Budget Office and NSF GRFP Fellow Conflict

[LisaL]

I'm completely amused yet troubled by what seems to be a lack of knowledge on the part of my school's budget office on what the NSF GRFP is.  I understand that some schools don't get a lot of NSF Fellows but my university has at least 2 new fellows within the last 3 years and I noticed that other on this forum has mentioned conflict with budget offices.

 

So I can deal with health insurance not being considered a required fee (even though I think it is), however talking to the budget office people, they seem to think that the COE is some sort of cap and if my tuition or fees hypothetically went over 6K per semester then I'd have to pay the difference.  On TOP of that, they're saying NO tuition payments/assistance during the summer semesters.

 

I explained the NSF GRFP is supposed to cover tuition and fees regardless of how much the COE and I just got a shrug and 'yeah well.." response.  I'm not sure if the person is annoyed I'm asking the question or not, but suppose if I went to an Ivy League university that's more than 6K a semester.  Then would that student have to pay the rest? Am I missing something?  And I'm curious if anyone has had to pay during the summer semester?  And to add, I will also need to pay the difference of tuition for being a non-resident...

 

This all seems pretty suspect, I really hope in the future the NSF requires universities with GRFP fellows to take some sort of class or seminar.  I'm curious if anyone has any ideas or answer or concerns or how they handle these situations. 

Edited October 17, 2013 by LisaL

[Pauli]

Hmm...my university had 16 new NSF GRFP this academic year, and several of them who I know never mentioned having any issues.  Does your university have an NSF representative? When I had questions regarding my NSF funding, I would talk with the rep at my university.

[LisaL]

That's the issue, the CO is new and doesn't know the program that well either.  If your school has a lot of fellows, I don't think these issues arise, especially if they have incentives in place for attracting NSF Fellows.

Edited October 17, 2013 by LisaL

[juilletmercredi]

I was an NSF fellow from 2010-2013 and I go to an Ivy League, and no, I was not required to pay anything (not even during the summers).  My department/school covered the difference between the NSF honorarium and the cost of tuition and fees, including health insuranace, which WAS considered a mandatory fee - at most schools they require you to have health insurance if you don't have outside coverage, so that's mandatory.

 

If you have an NSF already, I would recommend finding out who your university's NSF coordinator is and talking to them - the one at my university is amazing and went to bat for me time and again when the university kept messing up my payments (I was at a university with a lot of GRFs but in a department that rarely got them).  If that doesn't work, then I would contact NSF directly.

[Eigen]

I was the first at my school, and it was a challenge. 

 

I took most of the summer leading up to starting the award to sit down and talk to my department admins, the grant office, the NSF CO, my deans, etc. 

 

Work through it slowly, make sure you know the documentation backwards and forwards, and have the relevant parts highlighted and ready to show. 

 

My school does not (and I suspect will not) cover health insurance as a required fee (it's been discussed here before). My friends at other schools in my field don't have it covered for them either. Since it's required coverage, but not a fee directly assessed by the University, to them it doesn't fall under "required fees" "assessed to all other graduate students of the same standing". 

 

Also do keep in mind that the school doesn't have to accept you with the fellowship. There was a case at MIT a few years back where they were turning away NSF fellows because they couldn't afford them. 

 

To note, the NSF GRFP doesn't cover anything over the COE. They do, however, require that the school waive the remaining tuition/fees in excess of the COE (see above case at MIT). 

 

Work through it slowly, carefully, and gently, is my advice. 

[LisaL]

Thanks for that! They actually paid my healthcare (by mistake) and said they cant cover the rest next semester because of the COE difference, then said healthcare isn't a required fee.  I think it's silly because healthcare is mandatory and if you opt out, you have to get a policy similar to the university's which is likely the same cost.  

 

I have a meeting with my CO next week so hopefully that goes well.  I'm curious if other students their second year get out of state tuition exemption?  Mine is waived the first year but that's a physics department waiver.

[Eigen]

End result of NSF funding should be that you should *have* to pay the University nothing while you're on active status through the grant. 

 

No tuition, fees, or anything else. 

 

Note the emphasis on "have" in the above sentence- that's always where the issues come in. If it's not "required", they can get around it. 

 

You can probably fight it, but then you have to decide if it's worth fighting or not. 

 

I would definitely push on Tuition and all the normal fees, and see if you think the healthcare one is worth it to you, depending on how recalcitrant the University seems to be. 

 

Feel free to PM me if you want any more specific advice.