, so I "work as much as I want to" to get the results (grades, impressing profs, whatever) that I want. Universities are able to exploit students when they place student-like expectations on paid work or otherwise confuse/blur our roles as students and employees. PS: Just a clarification -- the Canadian version of the NSF (NSERC) also does a graduate award/fellowship that limits a student's paid work to be 450 hours per year. In addition, when I held one of these, I was NOT paid an RAship because NSERC graduate award holders cannot be paid from any other NSERC source. So, the idea was that the fellowship will support me although I won't have RA support. But, the fellowship doesn't require me to work any set amount of hours -- I would still receive and keep the money if I didn't work at all.

Whether your publication will be THE deciding factor depends completely on who is in the admissions committee and who else is applying. If, by chance, there is another applicant with almost exactly the same details as you, but without the second-author publication, and they can only accept one of you, not both; then it's likely that your publication will be the deciding factor in your favour. But, usually, it's never down to just one detail whether you get in or not. There is probably no quantitative way to determine how much of a difference any one component of your application makes. And even if every application gets a score out of 100 from the admissions committee, it's not like "if you get 80/100, you get in" because you are competing with other applicants. So, if everyone who applied also has second author publications then the publication will just help you not get cut, but doesn't give you an edge over other applicants. If you are the only one with any publications, then it will make your application look really strong. The reality will be some in-between state.

For some schools, I got a letter in the mail that I had to check off / circle "accept" or "decline", sign it, and then either snail mail, fax, or scan+email it back to them. For others, there was a page online where I had to click one box or another -- usually the link (and login info) to do this was in the official snail mail letter. So yes, wait a bit for the official letter to come! Although I really appreciated it when departments emailed me a PDF of the letter at the same time as snail mailing the official letter.

Yes, you can withdraw and there are no legal repercussions at all. You will only lose whatever money you've paid in deposits (unlikely to be any at this point). The minimum thing you can do to withdraw is just don't pay any fees and don't show up, they will kick you out eventually. But obviously that's not a good thing to do. I would tell the department grad coordinator in an email explaining why I am declining the offer. If they gave you a form to fill out and sign to accept the offer, I would probably fill out another copy with "decline" checked/circled and sign it and send that too. To accept an offer from another US school after April 15 though, the other school will want you to have a "release form" from any schools you have already accepted. Although you would be going to the UK, where they might not know (or care about) the April 15 resolution, maybe you should ask the first school for a release form as well, just in case. As for the faculty being irritated at you, well that's the consequence of changing your mind! Personally, I would be stressed about offending others but I would live with it if the UK school is truly the better place for me to be. In the end, the faculty wants and understand that the student has to do what's best for themself! Of course, explaining yourselves to the department/POIs you've talked to would go a long way in mending relations, I think. Remember that the April 15 thing is not legally binding at all, just a set of "guidelines" that schools that signed agreed to follow. All the extra paperwork (release forms) are only necessary if the new school asks for it, and they would do it because they want to make sure you have officially declined all previously accepted offers (and probably to ensure that you have the old school's "blessing" to leave so that they aren't poaching students).

I think you should check in with the department (they might have been really busy with the recent April 15 deadline) and also the International Students office. For my school, they told me that I can't even apply for a visa until 4 months before the start date (Sept 14 for me). Here is the process at Caltech, which could be similar to other schools: 1. Student confirms acceptance with Department 2. Department passes this onto Graduate Studies 3. Grad Studies passes this on to International Student office 4. International Student office contacts Student for visa details (name, proof of support, are you bringing dependents that need visas, etc.) 5. International Student office uses information to issue the I-20 or DS-2019 6. Student uses I-20 or DS-2019 to apply for the appropriate visa I also accepted the offer in mid-March and I am currently on Step 4 (got asked for this information about a week ago). I think step 4 has to happen before they issue you the I-20 especially because of the proof of funds part (even though all the information they asked for was pretty much in my application package, oh well). I don't think it's time to panic yet since Steps 2 and 3 could actually take a month. Also, maybe the international admissions office is waiting for all the people that accept just before the april 15 deadline in order to do Step 4 for everyone at the same time, since you can only begin the visa process about now (if August start date) or next month (for Sept start). That's just a guess though...I would say now is a good time to check in with the department and international office!

