TakeruK

The people that send the immigration form and the people that handle your funding don't really talk to each other and they work on different timescales. I second @GradSchoolTruther's suggestion. Talk to the department and find out what your funding situation is, and then forward that to the people asking for immigration documents. I had a fun/confusing scenario too. In February of my application year, one school sent me the request for financial information well before the April 15 decision deadline and well before I even made any decision. The international office just said that they always send the forms requesting this info ahead of time and I can choose to either fill it in now so it will be ready once I make my decision, or wait until I make a decision and then send the info. So I think what you've done so far is right and now you just need to finalize funding info so you can provide the correct numbers to the international office.

Google Flights is my new favorite way to search. Hipmunk is another option in addition to what the others said. About 2 years ago, I made a mistake using Hipmunk by not realising that picking an outgoing leg limits your return leg options. Now, I believe the site does the two searches separately, so you can pick any two combination.

I think the main two funding sources for Canadians in the US are the Fulbright program and the Tri-Council awards (NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR). It looks like your program is SLP though, which I think is a professional program, so I am very unfamiliar with the funding sources there. The ones I listed are all research PhD programs.

Oh also, this is only true for in-University funding sources. For external awards, such as the NSF GRFP etc. almost all opportunities are limited to citizens only, so we cannot apply for these big external awards. Our best chance is to apply through our home country, if they allow you to take the money to another country. There may be one or two fellowships that might allow for non-international students though, so keep an eye out!

Most US PhD programs that fully fund their students will not fund students on a "two-tiered" system based on citizenship. That is, if they offer a funding package to US students, most programs will also offer the same funding level to international students. However, the amount of money it costs the school to fully fund a student does vary on citizenship. At schools where there are different tuition rates for in-state residents vs. non-residents, American students will be cheaper because they generally will pay in-state rates after first year, while international students have to pay the full cost. This is more often true at public schools. So, although both the international student and the American student will take home the same stipend, the "overhead" costs incurred by the department can be significantly greater for the international student. That said, the department's solution to the funding difference is not to fund international students less. Instead, they would generally accept fewer international students. This makes international student admissions a lot more competitive and in this sense, admission (and thus funding) is awarded on merit, but citizenship will play a factor too. In your case though, you should check each school's funding website to see what the funding is. I think this is appropriate advice for every applicant, not just international students. I'd consider this part of the research you do when looking for what schools to apply to. You don't have to explicitly ask if you will be funded as an international student. If they do not fund international students, they might say it here, so check for that. Otherwise, you can wait until you get an offer letter and see what it says for funding.

I think the advice would vary a lot from location to location. I visited the school you will attend (from your signature, but the astro/space sciences dept, not physics) and many grad students there have purchased homes. There were also other places where houses are so cheap that students can afford to buy. To me, hearing a professor say that 2/3 of students will be kicked out is pretty alarming! I mean, there's normal attrition due to students finding other opportunities, choosing to leave, and occasionally a student failing, but 2 out of 3 students failing does not sound normal to me! (My school has about 70% of students leaving with a PhD, 90% leave with a Masters or PhD, and only 10% leaving with no degree at all).

Well, what do you mean by "resident alien", as different authorities define it differently (e.g. the IRS considers F-1 and J-1 present past 5 years as resident aliens for tax purposes, but we are still non-resident in the sense that are not on an immigration track and we're not on track to be a permanent resident [i.e. green card]). Review the information here: https://www.healthcare.gov/immigrants/lawfully-present-immigrants/ For health insurance marketplace, the term they use is "lawfully present" and this includes F-1 and J-1 (and their dependents). You should also review the information on your future state's marketplace website (if they don't use the federal healthcare.gov, e.g. in California, we use "Covered California") because I think some states might have slightly different regulations. Note that on the website, it lists "valid non-immigrant visas", so you definitely don't have to be on track to residency. The marketplace requirement is to be legally present. When my spouse (J-2) got on the marketplace, the evidence provided was I-94 (proof of legal entry) and DS-2019 (proof of legal J-2 status). I know many other international students with partners or dependents on the marketplace plan too.

For me, I did not want to go into debt to be in grad school. So, like Need Coffee in an IV, I did not apply to schools in high cost of living places if I knew their stipend would be too low. For schools where I didn't know their stipend (or there could be some stipend levels high enough), I did apply but I did end up declining some offers on stipend alone. I don't know what kind of costs you're looking at and how much funding you currently have from the school. I live in Southern California, and I think a "good" stipend to support one person on a decent lifestyle is probably around $28,000 per year (before taxes) and a minimal but comfortable lifestyle probably around $25,000 before taxes. Of course, it's possible to live on less, because a lot of people here live on less as they have no other choice. Grad students at my school have stipends around $30,000, so it's affordable for students who don't have additional expenses (e.g. no dependents, no health conditions) but it leaves very little (if any) for things like visiting family, vacation, a car, etc. You can try to save as much as possible by renting with housemates. A single bedroom here is about $1400/month but many friends can get their rent costs down to $600-$700 per month if they share with 3 or 4 others. Sorry that I can't really give much more practical advice---the cost of living is what it is Loans are certainly one way to cover the costs, and it's up to you if the amount of loans is worth it!

