NSF GRFP Poll about Your Funding Arrangements with School

[Scrabble2]

The types of arrangements NSF GRFP Fellows have with their programs is pretty vague. It is difficult to know how common it is for students to stack their fellowships on top of their RA/TA funding or whether students are able to access any of their educational allowance funds. I hope that the poll below will help shed a little bit of light on these questions.

[raneck]

So, i think most schools put the educational allowance towards tuition (since the allowance is to the institution, not the student).  My program has a set stipend, but you get a bonus for bringing in outside money.

[SensLu]

how do you even find this information out? Does the university tell you after you've accepted the award or do you ask the school's coordinating officer?  Or do you talk to the graduate department you're enrolled in?

[juilletmercredi]

These questions don't cover all possibilities so I am going to clarify.

I answered that I was only paid by the NSF fellowship, but that's not strictly true.  In my position - as an interdisciplinary student whose home department is in a professional school - NSF gives me a base stipend.  But if I TA or RA on top of that, I can get paid extra.  They treat it like having a part-time job or internship. 

However, if I were in a GSAS department at my university, I would have two choices.  I could choose for GSAS to "top-off" my external fellowship by adding onto my fellowship, up to a max total of $30,000 per year.  Since the NSF already does that, I wouldn't choose that, but I would choose the other option, which is to defer my GSAS funding during the period of the NSF funding.  So technically, I would have 8 years of finding (3 of NSF + 5 of GSAS).

 

My guess is that no school is going to allow you to simply "stack" your institutional fellowship on top of an NSF (in the sense that if you're awarded $25,000 and you get an NSF for $30,000, you're now making $55,000).  Some schools will top up that NSF a little more, but $30,000 is usually the limit at most places.  Some schools will give you a bonus - my university gives GSAS-funded students a one-time month's bonus (equivalent to about $2,500) if they win an external award.  Some universities just pat you on the back and say congratulations, now you can finish your program.  At most places, you can work within the limits of the NSF (only things related to your degree progression, like TAing and RAing) and get paid a little extra.  But usually they have a part-time structuring of the funds.  Everyone here is required to TA one semester a year, and it's part of the funding, but if you're on an NSF, you get paid an extra $3,000 per section per class.

I also chose that I am not allowed to use any of the funds.  But the funds hit my student account directly.  They pay my tuition, fees, and health insurance automatically.  Right now I'm on extended residence because I am serving as a TA and defending my dissertation proposal, so my tuition and fees for the year are $19,000; health insurance is something like $3500.  NSF pays $12,000 of that and my home department pays the rest.  But let's say that I was getting the NSF next year (this is my last year, so I won't). I'll be on matriculation and facilities.  M&F is only $3,500 a year and then health insurance is $3,500 a year, making $7,000.  NSF would still give the school $12,000, so I'll have an overage on my account of $5,000.  After that, the university does strange things.  The official party line is that you have to leave it on the account because it's the university's money.  What actually happens depends on how the university administration's gods feel that day.

 

How do you know?  Some schools have it posted on their website.  Columbia has a website addressing the external fellowship policy:

 

http://gsas.columbia.edu/external-fellowships

 

I would search your university's graduate school website for something similar.  If not, there is usually someone in the financial aid office who is designated to handle these things - maybe two or three people.  I would call and ask.

Edited April 23, 2013 by juilletmercredi

[Scrabble2]

My guess is that no school is going to allow you to simply "stack" your institutional fellowship on top of an NSF (in the sense that if you're awarded $25,000 and you get an NSF for $30,000, you're now making $55,000).  Some schools will top up that NSF a little more, but $30,000 is usually the limit at most places.  Some schools will give you a bonus - my university gives GSAS-funded students a one-time month's bonus (equivalent to about $2,500) if they win an external award.  Some universities just pat you on the back and say congratulations, now you can finish your program.  At most places, you can work within the limits of the NSF (only things related to your degree progression, like TAing and RAing) and get paid a little extra.  But usually they have a part-time structuring of the funds.  Everyone here is required to TA one semester a year, and it's part of the funding, but if you're on an NSF, you get paid an extra $3,000 per section per class.

I also chose that I am not allowed to use any of the funds.  But the funds hit my student account directly.  They pay my tuition, fees, and health insurance automatically.  Right now I'm on extended residence because I am serving as a TA and defending my dissertation proposal, so my tuition and fees for the year are $19,000; health insurance is something like $3500.  NSF pays $12,000 of that and my home department pays the rest.  But let's say that I was getting the NSF next year (this is my last year, so I won't). I'll be on matriculation and facilities.  M&F is only $3,500 a year and then health insurance is $3,500 a year, making $7,000.  NSF would still give the school $12,000, so I'll have an overage on my account of $5,000.  After that, the university does strange things.  The official party line is that you have to leave it on the account because it's the university's money.  What actually happens depends on how the university administration's gods feel that day.

 

My experience has been different. I'm at an Ivy school that doesn't need the money. I'm the first in my department to win the award (at least as far as people can remember). Since previous students were always able to stack their external fellowships with our internal funding, I was allowed to as well--even though the NSF Fellowship is substantially larger than the other cases.

 

Additionally, I lobbied that I should be able to access some of the educational funds as I was going to continue being an RA (in the social sciences being an RA is a pretty important way to start working on new projects/meet faculty). Therefore, the school isn't "losing anything" by letting me keep a portion of the educational allowance.

 

I pointed out two universities that allow students to keep some of the educational allowance for research/insurance purposes. After some discussion, it was decided that a third of the educational allowance each year would go towards my research expenses. Thus, 4k goes into a research account for me, but the school still gets 8k even though nothing changed from their perspective, as I am still RAing.

 

http://gradschool.oregonstate.edu/finance/nsf-fellows

http://www.ndsu.edu/gradschool/prospective_students/nsf_incentives/

 

Part of the reason I wanted to make this poll is to see how much these types of arrangements vary by university/programs.

[raneck]

^ As an RA, is your tuition waived, or simply paid by whatever professor you are working for?  My advisor pays my tuition/stipend out of his grant money, so the educational allowance decreases the amount he needs to pay, therefore freeing up money in the lab budget.  So, technically, the whole $12,000 comes back for research expenses.

Edited April 23, 2013 by raneck

[Scrabble2]

Tuition is waived by the department as long as you RA/TA for somebody in the department. In the social sciences, for programs that give full funding, I think that is the norm since we do not typically become involved in multi-year projects with their own funding. Thus, who my advisor is or who I RA for does not have any impact on my tuition. I didn't realize that it is different in the STEM fields, I guess?

[Eigen]

It's the same in practice (your tuition is waived), but waived tuition doesn't mean the school just writes it off. Someone has to pay it, either your school, department, or advisor. 

 

In STEM fields, it's common for the advisors to have to foot at least part of the tuition waiver out of grant monies. At least at my institution, it's the same with social sciences. RA tuition waivers are partly supported by faculty grants, and TA tuition waivers by the department. 

[raneck]

Perhaps you should make a new poll with some more choices. I answered "cap," but in reality, i get my base stipend + a percentage bonus based on the amount of external money brought in. Maybe:  nsf only, nsf + base (fully stackable), nsf + bonus, base + bonus,   base + nsf (or bonus) up to cap,  nsf + possible extra money from TA'ing, etc.

Edited April 23, 2013 by raneck

[MonocerosRhinoceros]

Did the results of this poll ever get published?  Or are they for internal use only?  I would be curious to see how the results pan out, though as some people have pointed out, the questions seem a little oversimplified.