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Need help on the matter of fellowships and awards


Yanaka

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Dear all,

I am posting this because I am starting to understand that even if I do get into a Ph.D. program, their funding and stipend might not guarantee that I will live "comfortably" (as in can survive without too many sacrifices). From some of your posts, I also understand that funding varies and since my "GPA" and GREs are not the most competitive, I might not receive something that survivable (provided I am offered admission somewhere -- if the mighty gods of the adcomm hear me and think I lack modesty and prudence). Parallel to my googling this stuff, I thought I could try and ask for help from actual people. 

- does it happen that a candidate is admitted to a program but the funding is not enough for living expenses (rent, food, food, food, food - food - etc.)?

- as I said, I am starting to understand that I shouldn't rely on the program/school's funding alone, and should actually be sniffing around for outside awards: do I understand correctly? Are there any incompatibilities between outside fundings and program funding that I should be aware of?

- are the awards the same as grants? Like grants for vegetarians, grants for women, grants for people with two big toes... (no offense, I think toes are awesome) 

This would be the only questions for now. Since it's all obscure, I don't really know what to ask yet.

Thanks !

NB: I am not a toe fetish. Again, no offense.

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48 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

- does it happen that a candidate is admitted to a program but the funding is not enough for living expenses (rent, food, food, food, food - food - etc.)?

- as I said, I am starting to understand that I shouldn't rely on the program/school's funding alone, and should actually be sniffing around for outside awards: do I understand correctly? Are there any incompatibilities between outside fundings and program funding that I should be aware of?

- are the awards the same as grants? Like grants for vegetarians, grants for women, grants for people with two big toes... (no offense, I think toes are awesome) 

1. Yes, it could happen, but it will depend on the program. Many schools will post their typical funding amounts online so that you can get a sense of how well you could live (at least the schools in my field do). If not, you can always ask the department directly for a typical stipend amount or better yet, a range in stipends that they pay. If you are worried about this affecting your admission decision, make a new email account with a different name and ask. Or, just call and ask. You can also use TheGradCafe's "Results Survey" and see what people have said about offers from these schools in the past. When I applied to PhD programs, I only applied to places where I had some kind of estimate of funding level and where this level was high enough for me to consider living on that amount.

2. There isn't a ton of outside awards so if you find any then you should apply to them! In Canada, there is the equivalent of the NSF for humanities and social sciences and there are provincial government awards (values range from $15,000 to $35,000 per year). I'm not sure if the United States has something like that for your field. Typically, most grad students get external funding after they get into school, not before (although with recent NSF policies changes, this may now be different). 

As to whether or not the external awards are compatible with school awards, then it depends on the awards! Read the fine print. Usually, the best advice is to apply for whatever you are eligible for, and then if you happen to have multiple award offers (external or internal), you can work it out afterwards. Typically, internal awards assume no external sources of funding and the value of your internal award may change if you receive outside funding. For example, at my program, there is a standard stipend level: $31,000 per year for everyone. If you bring in an outside award worth $25,000, then your stipend is still $31,000: you get $25,000 from the outside source and $6,000 from the internal source. The reasons for this are good ones because our actual cost is a lot more than our stipend (there's overhead, i.e. tuition, benefits, etc.). The only time you get paid more than the standard $31,000 per year is if you happen to have an external award that is either 1) has a total value greater than your stipend+overhead or 2) has an award amount specifically set aside as stipend that is greater than $31,000 per year (e.g. the NSF pays $12k for tuition and $34k for stipend, and even though this doesn't cover all of our costs---profs pay about $60k/year for each student, the NSF holder still gets paid the full $34k because that amount is set aside for stipend). 

Another example, at a previous program, you might get paid something like $24,000 per year if you have no external funding, $27,000 per year if you have a $15,000/year award and $31,000/year if you have a $22,000/year award. In this case, your internal funding still gets adjusted but you get to keep some of it as a "bonus". This seems to happen more for programs where the base stipend is lower.

3. The terminology isn't standard across all fields, countries, departments, etc. Usually awards for study at the graduate level are merit-based rather than needs-based. I would say that "awards" is an umbrella term that covers scholarships, fellowships, and grants. I would use these loose definitions:

Scholarships: money awarded to you for previous scholastic achievement with the intention of support your future studies. These are more common in undergrad programs, Masters programs, or course-based graduate programs (i.e. professional programs) rather than research Masters/PhD programs. These awards are almost always given based on past accomplishments.

Fellowships: money awarded to you for previous scholastic or research achievement with the intention of supporting your work (both coursework and research work) in general. These are the most common awards-based funding for graduate students as well as postdocs. Usually, the awards are based on past accomplishment, but sometimes you will be evaluated on some type of proposal for future work as well. The proposal would typically be relatively vague and for students, you're not really required to carry out the exact proposal, but you should do work in related fields.

