Negotiating

[PaperChaser]

I've been visiting schools over the past month, and some of the PhD students have mentioned that they used their acceptances to one or more other schools to get a better deal from their first choice (but lower stipend) school. Has anyone on here actually had experience "negotiating up" with a program? It seems like the stipends are set in stone, but I've heard enough people say otherwise to put it forth to the group....

For instance, if School A offers $12k/yr for 5 yrs (total=$60k), School B offers $20k/yr for 4 years (total=$80k), School C offers $15k/yr for 4 years (total=60K), and School D offers a weird combination of $14.5k for 2 years and then $16.5k for 3 years (total=$78.5k? I'm guessing on that one!)....is it possible to sort of negotiate the discrepancies? I don't want to have to choose solely based on funding if I can finagle something else.

Any suggestions would be welcome! I'm not accustomed to what's "acceptable" pushing of the boundaries in academia....eeek.

[JustChill]

I'm doing exactly that right now! So far so good.

[fromeurope]

If the school offer the same funding for all their students it might be problematic. Or, I should hope so at least (I see this as an advantage). If they deploy variable funding -- well, then I guess it should be doable.

Edited March 8, 2010 by p7389

[Cimorene]

I was offered an excellent package at one school, and 2 ok packages at others, and the head of the graduate program at both of the "ok packages" schools have encouraged me to negotiate. They both said that they could try to get more money for me, "to make a more competitive offer," as they said. One program actually had that in their acceptance email. I'm still trying to figure out what to do, though. I'm pretty sure that neither school will be able to match the other's stipend/fellowship deal, because they just don't have the budget. But it's accepted practice to negotiate. They accepted you, now they want you. Also, they can't reject you now that they've offered you a spot, so it's not like it can hurt to ask.

[greekdaph]

At both schools where I received, at a later point in the process, an offer better than the initial one, I didn't have to negotiate directly: instead, at one school, current students to whom I expressed concerns about funding reported those concerns to the DGS, and then the DGS sent me an e-mail saying that she might be able to give me a far, far better offer (like, $6000/year better) if I waited another week or so to make my decision. At the other school, the department nominated me for a fellowship I didn't receive, then, without my having to ask, made up the financial difference with their own funds after the fellowship fell through. The latter department, I might add, is one that gives all incoming students the same funding package. In other words, there is certainly room to negotiate at many programs--the specifics depend on the program itself, as some just don't have the money and some would use that money to support students who otherwise wouldn't receive funding at all. If money really is the deciding factor for you, bring it up to the DGS: he or she will want to know not only for your case, but in order to make a case to the graduate school or university administration that the department is losing talented students because it can't compete financially.

[BelleOfKilronen]

Congrats on your acceptances, PaperChaser!

I wanted to expound a bit on something that p7389 eluded to RE: schools that have equal funding for all students. For some applicants (myself included), it's a big plus to be in a program that has equal funding for all its students, since variable funding can sometimes cause tension between students. I would be pretty bummed if I found out that the school I accepted at, which touts the fact that it funds everyone evenly, was actually not doing so.

All that said, if you're looking at institutions that are open about having variable funding packages, I think you should try to secure as much funding as you can. And if you are looking at negotiating your funding up at schools that traditionally fund equally, I would just be aware that, if they find out about it, fellow students might respond negatively to the fact that the program misrepresented itself.

No matter what you decide to do, good luck with your decision-making. Despite being super-exciting, it's pretty stressful!