Funding/Financing/ the extent of Stipend for living?

[ruatipoki]

Greetings all I will finish my Mphil mid 2011, looking at entry to US PhD programme thereafter.

I am a little worried regarding my ability to live and finance myself on a PhD.

I have seen figures for Stipend ranging from 16K to 30K etc

Just a couple of questions?

Is a stipend tax free

Do any PhD's include Housing

I am currently working as an RA for a lecturer at the moment, I will enter a PhD with 18 months RA experience

Would the Uni where I would hopefully take up a PhD employee me as an RA or what is the possibility for lecture hours

In essence, I am looking to budget and plan how I will survive, as I would not like to go into debt and run up credit cards etc

Much appreciated

[Jae B.]

For starters, you do have to pay taxes on your stipend.

Others should be more knowledgeable about the rest.

[aginath]

Take any advice you get with a grain of salt as every program and every university is different.

Is a stipend tax free

No, all stipends are subject to state and federal tax.

Do any PhD's include Housing

If there are, I've not encountered one. A better question would be do any assistantships include housing. In which case the answer is yes. Assistantships with housing tend to include an on campus apartment in exchange for serving as a Resident Director of a dorm or coordinator of Family Housing. Some of those also include reduced or free meal plans on campus as well.

I am currently working as an RA for a lecturer at the moment, I will enter a PhD with 18 months RA experience

Would the Uni where I would hopefully take up a PhD employee me as an RA or what is the possibility for lecture hours

This depends heavily on the school and program. I have experience as both a research and a teaching assistant from my Masters. I also have experience as a lecturer for a regional college. However, my department has only 4 teaching assistantships in the entire department (and it is the largest department in the college -- and the college is the largest in the university). Therefore, teaching slots are extremely competitive. If I were in a hard science discipline, like say Biology, I'd probably have no problem getting a lab teaching position given the sheer number of students and classes offered.

FWIW, my assistantship is with the graduate school itself and is "somewhat" an RA (I manage the website). My stipend is about 20K a year before taxes. If I were single and lived in an apartment, I could manage on just my stipend after taxes. It would be tight and I wouldn't go out much, but it could be done. However, I am married and my husband makes a student's salary. Combined, we make enough to make ends meet and still have a few luxuries.

[nescafe]

1. I have seen figures for Stipend ranging from 16K to 30K etc

2. is a stipend tax free?

3. Do any PhD's include Housing?

4. Would the Uni where I would hopefully take up a PhD employee me as an RA or what is the possibility for lecture hours?

1. This is very discipline specific; in the humanities you might expect the lower end of the spectrum; in hard sciences, the higher.

2. Echoing others here, the stipend counts as wage labor and is therefore taxed. However, many universities seperate stipends from other waivers like tuition or fees; and these are not subject to (income) taxes.

3. No, but many schools offer on-campus discounted deals on Graduate Level housing. This might be worth looking into.

4. Most universities in my field (humanities) make solid use of grad students as lecturers. This is how one earns one's stipend in my dept (first as a TA and then as a part time lecturer). I imagine this is not only discipline specific, but school specific as well.

Being in the humanities, my stipend is (of course) very low; I subsidize my living situation with student loans. It is far from the ideal suituation, but it can be done if necessary.... esp. if you are eligible for the subsidized Stafford Loan.

Good luck!