Negotiating offers to increase funding

[lypiphera]

I have heard from many people that it is OK to leverage offers from other schools in order to bargain for a higher PhD stipend.  I am considering 2 schools, and one has offered a significantly higher amount of money (along with less time spent TAing to get said money).  I haven't decided on which school is my top choice, but if I end up deciding on the one that offers much less funding, I don't want money to be the reason I turn them down (but I also don't want to go into debt).

 

I know people have done this in the past, and I was just looking for some tips on it.  There are a couple of very old threads on the topic, but I thought I would start a new one with some specific questions that I think many people would be interested in:

 

-Who did you first ask?  E.g. POI, graduate coordinator, financial aid, department head?

-At what point in the process did you bring it up?  E.g. During interview, after interview, after acceptance, after enrollment

-Did you give specific names and amounts when leveraging other offers?  Did anyone ask for proof?

-Is there a downside to asking, i.e., any potential harm to your application?

-How did the funding offer change?  E.g., you were given more TA hours or your TA hours were worth more.

 

 

 If you have bargained for more funding (or attempted to, or know someone that did), please share your experience!

 

[JustChill]

I was in the same position a couple of years ago during grad admissions. One program offered about 52k more (during the course of the entire program) than the other, and so I sent my admission and financial award letters from that school to the DGS of the other one. She quickly replied that their offer was firm and that they could not raise my stipend. It was painful, but I chose the program with the lesser stipend because they had a much stronger concentration in my field. I've never regretted it. 

[VAN144]

I have heard from many people that it is OK to leverage offers from other schools in order to bargain for a higher PhD stipend.  I am considering 2 schools, and one has offered a significantly higher amount of money (along with less time spent TAing to get said money).  I haven't decided on which school is my top choice, but if I end up deciding on the one that offers much less funding, I don't want money to be the reason I turn them down (but I also don't want to go into debt).

 

I know people have done this in the past, and I was just looking for some tips on it.  There are a couple of very old threads on the topic, but I thought I would start a new one with some specific questions that I think many people would be interested in:

 

-Who did you first ask?  E.g. POI, graduate coordinator, financial aid, department head?

-At what point in the process did you bring it up?  E.g. During interview, after interview, after acceptance, after enrollment

-Did you give specific names and amounts when leveraging other offers?  Did anyone ask for proof?

-Is there a downside to asking, i.e., any potential harm to your application?

-How did the funding offer change?  E.g., you were given more TA hours or your TA hours were worth more.

 

 

 If you have bargained for more funding (or attempted to, or know someone that did), please share your experience!

 

Any chance you could share some of the old topics you found discussing this, in case more people don't chime in? I'm curious about this as well.

[Sumac77]

Also curious!

[Deadmeat]

Hey,

 

I went through this with a program I wanted to go too. My situation may be different though since during the visit they said our offers were the bare min. and better offers may come, though no guaranteed. 

 

I just emailed the graduate coordinator who signed my original letter and said basically "I'm strongly considering your program, but financial considerations are always a concern as I have received multi year/additional fellowship offers from other programs." or something to that effect. I didn't tell them specifics of what the program was or send them proof, I think that's a little heavy handed. They will get the gist of your email in just two sentences. 

 

Few weeks later I have a 1st year fellowship added, and now my offer is 3 years instead of 1 year (including summers where my original offer didn't include the summer). I did have some bargaining room since I'm starting a Ph.D. with a MS degree already, so I used that for leverage since all the other students I spoke with were senior undergraduates applying. I also asked another program and they basically said there offer was final.

 

Nobody is going to take an offer back by politely asking for more. Good advice I got after undergrad from a professor, ALWAYS ask for more money, benefits, time off or something with a job. My first job out of college I just said frankly "I'd like 10% more", they ended up giving me 5% but it never hurts to ask. Every time I got a review for any job and they gave me a raise I always asked for a bit more, most of the time it didn't work but when it did sure felt good. I applied that mindset to graduate school and I think some people appreciate being assertive and bold.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Deadmeat

[hustlebunny]

I got 25K for my MS, much more than the Uni typically gives for MS. I really don't know how to ask for more without seeming ungrateful.. but I really don't have the rest of the tuition!

Edited March 11, 2013 by hustlebunny

[spacezeppelin]

I don’t have much to add, but I did try this. My program is a "professional masters" so it’s a pretty different situation that most of the people here.

