Welcome to the 2016-17 cycle!

[Monody]

Something Ive recently been interested - and maybe some of those who are currently in grad school can shine some light on it - is the taxable status of the stipends. What is the average range of tax in percentages you pay on your stipend and how much do you pay if are an international student since there are some tax treaties which apparently have to be considered. Thanks.

[amripley]

7 hours ago, Monody said:

Something Ive recently been interested - and maybe some of those who are currently in grad school can shine some light on it - is the taxable status of the stipends. What is the average range of tax in percentages you pay on your stipend and how much do you pay if are an international student since there are some tax treaties which apparently have to be considered. Thanks.

Can't speak to the US, but in Canada, any portion of the stipend that comes from regular wages (TA ships, etc) will be taxed (albeit at a very low rate), while fellowships/scholarships/bursaries are not taxed. For holders of really big awards, this is a huge boon. A $20,000+ SSHRC award would put most people up a tax bracket or two, so not having that count toward your total is definitely nice. Either way, the fact that tuition, ancillary fees, and textbooks are all (partially) tax deductible means that most graduate students will be getting their payroll tax back -- and then some. 

Edited December 8, 2016 by amripley

[Monody]

20 minutes ago, amripley said:

Can't speak to the US, but in Canada, any portion of the stipend that comes from regular wages (TA ships, etc) will be taxed (albeit at a very low rate), while fellowships/scholarships/bursaries are not taxed. For holders of really big awards, this is a huge boon. A $20,000+ SSHRC award would put most people up a tax bracket or two, so not having that count toward your total is definitely nice. Either way, the fact that tuition, ancillary fees, and textbooks are all (partially) tax deductible means that most graduate students will be getting their payroll tax back -- and then some. 

Alright. Thanks. 

[sesostris]

Editing this: I spoke with Michigan and they will accept scanned copies. If anyone is in the same situation I think you should write them but I think that's a requirement that applies to US applicants maybe.

Edited December 8, 2016 by sesostris

[hopefulPhD2017]

On 12/3/2016 at 3:06 PM, sesostris said:

I just got through December 1st and was moving on to the next deadlines (some universities have deadlines 6th, 8th and 9ht, they want to stand out I think!). My disgraceful story: Stanford's application system does not have a CV/Resumé field, so in my hurry (no one was chasing me but I don't know, sometimes I start an application and I can't stop until I deliver it or my mind will not rest) I sent the application. Then I went back to their FAQ and realized that the CV should be uploaded to the Additional Documents field, something I hadn't seen before.

I wrote to the email of the person in the Department that according to the website is responsible for admissions attaching my CV. Do you think that they will accept my CV and attach it to my application even though I didn't upload it to the online application? 

In any case: if you are applying to Stanford beware, they do want a CV. It's not the only case that requires the CV in the "Additional - never specified - documents" but its the critical one for which I fell. I felt that I was a good match for Stanford given my research agenda, now I want to kill myself, why wouldn't I submit a CV (it's not an amazing CV but it's a very good one, lots of work as research assistant and jobs outside academia but in important positions in government and think tanks), they will think that I have some really dark past maybe!

Eek! I submitted to Stanford next week and cannot remember if I attached my CV at the end. Surely they can't punish applicants for not posting something they didn't explicitly ask for? If they're that picky, then we don't want them anyhow, do we? (just kidding, now I'm freaking out)

[resDQ]

2 hours ago, sesostris said:

Editing this: I spoke with Michigan and they will accept scanned copies. If anyone is in the same situation I think you should write them but I think that's a requirement that applies to US applicants maybe.

 

scanned copies of what? transcripts? I just uploaded mine to the application website...

[GradNYC]

Hey-- do you think committees review applications before or after the holiday? 

 

Thanks! 

[.letmeinplz//]

6 hours ago, GradNYC said:

Hey-- do you think committees review applications before or after the holiday? 

 

Thanks! 

Not sure about your field, but I do know some that have already started reviewing applications in mine.

[polscimajor]

Hi all,

One of my recommenders hasn't submitted her LOR yet for a program that was due on the 1st of Dec. 