Grants: money awarded to you to work on a specific project or a specific component of a specific project. For example, a student may have a grant for their entire research work, or there could be a grant specifically to travel to a region to do some fieldwork/visit a library etc. These awards mostly revolve around submitting a proposal and the merit and feasibility of the proposed project. They would also consider your past achievements, mostly as an indicator of your ability to achieve your proposed project. You'll be expected to carry out the project specified in your application/proposal, and it may even include a budget breakdown of all costs.

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To further help you to understand whether your stipend will be liveable...

Check out PhD Stipends (my website), which has grad student-submitted data on stipend levels in various fields and at various universities. The LW Ratio (living wage ratio) will tell you whether the post-fees stipend is more (> 1) or less (< 1) than the local living wage, which is an estimate of basic living expenses (rent, food, transportation, medical, miscellaneous, taxes).

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Wow thank you @TakeruK!! Your answer is really helpful in explaining the basics and guiding me towards how and what I should look for! I'll definitely be sniffing around and will share the info. 

Thanks @GradStudentFinances (very straightforward pseudonym!), I'll look into your website, too.

 

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On 12/9/2016 at 0:24 PM, Yanaka said:

Dear all,

I am posting this because I am starting to understand that even if I do get into a Ph.D. program, their funding and stipend might not guarantee that I will live "comfortably" (as in can survive without too many sacrifices). From some of your posts, I also understand that funding varies and since my "GPA" and GREs are not the most competitive, I might not receive something that survivable (provided I am offered admission somewhere -- if the mighty gods of the adcomm hear me and think I lack modesty and prudence). Parallel to my googling this stuff, I thought I could try and ask for help from actual people. 

- does it happen that a candidate is admitted to a program but the funding is not enough for living expenses (rent, food, food, food, food - food - etc.)?

- as I said, I am starting to understand that I shouldn't rely on the program/school's funding alone, and should actually be sniffing around for outside awards: do I understand correctly? Are there any incompatibilities between outside fundings and program funding that I should be aware of?

- are the awards the same as grants? Like grants for vegetarians, grants for women, grants for people with two big toes... (no offense, I think toes are awesome) 

This would be the only questions for now. Since it's all obscure, I don't really know what to ask yet.

Thanks !

NB: I am not a toe fetish. Again, no offense.

You ask a very complex question. 

  • Yes, a candidate can be admitted to a PhD program without enough money for him/her to get by. This depends on schools, programs, and location. For example, I remember comparing schools in New York with schools in the Carolinas. Although the latter offered less stipend, I knew I could live by that whereas those in NY were higher but in a far more expensive city. 
  • Sometimes you are admitted with a scholarship that covers tuition, sometimes you are just given a stipend and from that you have to pay tuition, sometimes you are offered covered tuition costs and a stipend with some service, sometimes no service. In my case, I knew I didn't want to teach my first year because I came from abroad, and I had no money to survive in the US for more than two months. So I applied to schools that offered tuition scholarship+stipend+no service the first year+health insurance (it is obligatory for me, as an international student, to have health insurance if I want to enroll in a school in the US). Yes, the schools that offered this are the hardest to get in to. 
  • I doubt there are awards for coursework, but there are a lot for research. In my school, there is a lot of competitive fellowships (for a whole year) or funding (for the summer) to be able to conduct research. This added a lot of money to my stipend. In addition, many schools offer on-campus employment that can help you make ends meet. I know people that work at the library, at students tech services, and many have TAed for professors for another stipend a semester. 
  • My understanding of the vocabulary is similar to @TakeruK. I would add that scholarships are in the PhD because they covered tuition. You don't actually see the money. Besides, and this is important, the vocabulary does matter because of tax returns. For example, fellowships and stipends are often subject to taxes while scholarships are not. And this also depends on your nationality.

In conclusion,

  • You be admitted into a program with not enough to get by. This depends on the program and once you have an offer you will know better.
  • Scholarships, awards, fellowships, etc vary in type and who gives them. 
  • You can always think of part time employment.

[PS: I wrote this post yesterday, 12/9, but my connection failed and apparently it didn't post but it did save, so here it is. Sorry if it is useless now...]

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Hey @AP there is absolutely no problem, your post is very relevant. I'm currently swamped with finals so I haven't yet pondered all the info you two gave me, but I will come back to you. In the meantime, I thank you very much for your help and your time. It's already helped me decipher the different terms and guidelines. You've also given me names, that's really cool.

I also have trouble with understanding what I am able to do from my position as a US citizen who's almost always lived abroad. It's a completely new system for me, and I don't how I am considered: a US citizen yes, but with an international background nonetheless. This has been weird for the whole application process actually, because there are often questions that I don't know how to answer. However, I need to sit down and skim and read through all of this stuff, first.

Thank you again :) 

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