The finer details of funding offers

[fuzzylogician]

So I'm an international student and am worried that I'm missing important details when reading my funding offers.

- First off, what difference does is make if my stipend is payed over 9 months or over the entire year? What do ppl usually do if it's only over 9 months--do they get a job over the summer? save? What do foreign students do (since visa restrictions make work in the US more difficult)?

- Second, how do I know if my stipend is livable--that I'll be able to afford to rent a room/small apt and eat (not just Ramen), etc? More to the point, can a person live off 20-22K in the big cities (NYC, LA, Boston..)?

- Health insurance: I know it's a big issue in the US; is the insurance the university offers usually good enough?

- Other fees: what are those? If it's not mentioned in a certain package, am I to assume I'll be paying some undisclosed amount myself?

- Anything else I'm missing?

Thanks in advance!

[barry_86404]

So I'm an international student and am worried that I'm missing important details when reading my funding offers.

- First off, what difference does is make if my stipend is payed over 9 months or over the entire year? What do ppl usually do if it's only over 9 months--do they get a job over the summer? save? What do foreign students do (since visa restrictions make work in the US more difficult)?

- Second, how do I know if my stipend is livable--that I'll be able to afford to rent a room/small apt and eat (not just Ramen), etc? More to the point, can a person live off 20-22K in the big cities (NYC, LA, Boston..)?

- Health insurance: I know it's a big issue in the US; is the insurance the university offers usually good enough?

- Other fees: what are those? If it's not mentioned in a certain package, am I to assume I'll be paying some undisclosed amount myself?

- Anything else I'm missing?

Thanks in advance!

9 months means you will have to find some work for the summer. Being international you will have to find a job on campus for the summer since your vista will most likely not only allow working off campus . The stipend is livable but you will have to live like a college student. The heath insurance on campus isn't the best but most likely you wont ever need to visit the doctor but if you do they can help you and other fees mean that they just cover tuition. Every college has alot of little fees like recreation fee and lab fees if you take labs. But there are always student loans incase your in a bind and can't afford it but its awesome your getting a stipend that is as good as that

[miratrix]

I can answer one part of your question - you can definitely live in Boston and LA on 20-22K, I don't know about NY personally. You won't be rich but you won't be miserable either.

Also, you can usually estimate the undisclosed amounts of fees from lists of this year's fees on university websites. If not, ask someone from the program.

[ohheygradschool]

Try something like this - http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofli ... iving.html - to get a feel for cost of living in the different cities. I'm sure there are international versions somewhere... just google and you'll probably find a ton.

[latenight]

another thing i've been thinking about as i'm weighing cost of living (in my case, between atlanta and NY) is the car factor. when you throw car insurance into the mix (i got a quote for $350 for 6 months in atlanta, double that in LA), as well as gas and maintenance, it evens things out quite a bit.

[rising_star]

You definitely don't have to work during the summer if you set some money aside during the 9 months you are getting paid.