funding?

[marimbapants]

hey, I know with jobs you're supposed to negotiate your compensation package. is there any room to do this with phd funding offers? Like if I get in to both School A and School B, but School B offers more money. Can I go back to School A and try to get them to match it?

(All theoretical, unfortunately. I've only been accepted at one school so far...)

[hypsipyle]

I've never heard of someone negotiating a PhD funding offer, but this may vary depending on the kind of institution/location (e.g., if it's a school where funding isn't automatically guaranteed for all admitted students, there may be more of an opportunity to negotiate).

At my university (private, U.S.), the funding package for PhD students has been negotiated by our graduate student union and is standard across all departments in the humanities/social sciences. That said, it's possible that there might be some additional internal funding that is specifically earmarked for recruiting students from underrepresented backgrounds that a department might be able to tap from/petition for. However, departments are often willing to offer additional financial support to their incoming students for relevant educational activities undertaken the summer before their PhD begins  — e.g., if an incoming student wants to take an intensive course to get one of their modern languages up to speed, or work on an archaeological dig, my department will typically help fund those opportunities.

[Tekachimi]

On 2/18/2023 at 11:15 PM, marimbapants said:

hey, I know with jobs you're supposed to negotiate your compensation package. is there any room to do this with phd funding offers? Like if I get in to both School A and School B, but School B offers more money. Can I go back to School A and try to get them to match it?

(All theoretical, unfortunately. I've only been accepted at dino game school so far...)

 

It depends on each situation, but it's really hard in general.

[Marcus_Aurelius]

It really depends on the university and their funding structure. One place I got in, a large public university which had a universal funding baseline for PhD students but didn't offer everyone the same funding, did negotiate. Another place had a small number of bonuses that they could offer. And some can't negotiate at all. If you really like a school but the funding seems problematic, I'd say definitely ask the DGS.