vague not concrete offer

[stuckinthemiddle]

I have a few offers for graduate schools, but the one who's program I am most interested in has a sort of vague offer.

I was asked to please make a decision as quickly as possible, but I wasn't given an official offer letter when I asked about it they said they generally give offer letters closer to the start of the school year, but they were able to tell me:

"we anticipate your appointment to be $XXXXX a year (which is a number I find to be on the low side given cost of living) as a .XX FTE (less hours than I've been offered at another school)"

So what do I do if I'd like a little more money, but I don't feel like my offer is set in stone?

Does this mean that I could accept and then the amount or number of hours could change (either up or down)?

What would you do?

[tragicomix]

I think asking the school or department for more details about the offer would be the first step.

[stuckinthemiddle]

I think asking the school or department for more details about the offer would be the first step.

Asking for the offer letter got me the information I have. I guess I could go back and ask strait up what "anticipating your appointment" means and if there was any potential for greater funding, but I feel like I don't have much leverage given that they haven't given the straitest of answers on the offer

[LJK]

I think you should ask your questions straight up as you say. How much more do you like this school? Enough more that you are willing to go into debt? If the school isn't giving you a concrete offer then they have no obligation to give you much of anything once the school year approaches. I think you are perfectly within your rights to say something to the effect of "Since you don't send out offer letters with admission, and I am comparing your anticipated appointment with concrete appointments at other universities as I make my decision, I have some questions about the anticipated offer:" Then ask about the potential ranges of stipends - and how likely it is that the stipend will be higher/lower than the anticipated amount, since COL is a concern ask how much debt students with comparable stipends accumulate over the course of the program, how many hours are typical for grads in their program, how likely are you to continue to get an appointment of equal or greater stipend in future years, etc. If this is really your top choice and the money issues are all that is standing in the way of accepting the offer, let that be known - they may be more willing to work with you.

Maybe to them, the offer isn't vague - they expect to give you the stipend quoted and perhaps they expect less hours than other universities. If you explain your concerns with the 'anticipated' part, they will have a chance to explain themselves - if they stay vague you may want to seriously consider choosing one of your other options - you don't want to have to worry constantly about money for the next 5 years. I have done it for the past year with my funded-if-we-have-spare-TA/RA-lines-after-funding-the-PhD-students MS, and well, it sucks. You get to a point every semester where you are avoiding spending any money with the possibility of paying rent for the next 6 months out of the money currently in your bank account. Don't be shy/nervous/etc. about making sure that the financial end of things will be taken care of before accepting the offer.

[neuropsychosocial]

"we anticipate your appointment to be $XXXXX a year (which is a number I find to be on the low side given cost of living) as a .XX FTE (less hours than I've been offered at another school)"

The first part strikes me as legalistic language: if the department's budget is cut by 50% next month, they have some wiggle room in the contract that they offered you. On the second point, it might be worth checking to see what .XXFTE means to your department. I'm moving from a master's program that talks about "100%" and "50%" appointments to a doctoral program that talks about "50%" and "25%" appointments: they mean the same thing (20 hours or 10 hours of work, with a full or half tuition remission), but my master's program talks about appointments relative to graduate appointments (i.e., 20 hours/full remission is "100%" of the possible offer to a grad student), while the doctoral program talks about it relative to full-time employees, who work 40 hours per week. I'm still having a hard time adjusting my language and I briefly panic each time that a new document arrives noting that I have a 50% appointment. I wonder if it's possible that your department has a similar situation, where they use a different FTE% than most schools use to mean the same thing.