How much will money factor in your decision?

[t_ruth]

Hi all.

I tried to post a poll about this, but don't seem to be able to post a poll in decisions, decisions...

It would have looked something like:

a.) I will go to the best program regardless

b.) I will go to the best program as long as they give me a certain minimum

c.) I will go to the program w/the most money as long as it is in the top ten

d.) I will go to the program w/the most money as long as it is in the top 25

e.) Money will be a factor, but will be weighed against program reputation, etc.

f.) I will go where they give me the most money, period

g.) Other

(keeping in mind stipend amount can/should be adjusted by cost of living).

I'm having some trouble because my best programs aren't giving me as much and they are in ridiculously high cost-of-living areas and the lowest ranked program in very low cost-of-living area is throwing money at me

anyone thinking of this stuff? discuss....

thanks!

[lifeincartoonmotion]

Such a good question.

I'm still waiting to hear about money. But it looks like I won't be able to go without it, I don't want to be in debt for the rest of my life.

[jackassjim]

Short answer: More than I would like it too.

[socialpsych]

b.) I will go to the best program as long as they give me a certain minimum.

But I think my favorite program is also going to be the one with the best funding. Yay!

[dagger]

e. ) I already have my top choice determined, but if I was to get a full funding offer from another school I may be inclined to reconsider.

[UnlikelyGrad]

The program I accept will have to give me some funding, but the amount is immaterial. (It's nice to be relatively financially stable...)

[miratrix]

I don't know. Anywhere with full funding is great to me, the amount doesn't matter nearly as much as fit/reputation/location/etc. However, one of the programs with great fit and location funds tuition but not stipends, so it would require me to take out some loans to live on for a year or two. This is worrying me, but I haven't even been accepted yet, so I guess it's a problem I'd like to have.

[flatcoat]

It's very important. Not that I have anything to decide between at the moment! But yes, one of the major considerations is money. The other is program/advisor fit.

[psycholinguist]

If Second Choice gives me enough money, I'll probably just go there. If Third Choice gives me more than Second (which is what I'm anticipating), I'll probably still try to make Second work, unless the difference is considerable. If I get accepted to First Choice and they give me more than Second, I don't know what I'll do since Second is starting to feel like the best fit, academically speaking. I'll visit and see how it goes.

[liszt85]

Funding's extremely important as I'm moving to a place which is diametrically opposite to mine on the face of the earth with a wife who will be unable to work, within just a month of our wedding :| I will probably be offered admission by OSU and McMaster in addition to NU but the funding at both places are low. NU's 20.5K is decent enough to give me hope that we'd be able to scrape through. This is where Arkansas comes in. Its a lowly ranked program and the professor from the Psychology dept wrote to me saying that even as my application was one of the strongest they'd received, it would be difficult to fund me as my primary research interest lay in the work of a professor from the music dept (music cognition). So I wrote to them asking to withdraw my application and the music dept prof requested that I wait a little longer as she was trying hard to find alternative sources of funding for me. I hear that Arkansas can offer quite a bit of money (~30K per year)! I hope I won't have to accept Arkansas because of the money it offers but the very fact that I'm still considering Arkansas speaks for how important the money factor would be in my decision.

[void]

I just got word today that one of my programs is awarding me a four year full funding fellowship (!!!)

I am not entirely sure how much this SHOULD factor into my decision. Does a CV look better with a fancy fellowship like this or does it look better with more teaching experience (2 of these years will be through guaranteed teaching positions)?

[synthla]

For me, the amount of money from the school has turned out to be lesser issue than the cost of living in the relevant city. When it comes to humanities funding, the difference between schools is probably not going to be dramatic, but housing costs can vary dramatically, and all other things being equal, I'd rather be in a place where I can buy a house and swing the mortgage payment, than in a place where I have to rent an apartment. Thankfully, it looks like everything is coming together to make that happen.

[t_ruth]

so far, the big difference for me isn't amount but years guaranteed. Does anyone else have offers that only come with one or two years funding?

[hartshorneBoy]

That isn't the poll I would have. I'm going with "which school will I be happiest at and which will let me continue to be happy professionally later." That being said, money does play a role in me wanting to subsist comfortably, but so does workload that the schools give me. It looks like the most workloads besides course/research work is about 10 hours so far, so I'm happy!