You don't really have a choice about the fee---if you want to attend the school, you will have to pay it. What kind of program are you applying to? Is your offer fully funded otherwise? It sounds like the school is doing something where they separate tuition and fees so that the tuition waiver only covers a part of the costs unlike many other schools where the tuition waiver covers the majority of the costs. But whether or not this is a bad thing depends on what's normal for your field and your program. If this is a research-oriented PhD program in the sciences, I would say this sounds fishy and I would be worried whether or not this is a good school that would give me the opportunities I want or does it exist only to make money from students. Also, whether or not you need to show $5000 or $5000 x 5 years depends on your visa status. Normally, F-1 status only need to show proof of funding for 1 year but I saw that someone else on the forums had their school ask for all 5 years. So you need to check with your school.

I don't think saving $100-$125 per month is worth the tiny space and the ridiculous rules. I suppose the rules make sense only if this is like a room in someone's home and the landlord lives in the rest of the house. But, if the landlord isn't even there and is just renting out rooms in their house with these rules, then that's just crazy. I would also be worried about other weird things happening, like the landlord wanting to do a room inspection every week or something. Like @eternallyephemeral says, the point of living alone is to have independence! I am not a person that likes roommates, but if I needed to save money, I'd choose roommates over this arrangement! Of course, this is a personal choice, just giving my opinion

$2,500 per semester does seem a little bit high for fees. It's hard to know though without the details. You say that insurance is already covered and doesn't count towards this fee? Normally, I would say one could expect fees to be around $500 or so per year without including insurance and then insurance can cost you about $500 to $4000 per year, depending if your TA or RA appointment comes with insurance coverage. Most funded offers include fees though, but I did see/get a few that did not.

This described me around 2007, when I was starting my 3rd year of undergrad and just started to realise that grad school is something I wanted to do and also could actually achieve. Everything changed when during this year, I started talking to professors and got some mentorship on how research works, what academia is, and how to apply for schools. I feel super lucky to have a great mentor like this! I know a lot of my friends in grad school now have parents who were in grad school. I asked them the same question you asked in your post and for the most part, it's a positive thing. There are so many weird "unwritten" rules/conventions in academia that you just don't know about. For example, I had no idea that grad schools pay students and it's like a job instead of accruing more debt. If this was not true, there was no way I could have gone to more school after my undergrad, because it would not be financially possible. My parents are great, supportive and loving people. One finished high school and another had to drop out of high school to help pay the bills for their family. They lived through a war as children/teenagers and immigrated to Canada as war refugees. So, they were also completely in the dark about how academia works. They did value education throughout my whole childhood but when I first said I was considering grad school, their first question was "But you're finishing college, isn't it time to get a job / can't you be a professor now?" They meant this in the best way possible though! But I definitely understand how you are feeling.

Something that a lot of international students don't realise is that you don't have to be a US citizen to qualify for marketplace insurance plans, which might be more affordable than adding your children to your student's insurance plan. Most marketplace / obamacare / ACA websites say something like you must be a US citizen, permanent resident or lawfully present and as long as you are on F-1 or J-1 status legally, then you qualify. My spouse had this for awhile (we're Canadian, so also international) because their work didn't provide insurance and it was way too expensive to add my spouse onto my plan. You can even qualify for government assistance. Generally, if your income is less than 400% of the poverty line then you will qualify for discounted marketplace rates. It might be tricky though, since sometimes you don't qualify for marketplace plans if your school offers a subsidized plan. So, whether or not this will work will depend on the details. (See: https://www.healthcare.gov/immigrants/lawfully-present-immigrants/) As for taxes, you should expect to pay lower taxes than other graduate students because your children count as dependents which increase your deductions. Each dependent is about $4000 of deductions, so including yourself, you have at least $12,000 in deductions (i.e. you would be taxed on $18,000 instead of $30,000). As a non-resident, we don't get to claim a lot of the other deductions though. Finally, don't forget to look on campus for resources for grad student parents too. One place might be cheaper/subsidized housing. My school offers family housing at a very subsidized rate---there are apartments that they rent for $900/month when the market rate for the same unit would be around $1700/month. And, my school also offers grants of up to $4000 to help pay for childcare. A look at UPenn shows they do have similar things, e.g. http://www.familycenter.upenn.edu/grants.php It looks like UPenn's grant is more generous than my school (we can only use it for childcare) but UPenn also allows you to put that $4000 towards health insurance costs etc. It's not 100% clear if this is money available to international students, but it doesn't say citizens only so it might be okay.