When I was visiting one of the schools near my town (by car), the parking attendant asked if I was a visiting student. I said yes, and they gave me a free parking pass! It turns out later from the wording on the pass (and the fact that the department I was visiting knew nothing about this feature), that the free visitor parking pass thing is for prospective undergrads. So it worked out in my favour there!

Ooops, totally didn't read your first sentence there, sorry! Sounds like you are making the right choice though. Someone (in another thread on gradcafe maybe?) said that there is always going to be "buyers remorse" after deciding on a grad school because no matter how good the school you pick is, it's probably not as good as all the possibilities combined! We had some doubts about actually moving to the US for PhD too -- maybe we'll be happier if I just didn't bother getting into academia and just got "real jobs" in Vancouver (where we're from) instead? Even if my wife can eventually get work authorization, our total income will be lower and slow down our plans to save up for a home, start a family etc. But then I realised that all the what-ifs are getting in the way of enjoying the present. We've all worked hard to get to where we are and now we have some good opportunities ahead of us. Also, I'm sure during our Bachelors and Masters degrees, we have made hard choices too, some good, and probably some bad ones but we made it this far, didn't we? We can probably trust ourselves that we are continuing to make the right decision here too! PS I always wondered if getting the Wii was the right choice, given the lack of games where my wife and I can go shoot down some zombies together, but then after playing something like the new Zelda game (omg one-to-one motion control with Link!!) or Ravin' Rabbids, I know we made the right choice! I think we might have less what-ifs once our program of choice actually gets underway!

As ktel also said -- TA pay rates are kind of a bad thing to compare because usually the total funding works out....but a low TA rate will mean a lot more hours distracting you from research! But Dalhousie does seem REALLY low. I'm at Queen's (our pay is actually $37.32/hr this year, i was just rounding but it goes up by about 0.50 per year for increased cost of living). I know Toronto has a similar hourly TA wage. UBC (which is unionized under CUPE) has a much lower rate and that is one major issue in bargaining their next contract (TAs there have voted and approved the union exec to start a strike if necessary).

Many other science students have already said what I think is approximately standard across the sciences, which is an average of 1 first-author paper per year (usually none in years 1-2 but many in the later years) in the ideal case. For many schools, instead of writing a dissertation, you can submit a "manuscript thesis" which is basically just 3 first-author peer-reviewed *published* papers "stapled together". (Of course, you have to do more than actually stapling them together but it's basically just writing an introduction, copying the paper text almost verbatim, and adding some comments/follow-up before and after each paper.)

