Offers
On the 2014 site this was the menu item in red, where students posted the offers they received. The board is gone. The decision it was meant to help with is still the hardest one in the process, so here is a better tool for it.
The sample numbers are invented to make a point: a bigger stipend in an expensive city can leave you with less than a smaller one somewhere cheap. Replace them with your real figures. The stipend in your letter is usually for the academic year; if summer is not covered, it is a nine-month salary stretched over twelve.
What a funded offer is made of
| Part | What to ask |
|---|---|
| Stipend | Is it for 9 or 12 months? Is it the same in every year? Is it paid monthly or by semester? |
| Tuition waiver | Full or partial? Does it cover out-of-state tuition in year one? |
| Fees | Which mandatory fees are not waived? They can run to hundreds or thousands per year. |
| Health insurance | Fully paid, subsidized or on you? What about dependents? |
| Source of funding | TA, RA, fellowship or a mix? Who pays in each year? |
| Guarantee | How many years, and conditional on what (good standing, teaching load)? |
| Summer | Funded by the advisor’s grant, by teaching, or not at all? |
Money is the tiebreaker, not the decision
The advisor decides more about the next five years than the stipend does. A slightly poorer offer from a lab where students publish, finish on time and speak well of their advisor beats a richer one where nobody looks up when you visit. Use the money to break ties between good fits, and to rule out offers you cannot live on.
For a full worked comparison of two schools, read Purdue vs USC. If you are weighing a doctorate against a job, the $150K question runs the opportunity cost. If residency or tuition is part of the puzzle, see in-state vs out-of-state tuition.
Saying no
Decline the offers you will not take as soon as you know. Somebody on the waitlist is checking their email every hour, and a program cannot move to the next name until you let go of yours. A two-line email to the graduate coordinator is enough, and a short thank-you to any professor who spent time with you is better.
Questions about offers
- One school offers more money but only four guaranteed years. The other offers less for five. Which is better?
- Ask both programs what share of their students finish in four years, and what happens to students who need a fifth. A guarantee you will not need is worth little; a gap year of funding in your field can be expensive. Many programs fund students past the guarantee in practice, but you want that in writing or from current students.
- Can I ask a program to match another offer?
- You can ask politely, with the competing offer in hand, and some programs will adjust a stipend or add a fellowship top-up. Others have fixed rates and cannot. Ask once, be specific, and do not bluff.
- What does the April 15 deadline actually mean?
- Many US graduate schools follow a Council of Graduate Schools resolution that gives students until April 15 to accept or decline offers of financial support. Programs that follow it should not pressure you to commit earlier. Check whether your programs participate and read the current wording on the CGS site.
- Is a fellowship always better than an assistantship?
- Usually, because it frees your time for research. But some fellowships do not cover fees or insurance, and some pay less than the assistantship would. Compare the full package, and ask whether the department tops up external fellowships.