The requirement for the school to issue an I-20 is proof of funding for the first year. However, you can think of it as a minimum requirement, since it's the school's choice whether to issue any form. I had a similar problem with another school---I wanted to be on J-1 status (so my spouse on J-2 can work) and the requirement for J-1 status is that the "majority" of the funding, for the whole program, is not personal funds. I definitely met this condition as the department was paying for tuition and stipend for all the years of the program. However, their school's international office just refused to issue a DS-2019 for J-1 status because they don't want to sponsor students on J-1 (only postdocs and faculty). I asked the department that admitted me this and they didn't even know that students can be on J-1; they have never had one before! In the end there were other reasons for me to go elsewhere, so I didn't push it further, but it would definitely have been a dealbreaker. Another thing you mention is that the I-20 is longer than your expected degree program. This is normal. My DS-2019 is for 6 years, which is the maximum program length (unless you petition for an extension) even though most people will finish in 5 years. The I-20s and DS-2019s are almost always issued for the maximum time because it's easier to do that than to have to change it if you don't finish in time (and especially bad if you forget that it expires). Here are some things you might be able to do in your situation: 1. Clarify with the international student office that you actually do have to provide evidence for $120,000 (5 years) instead of just the first year ($24,000?). 2. Talk to your department and ask if you can get a funding offer from them for 5 years, so this will cover at least $100,000 out of the $120,000. (If this is not already done). 3. Get your department to let the international office know that this is really only a 3 year program and that the I-20 should only be for 3 years, so you would need to show $72,000 in funds (minus $60,000 from the department). I know that options 2 and 3 still require a big chunk of money from you, which might not be feasible, but it might help. Although, since it sounds like it will cost you $4000 out of pocket each year, this means you should have at least some way to pay $12,000 over the next 3 years anyways? What is your plan to get these funds and is there some way you can accelerate it? In general though, my advice would be to clarify the request from the international office and then get your department to be on your side. Maybe the department can convince the international student office that just one year on the I-20 is enough because they are promising to fund you for duration of the degree.

It really depends not only from school to school but also from person to person at the school! Most graduate students will get W-2s if they are funded by graduate assistantships. My friends who are funded by fellowships get 1099-MISC slips (1042-S if you're international). It's hard to know for certain which tax form you will get because even if you work as a TA or RA, you might still be paid as a fellowship (i.e. they consider your TA or RA work as part of your education instead of employment). You could contact your school now and ask if they would know what slip they will produce (they might not be able to answer until you are fully entered into the system though, i.e. after you arrive).

Although the GPA is a summary statistic they use, most programs I'm aware of do not simply stop at the GPA. They will review your full transcript and take into account specific grades for relevant courses and also which courses were taken. So, courses after your degree still matter. However, as others said, you shouldn't count this in calculating your overall undergrad GPA (although if they asked for something like "GPA for the last 60 credit-hours" then you should count them).

ETS do not allow you to submit the best scores from each test separately. Their policies recommend that schools and students consider all three parts (essays, quant and verbal) as one complete set of scores. This means that when you submit your scores, if you want the school to see your good essay score along with your other quant and verbal score, you must submit both sets of scores (and the school will see the zeros/no-scores for the two sections you didn't take). It's up to each school to decide whether or not they will allow this. I don't think schools should allow this---it's not fair to accept a score where the test taker did not complete the whole exam. But it's not my decision! Now that you have already done this, emailing the school and asking how to proceed was the right thing to do. But for others reading this, if you plan to do this, I would email the school before taking the GRE exam with essay-only so that you don't waste money if a school does not allow this. For question 2, schools generally will not accept applications if there are no more openings. But if it's a rolling admissions type place and they have not yet closed their applications, if you apply after they have already selected a candidate, they will probably quickly check to make sure you're not more qualified than that candidate and if so, they will probably accept you over the current best-candidate. If not, then they will reject you. If the spot is already filled (the candidate accepted their offer) and there is no more funding to open an extra spot then they will probably reject you (maybe if they realise their mistake, they might refund your application fee but I wouldn't count on it).

I mean, they can't force you to attend their program lol. So if your final decision is to try to apply at other schools instead of attending this fall, the school's only decision is only whether or not they will hold a place for you for Fall 2017.

