GMU

[diamedic17]

I have a question for anyone who might know about the George Mason University Presidential Scholarship. I have been awarded this scholarship (in one of the biology programs). Is this in addition to a stipend or is it in place of the stipend? Does anyone know?

[erdingerchamp66]

I have a question for anyone who might know about the George Mason University Presidential Scholarship. I have been awarded this scholarship (in one of the biology programs). Is this in addition to a stipend or is it in place of the stipend? Does anyone know?

 

See the below. 18K on top of tuition and insurance is not a bad offer, but it's also not very much in the DC area. That's only $1500 a month (assuming you spread it over the year), assuming no taxes at taken out (and Virginia has a state income tax, on top of both federal income and FICA taxes, assuming they withhold). It's possible to live on this, but you'll have to get roommates, no other way. For example, the cheapest studio apartments in Northern Virginia go for upwards of $1000/month. Good luck. 

 

 

From here: http://provost.gmu.edu/support/presidentialscholar.html

 

 

The Presidential Scholarship What is this scholarship?

The Presidential Scholarship is a program of support for first- time Ph.D. students. It is intended to assist George Mason in recruiting doctoral students of the highest caliber, and is offered and administered by the Office of the Provost.

Who can receive this scholarship?

This scholarship is offered to students by the Office of the Provost. Students are nominated for this scholarship by the department they have applied to.

Requirements for nomination include that the student:

• Be a first-time Ph.D. student, and
• Have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in the most recently earned degree, and
• Have a minimum combined math and verbal GRE score of 1,200 (score earned within the last five years).

What is provided by this scholarship?

The Presidential Scholarship includes:

• A Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA) from August 25 through May 24, and
• A salary of $18,000 from August 25 through May 24, and
• A tuition grant covering nine credit hours in the fall and nine credit hours in the spring, and
• Subsidized health insurance (provided that eligibility is met).

The maximum term of the scholarship is three years (six semesters). Students cannot receive more than one term of this scholarship.

Scholarship renewal is dependent upon the scholar having a minimum cumulative 3.5 GPA at the end of their first and second years under this scholarship. They also must be making continuous progress towards their dissertation, as determined by their graduate program.

[rising_star]

Graduate students typically do not pay FICA. This sucks in the sense that you aren't contributing to social security but is fine if you believe social security will be insolvent by the time you're of an eligible age.

[Victoris]

I have a question for anyone who might know about the George Mason University Presidential Scholarship. I have been awarded this scholarship (in one of the biology programs). Is this in addition to a stipend or is it in place of the stipend? Does anyone know?

 

The scholarship is your stipend; only for the fall and spring semester.  No summer funding. This means that you will either have to apply for a summer GRA position, take on a part-time job, or seek additional funding elsewhere.  I live 45mins. away from GMU and pay $1200 for a one bedroom.

 

Graduate housing range from a studio ($1300) to three bedroom ($2200).  They are located on the main campus (Fairfax, VA) and Prince William campus (Manassas, VA). Some students rent rooms or entire homes around the campus; owners will only rent to GMU students.  But beware.  Some of them are way too expensive; like you can have the master bedroom for $1100 a month. 

 

Majority of the students are commuters; traveling from different cities.  The furthest I heard was 3 hours away.  The parking decals range from one semester at $100 to $600 to park in the garage.  Summer is always $60.  There is a small percentage of us who do not mind walking in rain, sleet, or snow.  We park off-campus and walk onto campus; it is literally a 2-3 mins. walk (given the pedestrian light comes on as you walk to the intersection.  

 

Since GMU is located within the Northern DC Metro area (northern VA, D.C., and southern MD), the costs of items are reasonably higher than in other areas.  

[erdingerchamp66]

Graduate students typically do not pay FICA. This sucks in the sense that you aren't contributing to social security but is fine if you believe social security will be insolvent by the time you're of an eligible age.

 

This gets into murky legal waters. Technically, yes, most students employed by their university are exempt from FICA taxes, but there are all sorts of qualifications. The most pertinent is that if the employment is determined (by the IRS) to be paramount, then taxes should be paid. One of the ways they make that determination is based upon time spent working. If you work full time as an employee (not what you're supposed to work, but what you actually work), then you owe the taxes. Most graduate students I know would fall under the full time ruling. 

Of course, that does not mean that the taxes are necessarily withheld, but that also doesn't mean they are not owed. It would probably never get to you, unless you got audited, at which point there would be all sort of penalties, not the least of which would be the interest owed. 

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-regs/td_9167.pdf

[rising_star]

That would depend entirely on the wording of one's contracts. All of mine had 20 hours of work per week or less written into them and made it explicitly clear that I was not a full-time employee.

[erdingerchamp66]

"The final regulations provide that if an employee does not have the status of a full-time employee, then the employee’s normal work schedule and actual number of hours worked per week are relevant factors in determining whether the service aspect or educational aspect of the employee’s relationship with the employer is predominant. Thus, if an employee is normally scheduled to work 20 hours per week, but consistently works more than 40 hours per week, the amount of time actually worked is taken into account in determining whether or not the employee qualifies as a student." [emphasis mine]

 

How it gets reported to the IRS is one thing, but the actual fact of the matter is another. If you (or the school) were to get audited, something like this could, conceivably, come out. 

[rising_star]

Sure, but I also never worked more hours than were in my contract and I think that would be true of many TAs.