Is it acceptable to ask for a bigger stipend?

[genes]

Not sure if this post belongs here.

I've been accepted to two great schools and am about to make a decision. Both are offering to fund me, but my top choice is paying a stipend that is about $700 less per year than the other choice. Both schools are in the same state.

Would it be rude to try to ask for more money before I accept the offer?

[HighOnCafe]

I don't think it is rude/a bad idea to ask for more funding. I've been accepted to the Josef Korbel School with a great amount of funding, but received none from American University. I emailed my adviser at American University and explained that I was trying to make my decision, but that financing the program was a big concern. I asked them to reconsider for me their merit-based scholarships and they are currently reviewing my application. As long as you are respectful when you approach the subject there shouldn't be a problem. 

[Bioenchilada]

Just now, HighOnCafe said:

I don't think it is rude/a bad idea to ask for more funding. I've been accepted to the Josef Korbel School with a great amount of funding, but received none from American University. I emailed my adviser at American University and explained that I was trying to make my decision, but that financing the program was a big concern. I asked them to reconsider for me their merit-based scholarships and they are currently reviewing my application. As long as you are respectful when you approach the subject there shouldn't be a problem. 

Yeah, but there is a difference between merit-based scholarships and NIH-grant funding (or any large scale funding source). I can see how you could for a reconsideration of your FA package when you're talking about scholarships, but training grants are basically fixed. The only way you would get more money is if they gave you an additional fellowship on top of the training grant that you already get as part of your admission. 

[TakeruK]

Generally, it is not rude to ask for more money because schools understand that students are people that need to pay rent, bills, and buy food! My opinion is that you should ask for more money if you cannot accept the offer as it stands because it is not enough to live on. But even though schools understand this, many schools are not actually able to increase the stipend (but they will understand and not think poorly of you for asking).

However, I do think it will reflect poorly on you if you are just asking for more money because you want more money (everyone wants more money). I might be wrong, but I can't imagine $700 per year making a huge difference on whether or not you are going to attend the top choice. For a 5 year degree, this is $3500. I think that if you ask for more money, you are basically saying either:

1. You deserve more money than other students just because you asked for it, or

2. You value the difference between your top choice and the other school as $3500 or less over 5 years. 

Both options do not look good on your part and in my opinion, if you are able to afford cost of living at the top choice school, then you should accept their offer. 

Note: I do think that grad student offers should be more like job negotiations and that we should have more employee-like rights. However, the reality is that 1) schools don't really have as much flexibility in grad student funding as they do for actual hires and 2) trying to make a statement like this for $700/year is not worth the harm it could cause you.

Finally, be sure to compare other things like cost of living (some states are really big!) and health insurance coverage. Maybe the top choice school will cost you a lot less in health insurance. Do your research so that if you do ask for more money, you can back it up with numbers otherwise you'll also look bad.

[L265]

I do not think there is any problem with asking or additional funding, as long as you are respectful in your request. One of my offers did not include health insurance, and the other did. I asked my POI if there was any way for the program to pick up the cost of my premium through the graduate student insurance plan, and she said that there was not, but that she would try to find a mechanism to add extra money to my stipend so that I can buy my own insurance on the healthcare exchange. The program director OKed it, although I am waiting for details on how that money will be dispersed. They have said it is complicated to add funds to standardized stipends, especially at state schools, but when there is a will, sometimes there ca be a way. Good luck! 

 

[rising_star]

Before asking, I wouldn't compare just the face value of the two stipends. As others have said, take into consideration things like health insurance. To that, I would add that you should seriously look into things like fees which are charged in addition to tuition and wouldn't be covered by a tuition waiver. I've seen those fees range from $150 to $700 a semester depending on the institution. If the school offering less money in the stipend also has lower fees, you could come out financially ahead by going there whether or not they increase your stipend.

As others have said, you can ask but the flexibility to actually increase stipends varies widely. My PhD department didn't increase someone's stipend ever. The only way to make more was to get an outside fellowship which paid you more. They did this because they wanted everyone to be treated fairly across the program. That said, they were given money by the university to offer bonuses to certain students. That money was redistributed to all grad students as conference travel money (as in, the total pool of money was divided by the number of students presenting at at least one conference and then each student was given the $X for travel, regardless of the conference's cost). I have no problem with this approach however, if you read some of the posts on here, people will suggest that a department which isn't willing to give you more money to attend isn't really that interested in you, even though this may not be the case.

[juilletmercredi]

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with asking for more money, but $700 a year is less than $60 a month (or less than $80 a month on a 9-month stipend). In the grand scheme of things that's not really enough to be worth the hassle of trying to negotiate differences, especially if the school that offered you slightly less is the one you reallyan wt to go.