I was in your exact situation 2 years ago when I finished my BSc. I had a long term relationship but we were still unmarried (thus she couldn't go to the US as a dependent on my student visa and she also would not have qualified for the visas you mentioned), I did horrendous on the subject GRE (didn't even bother to write the General GRE after that score), and it was a lot easier to stay in Canada because it was the first time living away from home for both my girlfriend-at-the-time and I (although we ended up further from our hometown than where we will be for my PhD!). So the best choice for us was clearly a Canadian school. When I was applying, I felt 100% sure I wanted to stay in Canada forever. But by the time I graduated from undergrad, I realised that I really did like the field I'm in and felt a bit of regret for not applying to US programs. However, those thoughts were quickly squashed when I realised what I said in the above paragraph. But we then decided the best choice is to finish a MSc here in Canada and then apply to US PhD programs. Sure, Canadian Masters aren't really recognized in the US -- I'd basically start at year 1 again but with considerable experience under my belt. But during the masters I can... 1. Get married (did that last summer! yay!) 2. Get more research experience to improve my chances of getting into a good US school 3. "test out" research/grad school before committing 5 more years of our life and moving to a new country 4. Have time to get research from my last year of undergrad (when I started doing Planetary Science research) published -- this work wouldn't even have been finished when I had submitted my applications 2 years ago I also had other factors that "helped" make the decision to go to a US PhD program. Firstly, I started with the intention of finishing with a Masters and going elsewhere for PhD so both my supervisor and I knew the plan (in the end, it turns out he plans to retire before I would finish a PhD anyways, so win-win). Secondly, Planetary Science is really tiny in Canada so I really needed to go to the US to actually learn more after my MSc (the program I'm in is great but my supervisor is the only person working on the topic!). Finally, my wife and I decided that I would pretty much only apply to the top programs in the US -- it's not worth all the extra hassle of moving countries if I'm not going to be in a really good program. In the end, it seems like everything worked out really well for us. I'm going to be finishing my masters this summer and then going to a great PhD program in the US It also helped that if you get funding, you can qualify for a J-1 student visa, which puts a spouse on a J-2 and J-2 dependents are allowed to apply for a work authorization and be able to get employment in the US (not the case if you have a F-1 visa). The most important part though was that my wife agreed and supported this plan! Basically I just wanted to say that a 1-2 year Canadian masters could be a great lead-in to a US PhD, if that is what you truly want. Some people still think I should have gone right to a US PhD but I definitely think doing a Masters first was the right decision for me!

If you are worried, it would not hurt to check. Probably asking the Graduate Program coordinator at your department? I would have interpreted the term "full tuition support and stipend" as: (full tuition support) and (stipend), i.e. 2 different sources, one of which is equal to your tuition and the other equal to $29k. In all my letters of offer, this has been what the school meant. Usually it goes on to say that the tuition portion is not taxable but the stipend is, which I think even further separates the two as two distinct sources of funding. But it doesn't hurt to check!

This was what my wife (not a student) and I agreed on as well. I would only apply to schools that I was interested in (so that was my cut) and my wife and I went over the list before we spent the $$ on applications. We only veto-ed places we were seriously against and still applied to places that one of us thought we might not like but wanted to give it a try/visit first. After getting responses and visiting (my wife joined me where economical), we had round two of vetos. It was down to 3 schools at that point, and we both had the same top choice. I didn't feel bad/held back/etc. at all because I could only apply to places that made both of us happy. I would have felt really bad and selfish if I had made the decision on my own and expect my wife to just deal with it. I'm pursuing this career because it's something I love doing but ultimately, it's in order to provide for our future family. I think marriage is a partnership, and I also viewed the grad school application/decision process as a joint decision as well (even writing emails to profs saying things like "my wife and I were wondering ...."). My wife already moved once with me to do my MSc in Canada and even though a legal document doesn't really change things, being actually married help made me feel secure when we made the decision together. But I can understand that this would be much harder if I wasn't sure about where our relationship was going!

I've heard some good reviews of Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to go to Grad School by Adam Ruben ( http://www.amazon.ca/Surviving-Your-Stupid-Decision-School/dp/0307589447). I think he is a popular science writer / science journalist as well. Has anyone read it -- if so, any thoughts?

When I choose "4 year public schools" (aka "average"?) and then sort by Assistant Prof salaries, I see that the median value is around $60,000/year. The 25th percentile is $55k and the 75th percentile is around $68k. So it's not so far from your initial guess of $50k. I'm not surprised that this is the starting salary for someone with 4 years (UG) + 5 years (PhD) + 4-6 years (postdocs) of combined education and work experience in the field though. $40k would be way too low for an entry level prof position -- my peers who have entered the workforce after their Bachelors make that much, and by the time I have gotten a PhD and several post-docs, they would have ~10 years of work experience and probably making much more.