[rising_star]

I'm actually at the school that offered me the third-most money because I liked the opportunities available to me here.

[piccali]

Right now I don't have to make a choice, but to go to the school I'm waiting on they would have to give me a full assistantship for the 2 years (out-of-state tuition for the lose).

[wantaphd]

I've been accepted by my top choice, but alas, no word on funding yet. If they don't fund me, I can't go. I also applied to a program where I've heard that they won't be able to fund first year phds this year; I've pretty much written them off, although it would still be nice to get an acceptance from them. My third program funds everyone, but it was my reach school, so I'm just waiting for the inevitable thanks, but no thanks, letter.

[thepoorstockinger]

I was fortunate enough to be able to negotiate more money out of my top choice above their initial offer but even though the offer from school B was much larger it was also much further away (higher moving costs/having to buy new everything) and in a city with a notoriously high cost of living vs school A being in a place with a very low cost of living which was closer. So after I factored in moving costs/cost of living there was not much difference between the offers.

I guess my one requirement was that wherever I went had to pay me enough money that I would be able to live in something resembling almost-comfort without having to go into too much debt. As long as program met the "can I live on this?" threshold I considered them equally. But I also didn't apply to any schools that didn't fund their MA students.

[mjp3]

I'd go for the best regardless of money. By best I mean best fit, based on research interests or whatever one considers important. I was accepted to my top choice with no word on funding and I accepted their offer. I don't really need to hear from the others even if they offered some money. I'm going into a professional-level program where funding is generally harder to come by anyway, so my situation is different than most PhD students.

[mo7aisen]

money was the only reason that i didn't attend on several admission offers from several excellent schools two years ago. It depends. Basically, when a school offer PhD students stipends, they consider the living cost in the particular place. They consider also that, under students' living standards, this stipend should be enough. Given that, I will rather be looking to the reputation of the school and specific program of interest given that the basic fund is provided.

[aria880]

It plays a huge role for me. One program that I was accepted to eliminated itself from consideration when I got the funding package because the stipend was only a little over half of what the other programs were offering. Prior to seeing the funding package, I had been leaning toward that program, too. At this point, I don't have an exact figure from the program that is at the top of my list of schools to which I've been accepted, but I have been given a range of what to expect and I'm pleased to say that I'm positioned to have the best fit and the best funding package all in one school.

However, there is still one factor that could win my loyalties away from the top-paying school: one of the programs from which I have not yet heard is geographically close enough that I would not have to move (which would entail selling my house in a crappy real estate market and uprooting my husband from a fairly secure job). If I were to get into that program, I am almost certain the funding offered would be significantly less than that of top-paying school. However, it is worth it to me to accept less money to attend a similarly-ranked, not-perfect-but-still-good-fit school that would not require all the stress involved with moving amid economic uncertainty.

[gadhelyn]

I just got accepted to Univ of Kansas. Due to my low uGPA, they can't offer me the TA first semester, have to get a 3.0 first semester to get it. It's only for four months, so I'm going to take out loans for it, so initially money is not as big of a factor for me!

[vern23]

I would say its moderately important me. I'll be married so at least we'll be dealing with two incomes, but i think it really depends on the cost of living of each of the cities. I mean 20,000$ a year is a lot different in boston than it is in say iowa. Thats my thinking so far because the one school ive been accepted to so far has one of the highest costs of living of the whole country (Canadanot US). I still need to ask them funding questions. I need to be able to live comfortably.

[nandelle]

important but not the most important thing for me...

I would choose any school on my list, if they offered my money and the other schools didn't.

However, if I was choosing between two schools that offered funding, I would choose the school I prefer even if its funding package was lower - as long as it wasn't hugely lower.

For my program, I really don't think that there's a big enough difference between my top school (minnesota) and my lowest school (oregon state) to justify the nearly $60,000 cost differential if I get funding at Oregon and not at Minnesota.

Of course, as I haven't been offered funding anywhere yet, this is purely hypothetical

[fortiesgirl]

1. I will go to the best program as long as they give me a certain minimum

2. Money will be a factor, but will be weighed against program reputation, etc.

The program I want to go to most offers full tuition and stipend to all accepted candidates, so that won't be a problem. It's my top choice and if I get in, it won't be a tough decision to make. If I don't get in, then I will be stuck having to choose between money and rep. I will most likely go with rep and then money, as long as I get a certain minimum.