What to make of fellowship in offer?

[bob loblaw]

Wassup party people!  Just wanted to gauge how I should view a fully funded offer from a school that includes 2 fellowships (summer & 1 quarter) in addition to TA-ing. 

I really wouldn't mind teaching at all; I'm looking forward to it so just wanted to gauge your thoughts.  Is this pretty standard or should I be extra psyched about this? 

[kingduck]

In addition, what do you all think of an offer that has no GA/TA requirements for funding. How much much consideration should that be given over another offer with GA/TA requirements for all 4-5 years.

[Nothalfgood]

20 hours ago, bob loblaw said:

Wassup party people!  Just wanted to gauge how I should view a fully funded offer from a school that includes 2 fellowships (summer & 1 quarter) in addition to TA-ing. 

I really wouldn't mind teaching at all; I'm looking forward to it so just wanted to gauge your thoughts.  Is this pretty standard or should I be extra psyched about this? 

For full disclosure, I'm a domestic student, and I've been accepted to a wide range of schools this season. The relative prestige of the programs seem not to correlate with the generosity of the fellowships at all based on my offers. As such, I'm personally trying not to read too much into the implications of fellowship offers on whether the departments view me as one of their top applicants or anything like that. I'd guess some of them are given to me because I'm a domestic student and others are sort of standard (like the summer teaching ones). This isn't to deflate your achievement -- I'd just suggest you factor these into your decision the way you would the stipend offers. If it means a significant difference in your quality of life, then be psyched. If it's a paltry differential, then I'd let it not be a distraction from more important criteria.

9 hours ago, kingduck said:

In addition, what do you all think of an offer that has no GA/TA requirements for funding. How much much consideration should that be given over another offer with GA/TA requirements for all 4-5 years.

I think TA requirements are like prelim requirements -- if you really don't want to teach (resp. take prelim exams), then this matters a lot, but if you don't know what to think about it, then don't worry about it. Practically everyone does it, so chances are that you'll be fine. I personally would like to teach in grad school as much as is reasonably possible, though, so don't take my word for it. What is your opinion on teaching? Do you intend to pursue a career in academia, or will it be a distraction from better things for you?

[bayessays]

In my opinion, you should be basically asking yourself 3 questions about a fellowship - forget anything about prestige.

1. How much money will it give you over the 5 years?

2. How much time will it save you from doing stuff you don't want over 5 years?

3. Will it give you flexibility in finding an advisor? (For instance, since I have a fellowship, professors don't have to find me themselves so I had more freedom to work with who I wanted)

[Stat Assistant Professor]

Agreed, I would weigh a fellowship offer very heavily. I was on fellowship where I only had to teach/TA for one year. The other three years were totally free to spend on courses and research. This ultimately shaved an entire year off of the (typical) PhD completion time -- finished in 4 years instead of 5, because I only had to focus on my research after the second year, and I had no other responsibilities. 

It should be noted that if you are interested in academia, then finishing "faster" is *NOT* always advised. If you're waiting for an Annals of Statistics or JASA paper to be accepted, then it's better to wait another year so you can have that on your CV. This way, you will be more competitive on the job market (and you can also get other papers done/accepted/published too in that time). However, being able to finish faster is great if you want to go into industry or if you have a good postdoc lined up that can make your profile more competitive than it would be if you stayed another year in the PhD program. 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Stat Assistant Professor

[Stat Phd]

Not having to TA is a blessing, you should weigh that heavily, unless there’s a big difference in the department rankings.