I also noticed things that would indicate your prof is right about Tier 1 schools have their pick of applicants since so many people were applying. At the Caltech GPS open house, prospectives went around introducing themselves and their undergrad (current) schools. Out of the ~20 people present, there were about 2 of us (including me) that was not from an Ivy League / Tier 1 school! From meeting the current graduate students in the department, there is a similar fraction of people with highly ranked undergrad schools until you get to ~4th year grad students. It could be a fluke but it did feel like in the past few years, the competition has increased? So I do agree with your prof that the top schools can be very picky. But a 3.9+/4.0 GPA probably isn't required! My GPA is strong but I don't know how it translates to a 4.0 system. But, my subject GRE was barely above the 50th percentile and my current (Canadian) school wouldn't even appear on any of the rankings list. I feel super lucky that I somehow got in! I think your prof definitely provides one useful perspective on admissions, but not everyone necessarily thinks like him/her. When I was applying, I was told that research is the most important element, GPA and GRE should just meet some cutoff (sure it's better to be higher, but there's quickly diminishing returns). So I would say that you don't let "GPA intimidation" scare you away from applying to top programs anyways. Research fit might help you get in. That said, it would be silly (even for 3.9 GPA students) not apply to other schools as well though.

Our TA work here is unionized, and we get paid a little bit less than $40/hour for that. This is about the standard for other schools in Ontario, Canada. However, I know that TAs at my undergrad (UBC) were paid around $28/hour. But these numbers are a bit arbitrary since the number of hours worked is small -- a full TAship for me right now is 9 hours/wk at ~$40/hour but at UBC it's ~12 hours/wk at $28/hour, so the total income from TA work is approximately the same. I think our hourly wage rates for TAs are usually determined by taking whatever X dollars the University deems TA work is worth and then dividing it by the number of hours on the contract. But I know UBC TAs are negotiating for a wage increase (since although they still get as much money as other schools, they have to work many more hours!). Our RA work here is not unionized, and my current contract pay rate is about $25/hour, but again, this is based on some arbitrary number of contract hours. When I was an undergrad, I worked for one prof part time during the school year and he paid me $18/hour for as many hours as I ended up working. When I tutor (privately) undergraduate level courses, I charge my students $30 / hour. I think these numbers (except for the TA wage rate for reasons stated above) are a good estimation of how much our skill and time is worth. Here's another way I think these numbers are good. For a BSc graduate in Canada, the average starting income is around 40,000 to 50,000 per year. Let's say 45,000 for a quick estimate. Divide that by (50 weeks * 37.5 hours/week) and the hourly wage is around $26-$27. Of course, you would also have to factor in how much the work is actually worth! But I would feel comfortable charging people around $30 / hour for "contract" work that requires a skill that I have.

If you are below the University minimum GPA requirement, it is still possible to be admitted, but it will be much harder. The department you are applying to will probably have to convince the Graduate Studies office to admit you. If they want you though, it could happen. The only certain rule about academic rules is that all rules can be bent. I don't know what the rest of your application will look like, and I don't know what the places you are applying to are looking for, so I have no idea if you have a chance to get in, or if there is no chance at all. Most Canadian schools will let you submit your GRE score even if they don't require it. If you have a low GPA, I would strongly recommend submitting anything that would show you are still a strong student. Doing really well on your *subject* GRE score would be really helpful ( I don't think the General GRE would be that useful for biology/zoology/vet med [as you listed in your profile]). GPA and GREs measure different skills though, so I don't think you can say that one can compensate for the other. But, submitting a strong GRE score will strengthen your application.

