Naïveté about funding

[twocosmicfish]

socnerd - as others have noted here, the difference in funding practices is because as an undergraduate you are an academic consumer, while as a graduate student you are expected to contribute a little more in research and teaching than you consume in education and resources. Now, those who are expected to contribute more (because of grades, previous research, recommendations, etc.) get better funding, and of course there is always a limited pool of funding available, but that is the principle.

As to your situation, many applications ask the question "do you require financial assistance to attend?" but if not, don't push it - many schools view the funding/admission issue as a single question. If they only WANT to admit X students, and funding for at least that many, then it is irrelevent to their decision.

[Lauren the Librarian]

I'm sure I'm way out of the norm here but I wasn't even aware that the grad school typically paid for your degree until I started reading this forum. I just assumed that you paid for your graduate degree like you paid for your undergraduate, unless of course you couldn't afford it.

That's exactly what I thought and kept wondering why people were so anxious about "funding".

Now armed with knowledge of the financial aspects of a PhD in my humanities field, I'll make sure I get "funding". I want to go into research and I need a PhD. But I don't plan to teach much and hope I don't get stuck with a TA. An RA would be ok.

[rising_star]

Now armed with knowledge of the financial aspects of a PhD in my humanities field, I'll make sure I get "funding". I want to go into research and I need a PhD. But I don't plan to teach much and hope I don't get stuck with a TA. An RA would be ok.

Honestly, having been both a TA and a RA, I can tell you that unless teaching your own course, a TA position is less work. Why? Because no one questions you not working the full 10, 15, or 20 hours each week if you are a TA but they do if you are an RA because there are more frequent meetings/deliverables. In my department, TA positions, especially those that are just grading or teaching a lab or two, require well under the 20 hours per week that we get paid for.

[Reinventing]

Another contribution from Thomas H. Benton, published today: The Big Lie About the 'Life of the Mind' http://chronicle.com/article/The-Big-Lie-About-the-Life-of/63937/

Edited February 8, 2010 by ruralworks4me