TA Stipend and Living Expenses

[Kernel]

Greetings,

I was recently fortunate enough to receive a Ph.D. offer at a desirable school with a TA stipend, but I'm becoming increasingly worried that it's not enough to pay for my anticipated living expenses, given the city's high COL.

When would it be advisable that I decline such an offer if I manage to get offers where I don't face a problem like this to the same extent?

Also, is it possible that I could look for other forms of funding at this stage?

Thanks!

[TakeruK]

Congratulations on the offer. If you are worried about cost of living and your stipend, you should definitely look into that further. I'm not sure how much research you have done yet but look up rents from actual postings. Definitely talk to graduate students currently in the program and find out how they are making ends meet.

If you have done research and are still worried about the funding, then you can talk to the program about it. Email your potential advisor or someone you have contact with there (maybe the person that sent you the offer) or the graduate coordinator for the department and let them know that you are very interested but you are worried about affording to live there. If you have not been able to reach out to any students yet, this is a good time to ask them to help introduce you to their students. This is also the time to ask if other forms of funding are available. For example you can ask if RAships are available and how you would apply to them or if you can apply to any departmental or institutional fellowships.

As for declining the offer, you should decline the offer as soon as you are 100% certain you will not be attending this school. For example, I personally had a policy of not attending any program where I would have to go into debt, so if no other funding is available, I would decline the offer as soon as I knew that. Or, if you receive another funded offer that is definitely higher on your list than this offer, you can decline them right away**. You don't have to be sure you will accept the other funded offer (you might want to accept yet another offer) but as soon as you know there is another school higher on your list you should decline.

** Exception is when you are still in talks with the original school about finding other funding sources and you would still prefer the original school over the new offer if the funding works out. 

[ashiepoo72]

I agree with everything @TakeruK said. Another thing to consider is, if you get a better funding offer at another place, but you would choose one of the other places that accepted you if the funding situation improved, you might be able to negotiate. At that point you can send an email to the DGS at X University letting them know that: X University would be your top choice, Y University offered you Z funding/summer support/etc, if you had comparable funding/summer support at X University you wouldn't hesitate to accept the offer but this has made your decision more difficult, and is there anything they can do?

This doesn't always work, but it did for me and many of the people I know. The key is to have a comparable program's funding offer in hand and to not be afraid of getting shot down.

[Kernel]

Thanks @TakeruK and @ashiepoo72 for your responses!

On 02/02/2018 at 11:38 PM, TakeruK said:

If you have done research and are still worried about the funding, then you can talk to the program about it. Email your potential advisor or someone you have contact with there (maybe the person that sent you the offer) or the graduate coordinator for the department and let them know that you are very interested but you are worried about affording to live there. If you have not been able to reach out to any students yet, this is a good time to ask them to help introduce you to their students. This is also the time to ask if other forms of funding are available. For example you can ask if RAships are available and how you would apply to them or if you can apply to any departmental or institutional fellowships.

These are excellent suggestions!

[clinicallyindependent]

In a similar boat. The living costs are way to high for me to justify a commitment... most grad students I talked to had LOs that was abled to support them through. Has anyone seen or heard of others who successfully held a part time job throughout their phd careers?