A second author publication is great since not many will have that, but it's not likely that you will be the only applicant with publication(s). You should be clear in specifying what role you played / how you contributed to that project in your statement of purpose (SOP) -- did you do the lab work? did you write the paper? did you do the analysis? Reviewers will be also interested in what your supervisor for this project writes in their letter of recommendation. The publication itself shows that you have worked on stuff that produced actual results, but they will be interested in how well you worked, and whether or not you would make a good researcher. I don't think a single publication alone is enough to "circumvent" a low GPA because nothing is really clearly defined, there isn't a rubric that says a 3.X GPA is worth Y publications etc. A publication is a great thing to demonstrate your research ability/potential, which is valued by admission committees. It might seem paradoxical that while people say that grad schools care a lot more about your research than your grades but then still care about your GPA. I think it's because they would want the focus of their program and their students to be research, but they want good GPA students so that they know you will not be struggling in their courses. For defining safety schools, I found it useful to ask a mentor in your current department (your research supervisor perhaps) for suggestions on where to apply. Make sure you are getting their honest opinion though, and not someone who will say nice things to you to be encouraging or to avoid hurting your feelings. Get second or third opinions too. There are websites such as gradschoolshopper that might list average/median GPAs of admitted students, or you could look through Chemistry applicant profile threads (if they exist on gradcafe or elsewhere) to see what kind of profiles got into which schools. But I think the most important factor in application is research fit. If you match up really well somewhere, you might end up getting into a higher ranked school that you might have originally thought. Or, a lower ranked school might actually have one of the best groups in your subfield. If in doubt, I would recommend applying to a whole range of rankings, rather than splitting the schools into safeties and not-safeties.

When you decline an offer, you are giving up your interest in the program and thus allow the school to offer the spot to someone else. However, when you accept an offer, there is no legal obligation to actually attend that school. You won't be forced to pay tuition, or anything like that -- you will lose whatever deposits you have paid though. But, even if it's the middle of July and you change your mind, there is nothing that is legally stopping you! If you have already accepted an offer from School A, and you want to change to School B before April 15, then it's not really a big deal. Just accept School B and then tell School A you have changed your mind. It's not ideal, because School A people were probably planning on you arriving. However, it's before April 15, so they can still offer a spot to people on their waitlist. After April 15, School B will probably require you to declare whether or not you have already accepted a previous offer. You would then have to get a "release" from School A and show that to School B before you can accept School B's offer. However, this still does not mean you were legally bound to School A -- this is just something School B requires so that there are no hard feelings between School A & B (i.e. School B is not trying to "poach" School A's students). In addition, School A people will likely be pretty upset at you. But they will almost always give you the letter of release (if you don't want to be there, they won't want you either). Also, there could be a person on School A's waitlist for whom School A is their dream school, but your delay causes them to not get an offer until after April 15, and they might have already accepted an offer somewhere else! There are no real legal consequences to changing your mind after April 15. There will be some reputation damaged though, but it's not necessarily career-ending (although you might not be able to apply to the same department again in the future) if you handle it properly. In the end, everyone realises you have to make the decision that is best for you. You just have to decide if it's all worth it. As future professionals, we will have to make decisions in which someone loses.

UBC has an insanely long waitlist. I would recommend that you apply to all the schools' waitlists now, if possible. Here is UBC ChildCare info: http://www.childcare.ubc.ca As for waitlist times, they say: You might not be in a priority group until you are officially a student, but they are "open to the public" too, so it is possible you can sign up for the waitlist now. When I worked with parents at UBC, they said that they signed up for childcare as soon as they conceived. The website says you're eligible to sign up as long as you have a due date. But since your son will be in the "3-5" age group, you might be able to get a spot within a year, according to the website.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this! Coming from Canada where TAs at all major university are part of a labour union, I was really shocked at some of the ways grad students are actually treated as free labour in some places. One school said that students can take extra TA jobs and I would "get to" keep half of the money I'm paid (wow what a perk!) because the other half goes back to the department (they will reduce my funding in some other place). Another school's TA handbook said that my contract would specify some number of hours, but my supervisor won't care and will expect me to keep working until they are satisfied. I feel that graduate students are vulnerable to exploitation because for most of our education career, we've always known that hard work = reward. If we put extra hours in that paper, lab report, assignment, etc. we would get a better grade. That still applies for our courses and our thesis, but we're no longer students when we work as TAs.

