4: Grad School Funding

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Today I'm going to talk about graduate school funding. The first thing I want to tell you when it comes to funding, especially if you're applying to PhD programs, is that you are not entering a doctoral program without some sort of funding. And before you even think about the funding options, you need to know what types of funding is available. I want to start out by kind of laying out the terminology about the different types of funding that you could get. First of all, there are internal forms of funding and external forms of funding for internal, which is also often called intramural funding. This refers to funding that will be coming from your current department or institution. And it can come in the form of a fellowship, which is funding that's awarded to you. It's often tied to an academic project of some sort. There are also academic assistantships, and these are often TA- ships or research assistantships where you're getting compensated for your time and you're also getting tuition and fee remission.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But then aside from the internal forms of funding, there are also external forms of funding that come from national, international or private sources. These are all coming outside of your current institution. A lot of these are fellowships. Some of the big name ones are the Ford fellowship and National Science Foundation fellowships, the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, big names. Aside from that, there are also scholarships and scholarships can be internal and external, you can get scholarships through your department, you can get scholarships through certain centers at your university, you can get scholarships from organizations like the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. And then of course, there are also grants. And I want to talk about grants, because grants often remind me of the hidden costs of graduate school. It's all the little costs that are associated and expected within graduate school that not a lot of people talk about. That's not accounted for in your funding package and the funding that you are offered when you're first admitted to grad school. And some of these costs are incurred during academic conferences. So to go to a national conference, you've got to pay for travel, for lodging, got to pay your food, you got to pay for your registration. And this can easily add up. So that's where grants come in. You can apply for grants that will be travel grants, grants to do field work, grants to pay for some of these smaller expenses that easily add up.

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And then, you know, one thing I really want to focus on is that when you're admitted to a PhD program, you'll receive an acceptance letter. Along with that acceptance letter, you may get it right away, or you may get it a few weeks after your acceptance letter, you're also going to receive an offer letter. The offer letter will include a funding package. That funding package will lay out for you what that department is able to offer you. It can include a combination of fellowships, that's time where you can focus solely on your research. It can include TA - ships, teaching assistantships, and RA - ships, research assistantships. And honestly, usually the largest part of your grad school funding comes from your department. And it's also often competitive, it's on a competitive basis. Outside of that you can also secure funding through forms of employment. I know that when I was in graduate school, I was able to get funding, tuition and fee remission by working as a graduate mentor at different centers. That's something to check out if you've already exhausted all the sources of funding within your department. But if you're a new PhD student, you're just getting accepted. You want to take a look at that funding package, make sure that you're getting full funding. By full funding, I mean that you're getting a package that includes fellowships, and includes TA- ships, and it's supposed to cover you for the time that you believe you'll be in graduate school. That could be four or five, six years.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Something else that a lot of folks don't know about graduate school funding is that believe it or not, graduate students are still eligible for financial aid and for work study opportunities. That means that as you're applying to graduate schools, you'll also want to keep in mind that you'll need to apply for the FAFSA. Again, because the FAFSA is something that a lot of departments will use to determine whether or not you have any financial need and therefore qualify for certain need based fellowships.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And then going back to the conversation of scholarships and grants, if let's say you get a funding package, and you've got good amount of funding, but maybe, maybe your summers aren't covered, or maybe your last year isn't covered. And you know, you have to apply for other forms of funding to cover yourself during that time. Definitely look for scholarships, grants and fellowships that are outside of your department. How do you do that? You want to look at, like I mentioned earlier, different centers, research centers, resource centers, to see if they offer scholarships and grants, look at National Association, sometimes they offer grants, look at national organizations, and just keep trying to find as many resources available within and outside of your university for funding.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I actually want to also share with you some of the language that's actually used in funding letters coming from- this would be a really good, UC package. So a package coming from a University of California, and also a really good private package. So a package that's coming from a top Ivy League school. And so for the UC package, a really competitive excellent fellowship that you could get is called the Cota-Robles fellowship, and typically the Cota- Robles will fully fund you. And so you know, in this example, this student received in their first year, a stipend of $25,000, plus fees in state tuition, and if needed non resident tuition. And then in their second and third year, they're guaranteed a TA ship. In their fourth year, they will receive a fellowship, again, with a stipend of $25,000 plus fees, and their fifth year, they are guaranteed a TA ship should you need one. This is where I would tell that student: you need to ask them if that TA ship is for the full year, fall, winter, spring, or if that TA ship is only for one quarter, because that's not very clear. You want to get everything in writing right away so that you can cover yourself. What's great about this offer letter is that this student received a $4,000 summer stipend for their first two summers in the program. This is not the case, all the time. In fact, I tell my students, you probably shouldn't expect to get summer funding. That's a plus. But it's not an expectation. And if you don't get it and you have multiple offer letters, you should definitely try to negotiate for that. And then of course, the student, it says here, they're getting medical insurance as part of their student fees. So that's a really good funding package. This is a five year funding package. That's assuming that this PhD program is five years long.