She says she'll do it by the end of this week (which is rapidly approaching), and I'm starting to get worried that the LOR might arrive too late after the adcom has started reviewing the applications.

Anybody know how big of a problem this can be? If this seems serious I might try calling her tomorrow even though it's  a Saturday....

[resDQ]

9 hours ago, GradNYC said:

Hey-- do you think committees review applications before or after the holiday? 

 

Thanks! 

 

At programs that have a high number of applicants? Doubt it. Sectaries have to organize all of our files and I imagine that getting a group of academics together can be difficult... I'm guessing, but I think at most we can expect maybe a first cut for schools that had their apps due early December. I don't see how the others will get much done before the 25th.

[Senioritis]

5 hours ago, polscimajor said:

Hi all,

One of my recommenders hasn't submitted her LOR yet for a program that was due on the 1st of Dec. 

She says she'll do it by the end of this week (which is rapidly approaching), and I'm starting to get worried that the LOR might arrive too late after the adcom has started reviewing the applications.

Anybody know how big of a problem this can be? If this seems serious I might try calling her tomorrow even though it's  a Saturday....

You should be completely fine. I'm a current PhD student and one of my recommenders didn't send them until the end of December. He was the DGS at my undergrad school and was very reassuring that most programs are very lenient on LORs coming in late since that's probably out of your control most of the time.

 

 Also I applied last cycle and I ended up choosing Berkeley so if anyone has any questions about the program or grad school in general I'm happy to help out! ☺️

 

[polscimajor]

2 hours ago, Senioritis said:

You should be completely fine. I'm a current PhD student and one of my recommenders didn't send them until the end of December. He was the DGS at my undergrad school and was very reassuring that most programs are very lenient on LORs coming in late since that's probably out of your control most of the time.

 

 Also I applied last cycle and I ended up choosing Berkeley so if anyone has any questions about the program or grad school in general I'm happy to help out! ☺️

 

Oh wow thank you so much.

My recommender was saying the same thing too! She said that there would be no problem with the late LORs, and I guess she's right but I was getting worried nonetheless. 

You saved me from biting off the rest of my nails =) 

Thanks!

[CarefreeWritingsontheWall]

On 2016-12-08 at 0:42 AM, Monody said:

Something Ive recently been interested - and maybe some of those who are currently in grad school can shine some light on it - is the taxable status of the stipends. What is the average range of tax in percentages you pay on your stipend and how much do you pay if are an international student since there are some tax treaties which apparently have to be considered. Thanks.

As an international student, I lose 14% of my fellowship to taxes. I have it set up that it's automatically deducted so that I won't have to pay when I file at the end of the year, though income earned as an RA/wages is exempt due to a tax treaty between my home country and the US. https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes is a great website that can give you a sense of how much you will lose depending on where you attend. http://www.phdstipends.com/results can also give you a sense of how livable stipends are, and if there is variation in the packages offered from a given program (some do, some don't offer different things to different people).

re: committees meeting to review: I suspect those on committees will start reading applications after the deadline, but most won't formally meet until January, or later depending on when the fall term formally ends for them. Most have just finished meeting to determine job offers for the hiring cycle.

Edited December 10, 2016 by CarefreeWritingsontheWall
grammar

[GradNYC]

15 hours ago, .ian// said:

Not sure about your field, but I do know some that have already started reviewing applications in mine.

Political Science-- American. I'm concerned about my GRE score not arriving till end of Dec. 

[Monody]

1 hour ago, CarefreeWritingsontheWall said:

As an international student, I lose 14% of my fellowship to taxes. I have it set up that it's automatically deducted so that I won't have to pay when I file at the end of the year, though income earned as an RA/wages is exempt due to a tax treaty between my home country and the US. https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes is a great website that can give you a sense of how much you will lose depending on where you attend. http://www.phdstipends.com/results can also give you a sense of how livable stipends are, and if there is variation in the packages offered from a given program (some do, some don't offer different things to different people).

re: committees meeting to review: I suspect those on committees will start reading applications after the deadline, but most won't formally meet until January, or later depending on when the fall term formally ends for them. Most have just finished meeting to determine job offers for the hiring cycle.