It sounds like you have some pretty good options actually. It's great that you have 2 research recommenders in your field. Not many have that. Here are some points to think about, which I hope you might find useful: 1. Letters describing your research ability are the most useful. Your grades speak for your academic ability, but letters tell your research experience. 2. Being compared to current students at places you're applying to is a good thing. You might be selling yourself short, and Prof A might just write that you are just as good as the last 2 students who went to Harvard and Stanford. 3. At a lot of schools, 3 letters is the minimum, not the maximum. If I was sending 4 letters though, I would pick prof C and then one non-research letter (i.e. don't send more than one non-research letter). 4. You don't have to use the same people for every school. When you decide on the schools and faculty to apply to, send this list out to Profs A-D and ask if they think you would especially benefit from a their letter. Maybe they have collaborators/friends at one of the schools you're applying to, a former student of theirs went there, etc. A letter from someone connected to the school you're applying to is worth much more! Actually the more I think about it, with only the information presented here, I would lean towards Prof C, because I really think research letters are much more important. You should talk to Prof C about your poor grade if you think they will mention in the letter. A letter from Prof C will also emphasize that you were doing research in your freshman year!

I'm also married with no kids. When we made our decision, it was 50/50 research fit and quality of life fit. For the nearby school, my wife visited with me to see what the city was like. I think it's really important to visit before choosing, if that is possible. Is your spouse a student? Mine isn't and from my MSc experience, we learned that college towns could be pretty bi-polar, with very different student and town-resident populations. So, my experience so far in this city (interacting with other students, 90% of whom aren't from this town) has been very different from what my wife is experiencing (interacting with local residents). We also tried to avoid a college town for my PhD because there seems to be tension between the town residents and the student population. I'm just mentioning it because it might be good to keep in mind that your spouse may have a very different experience of the same city!

Hi! I will be going to Caltech this fall (for Planetary Science). I have heard from current students that the "Cats" (Catalina apartments) are pretty nice for starting out. I think we are guaranteed a spot, as first years, but not necessarily in future years so many students eventually move out into the rest of Pasadena. My best friend is a current grad student at Caltech and he lived in the Cats for the first year. He said it was nice but he was ready to move to a bigger/more comfortable place by the first summer (he was selected for lottery for a chance to stay a second year but he moved to a 2 bedroom apt with a friend instead). For my wife and I, we would only qualify for the 1 bedroom "Cats" and they are quite small for us. My wife isn't a student, so we would probably prefer to live off campus anyways. Also, we would be moving our furniture! However, Caltech also owns some off-campus apartments (unfurnished). Applying for a lease is first-come, first-serve, so we put in an application in March. Their off campus apartment leases are nice because you can sign one for multiple years, and it's nice to have a little bit more separation between home and work, for me. The prices for both the off-campus apartments and the Cats are super great, in my opinion, for the Pasadena area. When looking at other places in town, we are prepared to pay around $1200/month -- I think Caltech housing is around $900 for an equivalent place. My wife won't be able to work right away (we're Canadian) so $1200/month will be pretty hard to pay until there is a second income!

I also agree with telling both schools about this excellent award right away (congrats!). You are right, it will increase your chances in getting off a waitlist for sure. However, it won't change how likely they will offer you funding. Most of the time, (and this is from experience!), if you do get a funding offer, there is a condition on it like "subject to change if you receive external funding." Almost all of the time, the school will reduce their funding offer if you get an external award, even after you accept and everything. To be clear, you will (almost) never get LESS than what was originally offered, but it seems like US schools don't give a "bonus" for bringing in outside money, so for example, if your funding offer would have been $25k, and you got this $20k/year award, the school will just give you $5k/year. But there are other non-finanical benefits to having an external fellowship. It will look great on your CV, and it will help you secure other funding and positions in the future. It might mean you do not have to work as a TA at all (although you can probably still do it if you wanted the experience, but it's nice to have the freedom of choice). It also might mean that your advisor will have to spend less money on you, leaving more room in their grant to spend on other things. People have used this leverage to negotiate with their advisor for a "research budget", i.e. X dollars per year set aside for them to buy new equipment, or fund travel to workshops and conferences. Finally, this might allow you to work with someone who you are really interested in, but the prof might not have funding. With your external money, you have a lot more freedom and opportunities. (Although wouldn't it be nice to get a couple extra thousand too? lol)