So it was completely unsuccessful (not surprisingly). I had significant funding from comparable schools and the institution I tried it at wouldn’t budge at all. That being said, it wasn’t awkward and the email response I got was helpful and cordial. Honesty, if you feel like you need more money to attend the institution, I think you should go for it. I'm glad I did. I will probably turn down the unfunded admission, but i'm very glad I tried.

Hearing a solid "no" to any financial support sort of put the whole thing in perspective for me. This school does not want me as badly as the other programs do. Clearly I'm a lower priority than the students who did get funding. Thats completely fine, decisions have to be made. I think it has really helped me feel good about choosing another option. I feel like “at least I tried”.

[epsilon]

I'm about to do this; I wonder if I should call or email

[Cookie]

I'm in this process right now: asking my top choice to offer additional support to match with fellowship offers from other schools.

I found that it is best to ask during the visits. By preparing myself well for interviews, asking good questions and having good science talks with POIs, they have a better idea of me as a prospective student. Therefore, the negotiation became less contrived. I talked to the dept chairs as well as my favorite POIs about my existing offers, being as forthcoming and respectful as I could. After the visits, I followed up by emails. But the first face to face conversations seemed to have the most impact. It is interesting to see that some POIs/ departments like you enough to not only match other offers, but also bend over backwards to help you with other aspects of starting grad school (relocation, finding job for your spouse).

The results so far is one additional first year fellowship (departmental), one schoolwide full fellowship nomination, and one early bird fellowship (to start grad school early with stipend). The lesson learnt is that you should ask. This is the only time you can negotiate. If they are not interested in helping you now, wouldn't it say something about how much they value you as a potential student?

Edited March 12, 2013 by heartshapedcookie

[lypiphera]

This may be a silly question, but could I try to ask for more funding if I dont have offers from other programs to use as leverage? Because I only got accepted to one program, but I'm worried that the stipend wont be enough :/

 

You can definitely still ask, thought you might have less success.  I would just word it differently - don't mention that you didn't get into other schools (unless they ask), just say that you'd really like to attend but are worried the stiped won't be enough to live on and is there anything they can do to help out.  It will all depend on the institution and what kind of money they have if they will be able to or not, but you can absolutely still ask.

[Fallenvirgo]

This may be a silly question, but could I try to ask for more funding if I dont have offers from other programs to use as leverage? Because I only got accepted to one program, but I'm worried that the stipend wont be enough :/

 

Actually I was wondering about this. Slightly unethical perhaps? (but this is a business after all), can we tell them we have other offers that offer more? Will they ask to see the letters or anything? Or would it be best to just say "I am unable to attend without a stipend." My country doesn't give scholarships to its own citizens. Its screwed up that way, so without full tuition AND a stipend I can't attend.

[Tuck]

Actually I was wondering about this. Slightly unethical perhaps? (but this is a business after all), can we tell them we have other offers that offer more? Will they ask to see the letters or anything? Or would it be best to just say "I am unable to attend without a stipend." My country doesn't give scholarships to its own citizens. Its screwed up that way, so without full tuition AND a stipend I can't attend.

 

To lie to them about other offers would be very unethical.

[Abc_adams]

Actually I was wondering about this. Slightly unethical perhaps? (but this is a business after all), can we tell them we have other offers that offer more? Will they ask to see the letters or anything? Or would it be best to just say "I am unable to attend without a stipend." My country doesn't give scholarships to its own citizens. Its screwed up that way, so without full tuition AND a stipend I can't attend.

 

Never lie. Not only is it unethical, it can come back to bite you in the arse some day. And you don't want that to happen in this small small academic world.

Tell them your financial problems and hope they will help. If they don't, so be it.

 

This is the market deciding your worth. It does suck but there really isn't a lot you can do.

[smmmu]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever done this with a UK university? I would assume since it's mainly research council funding and such over here, it would be moot to even try to negotiate, but perhaps I'm wrong... Any thoughts anyone?

[throwaway123]

I tried this as well--had 5.5k/yr difference between two top choices. I was told that stipends are typically tied to cost of living, and graduate student stipends are typically not open for negotiation. Worth asking anyway, even if only to prepare you for negotiations during internships/postdoc/jobs/whatever.