Fellowships and Tuition Waivers

[gr1277]

Do fellowships typically include tuition waivers? I was under the impression that a fellowship is money given to a student as a stipend that also waives tuition/fees so the student can concentrate on classes or writing one's thesis/dissertation. 

 

Recently, my SO was awarded a $25,000 fellowship from a university. However, when he asked about tuition and fees, he was told that he would have to pay for tuition and fees with the fellowship money. He's an out-of-state student and tuition and fees at this school are ~$31,000 (in state is ~$15,000). 

 

A second school has nominated him for an $18,000 fellowship with a tuition/fee waiver. This funding hasn't been secured yet, but the funding from the first school is an official offer. 

 

I'm just wondering if it is common practice to call something a fellowship when it seems more like a scholarship (because it has to be used to pay tuition/fees)?

[rising_star]

Are we talking about the US or Canada because there's a huge difference between the two?

 

In my experience, fellowships often come with tuition waivers, though some only cover the in-state portion whereas others covers both the in and out of state portion. The easiest thing to do would be to look up the fellowships on the Graduate School's website since that information is listed and generally easily accessible. It might also be that your SO could pick up a .25 (quarter time) TA/RA position, which would cover most or all of the tuition and fees. Again, this really varies from one school to the next so consulting the school's specific pages about fellowships is your best bet.

[gr1277]

Are we talking about the US or Canada because there's a huge difference between the two?

 

In my experience, fellowships often come with tuition waivers, though some only cover the in-state portion whereas others covers both the in and out of state portion. The easiest thing to do would be to look up the fellowships on the Graduate School's website since that information is listed and generally easily accessible. It might also be that your SO could pick up a .25 (quarter time) TA/RA position, which would cover most or all of the tuition and fees. Again, this really varies from one school to the next so consulting the school's specific pages about fellowships is your best bet.

 

I'm talking about US schools.

 

We already know that the one fellowship offer does not include a tuition waiver, because he asked the department. I think they should call it a scholarship, personally. The acceptance letter was confusing and it took two responses from the school to blatantly tell him that he has to pay tuition/fees with it (plus extra). It was all rather misleading. 

 

I'm just really surprised about it. Like I said before, I've always seen fellowships awarded to allow a student to focus on classes or disquisition writing. At my university, PhD students typically apply for fellowships after their comps because they want to focus on their research/writing without having to worry about the responsibilities of a TA/RA. 

[Cosmojo]

Yea, I have a fellowship that technically is 28k and my tuition and fees automatically come out of it, I am an out of state student as well but typically they charge you the in state fee. so instead of the 20k something it would be for out of state fee only 8k is deducted from my fellowship total leaving me with a $20,000 stipend. 

 

Its just a technicality thing, they should charge you the in state fee (or less sometimes) and then you get what is left after that as a stipend. I would explicitly ask the department who gave the offer what the stipend amount is after fees and tuition are removed