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Here's another one. So this one is coming from, again, a private source, and the student is getting a common combination of stipends, and TA ships. The first two years, this student is going to be on a fellowship. And then their third, fourth and fifth year, the student is going to have a combination of TA ships. And then it says here and that hold up, hold up. Oh, I don't have that page. But from what I remember, this student got four years of summer funding. I don't recall how much that amount was, but it was at least $4,000, which is excellent. That's an example of another really great package where you're getting multiple years of fellowship time, at least like one or two years, you're getting a combination of TA ships and RA ships. And then you get that added bonus of the summer funding.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

There are some other questions that I think that you should really consider when you're thinking about funding when you're getting your offer letters. It's a really exciting and nerve wracking time for folks. And oftentimes, you're so grateful to even have been admitted that you don't want to ask for more. You're scared to ask these questions related to funding, you don't want them to change their mind or rescind their offer. But that's rare. That's very rare and with proper kind of advice and doing things, you know, within the right decorum and not being - not seeming entitled, but just asking for more information, you can certainly negotiate for a better package, especially if you have more than one offer letter. Again, the questions that you really need to consider are one, what about summer funding? If there's no mention of summer funding in your offer letter, you're going to want to ask about that. I ask if they offer summer funding, and if not, then how do most students in that program fund themselves for the summer. Also, you can ask them- this is something not a lot of people know- ask them if they cover relocation expenses. Believe it or not, some universities will actually pay anywhere from $500 to $2,000 of your relocation expenses, often on a reimbursement basis. This is a harder to tell, harder to predict which universities will offer it. But again, if you're moving, especially if you're moving out of state, you might want to ask about this.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

The other thing I get in terms of questions from students is whether or not they should even bother negotiating. And I always say: hey, if you have more than one offer letter, negotiate. If you only have one offer letter, you could always ask for more. But the odds of them increasing what they offered you are slim. But if you have another offer letter, and it's competitive, and it's a better deal than what the university is offering you, you say, hey, University of so-and-so is offering me X, can you match or exceed it? Trust me, they will think twice because if they admitted you that means they want you.

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The other thing to consider is how much tuition costs per year? Because, you know, just keep in mind and do the math like what would it cost for me if tuition is 20k a year and it's a five year program. Without this funding, you're going to be 100k in debt. If tuition is 40 or 60k a year, which it could be if it's out of state at an Ivy League, 60 grand a year for a two year master's program. Right away, you're in six figures of debt. And I don't encourage that for anybody. I don't wish that on anyone.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Other things to keep in mind are the cost of living of that area. How much money do you actually have to live off of so think about that stipend, do the math, divide it and you know, between all the months that you have. I like to tell my students that more often than not they're going to be living off of $6,000 a quarter if they're in the quarter system, or about $2,000 a month. Most graduate students make anywhere between 20 and 25k a year with their funding packages. Yes, I know, that's not a lot of money. But it's five years of sacrifice for hopefully, a really good job after this and not necessarily an academic job either. Because, you know, a lot of people talk about how there are fewer and fewer tenure track jobs that are available. But you know, a lot of institutions of higher ed have different types of employment opportunities that aren't necessarily affiliated with a tenure track, a lot of companies are seeking more PhDs. If you know that's the route you want to take it's definitely a worthwhile sacrifice. But going back to the cost of living, though, this is where it's interesting, because if you're getting 20, 25k for your funding, and it's about the same all over the country, that means that your money is going to stretch a lot more if you're living in a place that's more affordable. So if you're living in Los Angeles, if you're living in Santa Barbara, these are the places where my students live, you're going to be poor. It's just really hard to make ends meet with your graduate student stipend. If you're living in North Carolina, if you're living in Kansas, if you're living in Ohio, hey, those places have some really great universities. I have met, I have heard of graduate students who have been able to rent or even buy houses, yes, a house. I remember hearing about a graduate student that had their own yoga room and I was so jealous. But hey, they lived in North Carolina and I lived in LA. Those are some decisions that we both made.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

The last thing I want to mention when it comes to funding is that if you think that it's going to be really tight for you to live off of 20, 25k a year, you may want to consider getting some sort of source of part time employment. That could be at a university or outside of it. A lot of graduate students have their own side hustles, or they work part time, as you know, mentors or advisors or counselors or tutors. And then, you know, there are folks who still do things like work at grocery stores, work at at an Office Depot, or work for Uber or DoorDash. I didn't do that. I did work part time when I was a graduate student as a graduate mentor. I did take on additional readership positions where I graded exams for professors. But you know, those were, those were the things that I needed to do. At one point, I held three part time jobs to try to support- I was financially supporting my family of three. This is not something you absolutely have to do, especially if you don't have a family. But if you again, if you need additional sources of income, you want to save a little more, it doesn't hurt to have a part time job in graduate school. Some people will discourage it, but only you know how much you can handle.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I'm trying to think about what I can leave you with when it comes to funding. And I think I should just go back to what I said in the beginning of this recording, which is that you're not entering a PhD program without at least some sort of funding. It may not be full funding, but you're gonna get some sort of funding. And I actually don't recommend going into six figures worth of debt for graduate school. If that's gonna happen, you might as well try to reapply again another year to get a better package because it's just, it's not fun having to incur that much debt. At that point, I'm not sure when you think about the cost benefit analysis if it's even worthwhile. And that's something that you obviously you have to talk to your own mentors, fem-tors, advisors to see if it's even worthwhile to take on that much debt. A little bit of debt, maybe that's reasonable, but a lot of debt, no. I don't want you to be trying to pay that off for the rest of your life. So definitely go ahead and apply to your programs. Ask for funding, negotiate, and see what you get, okay? I'll talk to y'all later.