Fellowship or Assistantship?

[pavloviandoggy]

This may've been asked in some form before, but I'm deciding between a slightly less prestigious program. Here's the background.

1.School A offered me a $17K Fellowship stipend guaranteed for four years School B offered an assistantship with $14,500.

2.They're both in cities where it's possible to get a decent one bedroom for under $700, though School B is slightly less congested.

3.School B has been around longer, so it might be easier to connect with alumni on a job search. However, School A says that they've never had a problem with people having trouble finding a job in their field.

4.School B has been ranked higher and is more competitive. All my cohorts who applied to School A that I talked to at Open House were rejected from School B (They brought it up, then asked me if I applied when I looked uncomfortable).

5. I stayed with a graduate student in School B, who told me she taught all four years.

I'm honored that I was given a fellowship. It's also my impression that I'll spend less time doing grunt work and more time doing research to put on my CV. I've been biting my nails over my decision for a month. My gut tells me to take the fellowship. What do you guys think?

PS I accidentally posted this in the wrong section if this looked familiar. Is there a way to delete a topic?

[Medievalmaniac]

This may've been asked in some form before, but I'm deciding between a slightly less prestigious program. Here's the background.

1.School A offered me a $17K Fellowship stipend guaranteed for four years School B offered an assistantship with $14,500.

2.They're both in cities where it's possible to get a decent one bedroom for under $700, though School B is slightly less congested.

3.School B has been around longer, so it might be easier to connect with alumni on a job search. However, School A says that they've never had a problem with people having trouble finding a job in their field.

4.School B has been ranked higher and is more competitive. All my cohorts who applied to School A that I talked to at Open House were rejected from School B (They brought it up, then asked me if I applied when I looked uncomfortable).

5. I stayed with a graduate student in School B, who told me she taught all four years.

I'm honored that I was given a fellowship. It's also my impression that I'll spend less time doing grunt work and more time doing research to put on my CV. I've been biting my nails over my decision for a month. My gut tells me to take the fellowship. What do you guys think?

PS I accidentally posted this in the wrong section if this looked familiar. Is there a way to delete a topic?

My question would be, will school A give you a chance to teach later down the line? Because that experience is invaluable (and sort of expected) when you go on the job search.

Aside from that, I would yell heck, yeah, take the fellowship!!

And congratulations on having such an awesome dilemma to have to wokr through - funded, or funded? Great for you!!!

[runonsentence]

I have a friend in a very, very similar situation—fellowship or TAship? And I think the answer is all in what you want to do most at the end of the degree.

If you were to see yourself doing teaching-intensive work, for instance, or know that teaching will be part of your eventual career, the TAship will mean good experience. If you plan to pursue a more research-oriented career, a fellowship will give you more time to work toward that as a graduate student.