Thanks a lot. I hoped that it would be something in this range, even though I am personally somewhat perplexed that stipends are being taxed in the US since this is not usually the case in Germany.  

[.letmeinplz//]

5 hours ago, GradNYC said:

Political Science-- American. I'm concerned about my GRE score not arriving till end of Dec. 

Did your apps not take in an unofficial score (you can dl a pdf with all the info from ETS)? They take your reported results at face value and once you are admitted is when official results/transcripts/etc really matter (if they don't match up your offer is rescinded). A few of mine even said not to send the official results until I get admitted, sort of how you don't mail in your transcripts until admittance. Also the GRE is probably the least looked at thing of your application, I think you'll be fine.

And many don't update that they received the official GRE until they accept/reject you, it is possible they have it already if you sent it via ETS.

Edited December 11, 2016 by .ian//

[correlatesoftheory]

7 hours ago, .ian// said:

Did your apps not take in an unofficial score (you can dl a pdf with all the info from ETS)? They take your reported results at face value and once you are admitted is when official results/transcripts/etc really matter (if they don't match up your offer is rescinded). A few of mine even said not to send the official results until I get admitted, sort of how you don't mail in your transcripts until admittance. Also the GRE is probably the least looked at thing of your application, I think you'll be fine.

And many don't update that they received the official GRE until they accept/reject you, it is possible they have it already if you sent it via ETS.

Literally all of my apps except one asked for unofficial GRE scores. 

[Monody]

2 hours ago, correlatesoftheory said:

Literally all of my apps except one asked for unofficial GRE scores. 

Where did you apply? All of mine asked for official scores. :/

[resDQ]

4 hours ago, Monody said:

Where did you apply? All of mine asked for official scores. :/

 

Don't mean to be this person, but some of the schools I applied to asked for both. All of mine asked for official scores. 

 

[dagnabbit]

All of the programs I applied to require that applicants send official scores as soon as they've completed the test, but they will begin reviewing one's application with the unofficial scores if the official ones have not arrived yet. I have never heard of a situation in which a school did not require official GRE scores until after admission, though this is common with transcripts.

[Monody]

23 minutes ago, dagnabbit said:

All of the programs I applied to require that applicants send official scores as soon as they've completed the test, but they will begin reviewing one's application with the unofficial scores if the official ones have not arrived yet. I have never heard of a situation in which a school did not require official GRE scores until after admission, though this is common with transcripts.

The thing that really bothered (and annoyed) me about the transcripts was that Stanford requires you to send them two physical copies of your transcripts which didn't only cost me 15€ to send but also took away 2 of the three official transcripts I received from my exam office. 

[resDQ]

12 minutes ago, Monody said:

The thing that really bothered (and annoyed) me about the transcripts was that Stanford requires you to send them two physical copies of your transcripts which didn't only cost me 15€ to send but also took away 2 of the three official transcripts I received from my exam office. 

It is not an "absolute" requirement. They will review them even if they are not received the official ones as they have the unofficial ones. Mine cost a similar amount and they have yet to be received, but I know from experience that the transcript office on campus is notoriously bad. I'm completely stressing about the programs that didn't ask for unofficial transcripts.

[GradNYC]

18 hours ago, .ian// said:

Did your apps not take in an unofficial score (you can dl a pdf with all the info from ETS)? They take your reported results at face value and once you are admitted is when official results/transcripts/etc really matter (if they don't match up your offer is rescinded). A few of mine even said not to send the official results until I get admitted, sort of how you don't mail in your transcripts until admittance. Also the GRE is probably the least looked at thing of your application, I think you'll be fine.

And many don't update that they received the official GRE until they accept/reject you, it is possible they have it already if you sent it via ETS.

Thanks, just one school was ok with uploading unofficial scores. The rest want the official score. 

[correlatesoftheory]

8 hours ago, Monody said:

Where did you apply? All of mine asked for official scores. :/

Sorry, just to clarify all but one school asked I give them unofficial scores and to send in official ones, if that makes sense.

[guest56436]

All 12 applications in, feels good.