funding questions

[manhattanbusmap]

Where are the best schools to apply if you're hoping to be fully funded? The Ivies, obviously have (or had, prior to this year) loads of money. And places like NYU are famously stingy....but what about other schools....Stanford? Johns Hopkins? WUSTL?

And what about state schools? I've seen some talk on these boards about lack of California funding. Should I rule out U.C schools altogether because of the mess in California?

As you can gather, I'm concerned about money. I don't want to waste $80 on an application fee if, even should I be accepted, I wouldn't be able to afford the program.

[engguy]

You have plenty of time to do some research on this yourself, which is best done by contacting the admissions office of the programs you're interested in and asking them directly what typical funding packages look like -- some will be reluctant to give too many details, but all should provide a general outline. Usually the impact is not so much on how much schools are giving, but how many spots they're giving funding to. That means, obviously, competition for those spots is keen -- even at state schools. It might also affect how many years of funding are offered.

You might also look at smaller, private programs which tend to offer an excellent education and generous funding. Try to find a range of privates, state schools, and upper-tier programs to cover all your bases. I wouldn't rule out state programs just because of the economy; it's been suggested they might wind up better off in the long run, since they are publicly funded, bring in research dollars, and are not reliant on endowments as much. (As you yourself note, NYU is sort of known for being stingy...)

best of luck.

[Phedre]

Something else important to take into account:

1) are summers funded or not, are they competitively funded (ie schools can trick you into thinking that they are funded equally but school a offering 20,000 plus a 4500 summer package is different from school b who is also offering 20,000 but "forgets to mention" summer funding.

2) COST OF LIVING is huge. I had a choice between nyc and my current school and I realized that I could not live a happy, stressfree life on the comaprative stipends. Talk to friends who are at those schools or take a look on craigslist and see what the average rent is.

3) will they fund you beyond your 5th year? Most places will offer you a five year package, but who really finishes and gets a job in five years? no one! so see if the 6th and even 7th years are covered, do depts make sure people get through, do 6th year students have to take part time jobs at Staples to make ends meet (I do know a school where that happens!!)

[greekdaph]

To add to excellent questions and comments people have brought up here, another question you might want to consider is: does everyone in the cohort receive the same funding package? I found this question important because I wanted to be part of a collegial cohort where people felt that they were on equal footing with each other.

Keep in mind, too, though that some departments--even some departments who award the same basic funding package to everyone, and even some departments whose funding package isn't very strong--might have discretionary funds available to candidates they really want to recruit. For instance, after the prospectives' weekend--and after a few candidates had declined their offers--at the program that had initially given me the weakest financial offer, I was offered a funding package that was stronger than almost any other program's. The DGS sensed that funding was one of my concerns and was able to respond to that concern with a stronger package. In short, then, you as an individual can receive a lot of funding even at schools that don't have money to fund candidates at a high level across the board.

As far as individual schools:

-Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) has a great funding package in a place with a low cost of living.

-Also, NYU has improved their funding package in recent years. The cost of living in the city is, of course, astronomical, but their funding doesn't stand out to me as particularly poor.

-The University of MIchigan offers detailed information on their funding:

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/grad/f ... t/lang.asp

-Check out Rutgers--they have a Mellon grant specifically for improving graduate student stipends, and their package is right up there with some of the Ivies. (Not sure how long that grant lasts, though!)

And I'm sorry that I'm too lazy to search for the link at the moment, but the Chronicle has some comparative data on grad student stipends available for free on their website.

As for the concern about These Economic Times, each program seems to handle this a little differently from the others, but it seems to me that the trend, at least last year, was to maintain funding even if it meant admitting a smaller cohort. (Another side effect was waitlisting more people--programs were wary of getting too high a yield.) The program I eventually chose explained to me that they put the money that's earmarked for you aside once you accept their offer. I'm not sure whether works that way at every program (I hope it does!), but I was comforted to know that the funding package they promised me wouldn't change even if the university struggled.

Thinking about the broader financial picture is good, too: what cutbacks are universities making, and what do they show about their priorities? For instance, one school I visited was cutting an undergrad writing requirement because they couldn't staff it, and hearing that made me worry about TAships. And think about hiring freezes--if schools have them and your prospective advisor leaves the program, will there be enough other people in the department for you to work with?

[joeygiraldo]

Hey, greekdaph! Great points... although I must disagree with you regarding NYU's English funding. 22k never sounded and never will sound good for living in the city. Even living in Brooklyn and Queens with that is extremely tough. NYU does offer great graduate housing in 2bedrooms next to the department for a cheap (relatively) $980 a month (all utilities included), but unfortunately, this is only available to students for their first year.

Places like NYU and Columbia should be offering at LEAST 28k stipends.....

[rising_star]

Hey, greekdaph! Great points... although I must disagree with you regarding NYU's English funding. 22k never sounded and never will sound good for living in the city. Even living in Brooklyn and Queens with that is extremely tough. NYU does offer great graduate housing in 2bedrooms next to the department for a cheap (relatively) $980 a month (all utilities included), but unfortunately, this is only available to students for their first year.

Places like NYU and Columbia should be offering at LEAST 28k stipends.....

Plenty of people live in NYC on 22K. Also, keep in mind that the top fellowships at CUNY pay about $18K/year.

[joeygiraldo]

Plenty of people live in NYC on 22K. Also, keep in mind that the top fellowships at CUNY pay about $18K/year.

But do these people live in Manhattan??

[lotf629]

Most people at Columbia and NYU either live in subsidized housing or in Brooklyn, etc.

[manhattanbusmap]

long commute between Columbia & Brooklyn....

There are cheap (ish) apartments in upper Manhattan. And Columbia is pretty generous with its fully funded students.

Thanks everyone for such helpful responses. I didn't realize that funding information was made public, will definitely do more research.