financial offer letter - is this ambiguous or normal?

[zhtmahtm]

I heard back from this one school in mid-March, and at that point they only sent me an admission offer by email, saying that they "ensure support in form of RA that pays a minimum of XX per month, waive tuition and most fees and provide health coverage". While this was a lot more ambiguous than offers from other school I assumed that was because this was an admission offer, not like a 'financial offer' letter or something...  And I finally got the financial offer letter now (which I found ridiculous, considering that they asked me to reply until April 15th to accept my offer - I did anyway, because although other offers paid me better, I thought XX would be enough to cover my living expenses). That letter still sounds very ambiguous to me though.... it says that my stipend will be "no less than XX a month" and that I am "responsible for paying approximately XX each quarter" for a number of service fees. Now I realize that I have been too naive... or stupid... to accept this offer without 100% confirming the support the university is providing, and while the service fees are not THAT much, they're not THAT little so I'm getting really annoyed with my own fault... I was wondering if this kind of wording was common/normal in other schools, since the other offers I've gotten all clearly mentioned the amount of $ that I was going to be paid. Should I email the grad school coordinator for clarification? 

[preantepenultimate]

Compare the fees you will be paying with the estimated fees on the public website for your program. Are they higher, lower, or equivalent? If you are paying more, or if the public page obscures or grossly misrepresents the actual fees, then you might have a good reason to complain, especially considering that you weren't notified of the details until after the deadline. Otherwise, as long as the fees aren't a significant percentage of your stipend, it doesn't sound too unreasonable.

[GradSchoolTruther]

Buyer beware. Always look up costs of attendance.

[eternallyephemeral]

This is one of those cases where they TECHNICALLY said that you would pay some fees, but they were very vague about it. In what you quoted, you're right that it seems like your fees, medical, and tuition are taken care of, but in fact you actually have to pay a portion of the fees, as it said "waive tuition and MOST fees".

I would look into extra TAships, work-study positions, RAships with other professors, and maybe see if your supervisor ever provides summer funding. Also look into reduced rates for things with your student status, and see if your supervisor covers other perks like going to conferences, etc.