multi-year fellowship support

[kingharvest]

So I've realized that something I've thought about the multi-year fellowship support packages for PhDs that many good private research universities offer might be only an assumption.  Most seem to offer a stipend without work obligations the first year, then the second year you TA, and after that you teach.  I thought that after the first year, you received funding above and beyond the stipend to compensate you for the work that you did.  However, I've been looking for confirmation for this, and I can't find any.  Are typically ALL of the PhD students paid the same amount regardless of whether they are TAing/teaching?

[raneck]

Yes, typically department provided stipends are the same for all students.  If you are bringing in money from an outside fellowship, that may be treated differently.  In this situation that you described, It seems you are just getting a freebie the first year, and in subsequent years the work you do is earning the stipend.

 

I am in CS, so I expect funding setups are very different compared to Classics/History, but at no point has my stipend been without work requirements.  Any time that I am not in classes myself or TAing, I am expected to be doing research work for my advisor.

[fuzzylogician]

I believe this was true for all the funding packages I was offered back when I was applying, and it's certainly true for the funding I currently have. The actual teaching requirements varied from school to school depending on their needs, but you are not paid extra while doing this required teaching. At my current school, if you teach beyond the required number of semesters, then you're paid for this extra teaching, but it's a relatively small increase in payment compared to the baseline payment we all get. 

[TakeruK]

It could really depend on your program, your funding situation, and even things like labour laws in your state/province/country. What is usually true though, is that your offer letter generally will say $X/year and that's what you will get. How the numbers work out each year may be very different though, and in most cases, you won't even see it. 

 

For example, in my current program, every PhD student gets paid exactly the same amount every year. All of our offer letters state that we are on a PhD Fellowship, and our tax forms reflect this too, clearly indicating that we are not employees as we are not paid for any particular services. However, the sources of the money for this "fellowship" varies a lot from person to person and year to year. In our first year, there is a pool of money from the whole department that pays our stipends and tuition waivers. Beyond that, the majority of our expenses are paid for by our supervisor's research grants. We work as TAs for a certain number of hours in our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years (not in our first nor last year) and I think some of the money for our expenses come from the department because of this. In some cases (more students than TA positions), some students do not TA at all, but we all receive the same money. So, this indicates to me, that perhaps the profs and the department agree to fund us something like (90% from prof, 10% from department funds or something). Most of this is all very opaque though. I suspect that even though we don't get statements stating how much we got paid from each source, there is definitely some accounting going on, because profs have indicated that if I were to TA for a class outside of my formal department (but well within my range of expertise), this could cause problems because other departments want to use their TA money on their students and my department want me to actually TA if they are providing that TA money!

 

Also, in many programs, a supervisor can "buy out" a student's TA requirements by fully funding the student themselves instead of whatever ratio of prof-to-department funding exists. 

 

Another program at the same school has the same amount of TA requirements, but all of the students complete all of their TAing in their 2nd year. The first year is also funded by fellowship and the final 2-3 years are paid for by the supervisor. But again, in all 5 years, the students receive a constant stable stipend and tuition waiver, regardless of what TAing they did or did not do.

 

In my previous MSc program, the system was a little more transparent. At the beginning of each year, we all got pay statements stating that X dollars is coming from a RAship with our thesis supervisor, Y dollars from whatever hours of TA work we've been assigned, and then finally Z dollars from whatever fellowships we might have been awarded. We would receive our RAship and TAship income from our school's Human Resources department in the form of a monthly paycheque, but we would receive fellowship/scholarship income as a lump sum at the beginning of each year (or semester) from the school's Awards department. 

 

So, I think how you are paid can really depend. Overall, I think at every school where you are awarded multi-year funding, you can expect a steady stream of stable income, but the work you have to do for it, or the sources may vary and you may or may not even know it's happening.

 

Finally, the amount of money each student gets can also vary. Like I said above, everyone is paid the same in my current program. In previous programs, there are different fellowship levels, so some students may be paid higher than others. Also, if you bring in external fellowships, you might get paid at a higher level too (but you don't usually keep all of the extra money--many external fellowships come with research expectations so usually this means a decrease in some internal funding but in some cases you will still get to keep a small amount extra). Some programs will give students a raise after candidacy. In my MSc program, students with fellowship will do half or no TAing at all (so they will won't receive TA income) but the fellowship value usually more than makes up for this lost income.

[kingharvest]

Womp,womp.  Thanks for the info.

[TMP]

Pretty much, yes.  Being a fellowship in your first year allows you to acclimate without the burden of learning how to teach on top of that!  However, once you start teaching, you'll be able to have reduction in credit-load that you have to carry to stay enrolled full time.... so... in ways it's a trade off.

[RomulusAugustulus]

For my M.A. (in Classics!) the first year we did not have to teach and the second year a portion of our stipend became our teaching salary (which really just meant they kept taxes because it was a salary rather than a fellowship). But we were not paid more the second year, except for a few students who were graduate instructors (taught a full course) rather than T.A.s. I think this is typical, but it will, of course, depend on your department. 

[overworkedta]

I have a fellowship and it's something from the university for very competitive incoming grad students.  It's independent of my stipend. I get it for all years but it's just an incentive sort of thing I got.  Some schools nominate outstanding incoming students if the university has some opportunities.