Negotiate for more Funding?

[t11]

I am in the fortunate position of being accepted to my top-choice school, which I will refer to as school "A," with great funding. One of my advisers (a Graduate Student Services Coordinator at my undergraduate institution, school "B") is, however, encouraging me to try and "negotiate" for a slightly better offer (i.e., an extra summer of funding). I feel a bit uncomfortable taking her advise. I don't know how, or to whom, I would broach this topic. She insists it is very common; she deals with this sort of stuff regularly at school "B." I'm not sure, though, if this is also the case at school "A." Their offer is already quite generous. I don't want them to think I am ungracious by asking for more money. At the same time, if this kind of negotiating process is truly the norm, I don't want to sell myself short just out of timidity. Does anyone have any advise here?

[MadameNon]

I've done this with some success in the past. I corresponded with the graduate adviser of the program and told her I'd been advised that in some circumstances, such-and-such funding (in your case, summer) was available in similar programs and would program A be in a position to offer me some of this kind of funding? I also let her know, vaguely, why I required the funding (so for you, maybe you hope to work on a language or have specific travel or research you could be doing).

[wanderlust07]

I would say it's possible to attempt negotiation--carefully and tactfully--without appearing "ungracious," esp. at schools that offer competitive funding (as opposed to ones that offer pretty much the same package to everyone). Regardless of how ivory tower our view of grad school occasionally is, it is still a business (and our way into a larger one).

It will go much better if you have leverage of some sort (and if you haven't already made it clear you are super excited to attend Awesome U and would never, ever consider going anywhere else). Are you an attractive candidate for whom an extra summer of funding would make a deal of difference (I assume your advisor suggested this as something possibly achievable and useful to you). Even better: do you have an offer from Equally Awesome U? If you can (truthfully) suggest you would be better off financially elsewhere, it might make sense to go for it.

Of course, I'm the sort of person who's sickeningly grateful to have a fully funded offer from anywhere at the moment, so take the above with a grain o' salt.

[t11]

Thank you Madamenon and Wanderlust07! I appreciate your insight very much. The funding I am considering requesting would be for language study over this coming summer (as this school mandates that its graduate students complete one language requirement in the first year). I feel like mine is a legitimate request, but I am still feeling shy about asking. There is a campus visit this week, so I think I will try to gauge the situation while I am there. Thanks again!

[TransnationalHistory]

Thank you Madamenon and Wanderlust07! I appreciate your insight very much. The funding I am considering requesting would be for language study over this coming summer (as this school mandates that its graduate students complete one language requirement in the first year). I feel like mine is a legitimate request, but I am still feeling shy about asking. There is a campus visit this week, so I think I will try to gauge the situation while I am there. Thanks again!

I would ask a current grad student. That said, I don't think most universities give funding before a student officially starts their first semester, so I doubt that's something you could negotiate. As far as the language requirement, you will be required to take a test, but if you fail the first time around you just get enrolled in a language class the first year...so I wouldn't worry about that. As for negotiating about summer funding in general, I don't know your field, but I've found that for history, even schools that only promise one year of funding often make it easy to get summer funding every year as long as you have a good reason for needing it (archival research, language learning, etc.)...you'll just have to apply to a few available scholarship funds.

[wanderlust07]

I would ask a current grad student. That said, I don't think most universities give funding before a student officially starts their first semester, so I doubt that's something you could negotiate. As far as the language requirement, you will be required to take a test, but if you fail the first time around you just get enrolled in a language class the first year...so I wouldn't worry about that. As for negotiating about summer funding in general, I don't know your field, but I've found that for history, even schools that only promise one year of funding often make it easy to get summer funding every year as long as you have a good reason for needing it (archival research, language learning, etc.)...you'll just have to apply to a few available scholarship funds.

Ah. This. Generally, once your foot is in the door, it's possible to apply for funds within the department (or university wide) for things like specific research or conference travel. They are more competitive at some schools and in some fields than others, and a current grad student is a good person to ask for this info. I'm not sure how available it would be for something like a regular series of summer coursework at the university (for which you would ordinarily be paying them tuition), but you could ask a current grad who has presumably filled those requirements.

[TransnationalHistory]

Ah. This. Generally, once your foot is in the door, it's possible to apply for funds within the department (or university wide) for things like specific research or conference travel. They are more competitive at some schools and in some fields than others, and a current grad student is a good person to ask for this info. I'm not sure how available it would be for something like a regular series of summer coursework at the university (for which you would ordinarily be paying them tuition), but you could ask a current grad who has presumably filled those requirements.

Well since they got a funded offer, I'm assuming they are not paying any tuition. And since they said it was their top-school with good funding, I'm also assuming that their is a good chance that it won't be so far for them to get as much summer funding as they want. My evidence is just based on the two programs I got into, but grad students in each have made it very clear that if want it, it's pretty easy to get. So I'd say the OP should ask grad students before they put themselves in a potentially uncomfortable situation.