university of waterloo vs northeastern university(CEE phd)

[niketon]

Hello,

I got accepted into uow for masc and neu for PhD. Waterloo offers 17000 RA. I will be responsible for tuition and fee (11000$) per year. I have asked them for TA but TA is not for first term. I may get TA in winter as I have teaching experience but it is competitive. They said for first term they can give me some job on lab or their chair and can pay me up to $300 per month.

Northeastern university gave me fellowship for 5 semester with $30000 annual stipend and full tuition and health insurance waiver. I will do collaborative research with two professor. I had an interview with one of them and she said that generally she provide financial support for all her students. The program is phd in civil and environmental engineering.

Now I am confused which program should I choose? Any advice will be appreciated.

[okezieowen]

What do you have against a school that offers you a full tuition waiver, 30K/year stipend, opportunity to collaborate with professors on a research, etc?

[MathCat]

Northeastern looks great unless you have something against their program. I wouldn't recommend choosing Waterloo over them without a very good reason (since it looks like you'd go into debt there).

[niketon]

I am tensed that the offer of neu is up to spring 2017. After that I need to look for RA or TA and if I won't be offered summer funding then how can I manage as Boston is very costly and I will receive $20150 per year then without summer funding.

[MathCat]

I misread it as 5 years of guaranteed funding, sorry. Would you be guaranteed the $20k per year after that, or is it risky? Would you be responsible for tuition either way (even if you can't find a TA/RA)? That's quite a gamble. But if you are guaranteed the $20k, even with the high cost of living in Boston that looks better than the net $6k Waterloo has offered you (unless the $17k is after tuition. Maybe I'm misunderstanding.)