Which of these MA offers is more viable financially?

[Ilikekitties]

I'm thinking that Starkville is the most viable option at this point. Am I mistaken?

 

 

 

	Stipend amount	FTE	Duration	Renewable	Tuition	Fees	Health coverage
Corvallis, OR	$1,131/month	0.3	18/19 Academic year	Yes	Waived	90% remitted	Pay for separately
Starkville, MS	$1,200/month, plus $2500 one-time fellowship		18/19 Academic year	Yes	71% waived (leaves fees)	$2400/year fees	Pay for separately
College Park, MD	Waitlisted for funding

Edited March 13, 2018 by GameofLoans16

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

What is the cost of living for each area? What is the FTE at Starkville? How many fees are left after 90% remittance? 

[Ilikekitties]

10 minutes ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

What is the cost of living for each area? What is the FTE at Starkville? How many fees are left after 90% remittance? 

According to Google, Starkville is cheaper than Corvallis. The FTE at Starkville wasn’t given, it just says there’s a max of 20 hours/week. Idk what the fees are at OSU.

Edited March 13, 2018 by GameofLoans16

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

How much cheaper? max of 20 hours a week is typically 0.5 FTE.  

[Ilikekitties]

9 minutes ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

How much cheaper? max of 20 hours a week is typically 0.5 FTE.  

Yes, that’s what the letter said officially. Idk what TAs teach in actuality.

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

A TAship can mean many things. You could be working as a grader, leading a seminar from a larger lecture, leading your own class (not attached to lecture), be in charge of a lecture and/or be the instructor of record. It could also mean working in writing centers or similar institutions or in an admin office or for a different department, depending on availability of positions and you department/school's policies. 

[Ilikekitties]

9 minutes ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

A TAship can mean many things. You could be working as a grader, leading a seminar from a larger lecture, leading your own class (not attached to lecture), be in charge of a lecture and/or be the instructor of record. It could also mean working in writing centers or similar institutions or in an admin office or for a different department, depending on availability of positions and you department/school's policies. 

My potential advisor said that I’d lead breakout sessions in groups of 20

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

So that's what you teach. First year it's most likely an intro class, but that might also vary by program.

 

[rising_star]

You should be able to find OSU's fees online if you do some research.

[Ilikekitties]

5 minutes ago, rising_star said:

You should be able to find OSU's fees online if you do some research.

From what I saw it looked like they combined fees and tuition into one sum.

[rising_star]

19 minutes ago, GameofLoans16 said:

From what I saw it looked like they combined fees and tuition into one sum.

They have to be broken out somewhere on a website, otherwise people wouldn't actually know what they're supposed to pay. Or you could ask current students about it. But if you're trying to make a well-reasoned financial decision, you need all of the information.

[Ilikekitties]

8 minutes ago, rising_star said:

They have to be broken out somewhere on a website, otherwise people wouldn't actually know what they're supposed to pay. Or you could ask current students about it. But if you're trying to make a well-reasoned financial decision, you need all of the information.

Ok, yeah. I’ll have to talk to someone about it because I can’t find the info online.

[maengret]

Hi @GameofLoans16 and congrats on your offers! There's a few too many unknowns for me to say for sure which is best so far. For my own offers, I did a spreadsheet similar to what you've started. I also did cost of living comparisons between the cities I was considering. According to this one, Starkville's cost of living is 27% cheaper than Corvallis's, so your stipend looks like it will go further there.

My offers had a lot of variations on things like insurance and fees.  I know we're in different disciplines, but I'm listing these from my comparisons in case any of these are helpful to you:

• Is your fellowship in addition to the stipend? (I have a fellowship but that program structures all the funding so that everyone gets the same dollar amount; so my fellowship comes with perks but the cash awarded me doesn't change.)
• Are the monthly stipends for 12 months, 9 months, or 10 months?
• What is the actual cost of your share of insurance? (It looks like OSU covers 88% of insurance, does Starkville (MSU?) cover that much? What are the case costs to you?)
• Does the insurance coverage carry through the summer months? If not, can you opt-in for coverage and at what cost? 
• What is the TA courseload? (Mine all are 20 hours/week, but some require teaching 1 course / semester, and some 2 courses / semester. @GreenEyedTrombonist touched on the other differences I saw in my assistantship descriptions)
• How many credit hours are you required to take each semester? (Some of mine require at least 6 hours/semester but one requires a minimum of 9 hours--in addition to the 2-class TA load.)
• Some of my schools had a foreign language requirement that would have necessitated me spending $$ to meet the requirement. The classes wouldn't count toward my degree, just the requirement. Are there any similar requirements in your programs that would make you pay for courses that add to your tuition or program length?
• Is working outside of school explicitly against policy? (Some of my offers don't allow this and one just discourages it. My fellowship comes with the stipulation that I don't work outside school. The school that had the least favorable insurance program does not allow for outside work; I thought it would have been hard for me to ensure I could pay for insurance without at least overlapping school and work at some points of the year.)

Good luck!

Edited March 13, 2018 by maengret