Full Scholarship but no funding, is it common to negotiate?

[lalakey]

Hi all. I'm new to this grad school funding thing, having just sucked it up and paid full price (yay loans... not...) for my masters. Just applied for a PhD and got in (woohoo!) with a full scholarship for five years, but they did not offer a stipend or salary up front, nor a TA-ship. 

 

I can't attend without any funding. I live in an expensive city, first of all, and I can survive on almost nothing, but not on LITERALLY nothing. I am more than willing to teach, TA, whatever, and I am happy to make this clear to them. 

 

Two questions: is it common to negotiate with schools to get funding? If so, how should I put this? 

 

Second, what are the chances of them actually changing their offer? Or is it, they have a set amount of funding, and offered me as much as they possibly have? 

 

It's a state-funded school if that helps, not a private institution. 

[geographyrocks]

Is the full scholarship simply full tuition? 

[TakeruK]

Even at state funded schools, I had stipend offers. To me, "full scholarship" means tuition covered and a stipend either in form of a RAship, TAship, or fellowship. But perhaps this depends on the field.

 

In your shoes, I would ask right after this offer was made whether or not further funding in form of a TA or RA ship is possible. It won't hurt to ask of course. Some schools in my experience will only put a smaller stipend in writing (maybe 9 months TAship) and say that RAships for summer funding are available. In this case, I would ask to see how often these RAships are actually awarded (for the places I asked, it's pretty much assured that everyone who wants an RAship will get one). 

Also, most schools will put an actual number in writing with they say "full scholarship". If this was not the case, perhaps ask them to clarify what is actually offered. In some schools, first year students do not TA and are paid a stipend through fellowships or other awards instead.

[lalakey]

Is the full scholarship simply full tuition? 

 

Yes it was clear that it was full tuition but no mention of a stipend, which I assume would have been mentioned. 

[lalakey]

Even at state funded schools, I had stipend offers. To me, "full scholarship" means tuition covered and a stipend either in form of a RAship, TAship, or fellowship. But perhaps this depends on the field.

 

In your shoes, I would ask right after this offer was made whether or not further funding in form of a TA or RA ship is possible. It won't hurt to ask of course. Some schools in my experience will only put a smaller stipend in writing (maybe 9 months TAship) and say that RAships for summer funding are available. In this case, I would ask to see how often these RAships are actually awarded (for the places I asked, it's pretty much assured that everyone who wants an RAship will get one). 

Also, most schools will put an actual number in writing with they say "full scholarship". If this was not the case, perhaps ask them to clarify what is actually offered. In some schools, first year students do not TA and are paid a stipend through fellowships or other awards instead.

 

To be fair, the field is quite notorious for just charging up the wazoo (it's an arts degree... so they manage to find people who will pay for it) so a full tuition scholarship is very generous, but I simply can't live on nothing for the next five years. On the website they advertise the possibility of a fellowship with stipend but then in the "intro meeting" the head of the department admitted that fellowships were scarce and that they tried to get people's tuition covered as best they can but could not always offer a stipend. 

[geographyrocks]

Like TakeruK said, I would definitely ask.  Maybe they haven't divied out the TA/RAs yet.  Sometimes you have to apply to the TA/RA positions.  The only real way to know is to ask. 

[lalakey]

Like TakeruK said, I would definitely ask.  Maybe they haven't divied out the TA/RAs yet.  Sometimes you have to apply to the TA/RA positions.  The only real way to know is to ask. 

 

I will definitely ask but I'm pretty sure that part of my acceptance included the "fellowship package" I received, so I'm pretty sure the TA-ship/stipend fellowship will have been "Given out" technically... but I will try