I think this IRS publication will be helpful to you: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p505/ch02.html. A direct link to the married taxpayers section is: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p505/ch02.html#en_US_2016_publink1000194572. I believe that if you and your spouse are filing jointly**, then the rules for whether or not you have to pay quarterly estimated tax payments depend on your joint income and joint tax owing. So, this might mean you could, in theory, avoid having to make quarterly tax payments if your spouse has their witholding high enough to cover your stipend too. I'm not 100% sure if this is true though---you should ask a tax expert. Personally, I probably would not choose this option either, I'd say it's better to ensure each spouse either has enough withholdings or pays quarterly taxes so that they each pay enough taxes. This plan is more robust to things like income changing over the course of the year etc. (**see the links for more information on conditions of doing this; one big one is that both spouses must be residents of the US for tax purposes!)

To me, it sounds like the POI has no vested interest in you at all. This doesn't necessarily make them a bad person, since after all, you are not currently their student and they probably have little motivation or desire to go "to bat" for you at their new school. While I would still think poorly of them for "leading you on", so to speak, at their old school (in my experience, profs who plan to move purposely avoid all contact with prospective students), it's probably best to leave it in the past and forget about this person. I feel like you might be putting more emphasis on advisor name than typical (but as rising_star says, you might be in a field where it's more important than most fields). And to be honest, if there is a school where there is only one person that has the "star name recognition" and that person is leaving, then it's likely the school's brand name itself isn't going to be that great. So, if the only reason you had applied to this school was this professor, it might make sense to wait a year and apply elsewhere to places that are better fits. But if you were also interested in other work at this school, then I'd probably stay at the school. In the end, your PhD advisor will be more important anyways.

I had to do that too! Weird. Also, my school wanted me to get a full physical exam and submit many immunization records and test results. It did remind me that I was due for the MMR booster shot though, so that was nice. April 15 is just the deadline for making the decision. Many schools don't even start talking to students about getting the I-20 stuff sorted out until after April 15 craziness is over. As Happington said, remember that the school's International Office is now your friend and ally in this process. They are here to make life easier for you, not harder! Ultimately, it's still our job and our responsibility to ensure we follow US Immigration laws, but it's their job to ensure the University keeps up their responsibilities too. I might be spoiled because my school's International Office is super great and I've heard less good things at other places due to how busy they are. So while response times might be slow, it's nice to know that this office will be a resource for you during your degree as you have to navigate all the immigration red tape.

Funding and other financial support were important to me, but only to the extent that they would meet my needs. I am also married and we factored our future plans into picking the best school. Ultimately, out of my top 3 choices, we picked the one with the best research and location fit but it was the one with the lowest stipend (after adjusting for cost of living). However, it was enough to live on as long as my spouse found a job (it was tricky because we're Canadians so there were some hoops to jump through). I'll be honest and say that the first year we were digging into our savings a bit and stress levels were high---would not want to do that again). However, we made the decision for the long term because we knew my spouse would find great work and we've since recouped our savings and even added some to it. During that first year, sometimes we regret not going for the higher financial offer ($8000 more per year but a terrible location and the research fit turned out to be poorer than I had thought). But now, it's clear we made the best decision for both of us! (Luckily, being Canadian, we were able to work during our undergrad and pay our own tuition through part time and summer work). I would also say that when considering financial support, it's more than just the stipend amount. Consider all the factors that matter to you. For example, although my current school offered the lowest stipend (adjusted for cost of living), they had other great support structures, some of it were also financial ($1200 per year per dependent to cover health insurance, up to $4000 per year for childcare, subsidized housing for families etc.) and some just policies (better than federal minimum pregnancy and parental leave, a culture that supports parents and a life outside of academia, a department that supports both academic and non-academic career paths etc. etc.) I mention these things because it's part of planning for the future but also, the point of having money beyond minimum living is to "buy happiness" (to an extent) and these other factors contribute to your happiness too.

Yeah, I would wait and see. Did the school specifically request a bank statement from you for X dollars? If not, you might not even need to show your savings, if your TAship + tuition waiver meets the determined minimum funding required for your program. For us Canadians, there is no real rush to get our I-20s because we don't need to get a visa prior to moving to the US. We would just need the I-20 to officially enter on F-1 status and we do this at the border. You would want your I-20 a little bit before you leave so you can pay SEVIS fee (you need your I-20 numbers to do this). But basically, as long as you get it about a week before you plan to enter the US, you will be fine. This leaves lots of time for back and forth between the school and you to get all the documents right.

If you are worried about making the conversion "more official", you can also attach a printout of the Bank of Canada published currency exchange rates (http://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/exchange/). It's what you would use to convert for tax returns and I've used it before to get reimbursements in other currencies. As Happington says, the University will have to determine whether it's good enough and issue the I-20 if they find it satisfactory. My advice would be to bring the same proof of funding with you when you enter the US, just in case, but the border agent should be satisfied with the I-20 showing the dollar amounts.

Maybe a difference in fields then! Sorry if this wasn't relevant to philosophy programs (still, I'd say it won't hurt to ask, if it was not already April 14)