PhD student

Negotiating PhD Funding Offers: This Grad Student Did It Successfully

January 28, 2019 by Jewel Lipps

In this episode, Emily interviews John Vsetecka, a second-year PhD student in History at Michigan State University. When John was a prospective PhD student, he attempted to negotiate the stipend and benefits of the three admissions offers he was seriously considering. John shares exactly how he initiated the negotiation process and the outcomes at each of the universities. His negotiation method is well-researched and well-considered and is applicable to many if not most other prospective graduate students. John and Emily also discuss how prospective PhD students should combat imposter syndrome during the admissions process.

Links mentioned in episode

0:00 Introduction

1:05 Please Introduce Yourself

John Vsetecka is a second-year PhD student in the Department of History at Michigan State University. He studies modern Ukrainian history, with a focus on the 1932-1933 famine. Before beginning his PhD program, he worked as a GEAR UP advisor. This is a federal grant agency that works with low income students, called Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. He worked in Colorado to help middle school and high school, low income students prepare for college. Before this job, he got a Master of Arts in History in 2014 at the University of Northern Colorado.

2:55 What PhD offers and interview requests did you receive from universities?

When John applied to PhD programs, he applied to eight schools and faced some rejections. He considered four offers, then narrowed his list to three. The first offer he eliminated would have required that he start with MA and work into PhD. Since he already had an MA, he felt he was ready to move on. He seriously considered three offers. He accepted the offer from Michigan State University, where he is now. He visited “University 2” in person for an interview. He had a virtual interview with “University 3.”

4:21 What did you think about the offers from these three universities?

John wasn’t sure what a fair offer was for a PhD position in History. Generally, PhD students are shy about sharing their financial experiences. So he did research and his mentor from the University of Northern Colorado guided him in this process. He talked to other PhD students, who would say they had enough to live on or that they were struggling. He used the websites GradCafe and PhD Stipends. He got a sense of what people were being paid, including their health insurance and fees. From all of this information, he decided two offers were fair and worth considering.

Emily shares an important piece of advice for prospective PhD students is to do your research. Anonymous databases, like PhD Stipends, provide more transparency around these offers. But you should talk to current graduate students, because it’s one thing to look at the numbers, and another thing to get a feel for how it is to live on that amount.

Further Reading: How to Read Your PhD Program Offer Letter

7:54 How did you initiate the negotiation process for your PhD stipend offers?

John negotiated his stipend offers during his interviews. He went to visit two universities in person for interviews, and had a virtual interview a University 3. His first interview was at University 2. During the visit, they have an itinerary and fully scheduled day. The experience is like a whirlwind. He prepared a set of questions for faculty members and set of questions for Graduate Director. With the Graduate Director, he talked about the PhD program as a whole to get their insight. Then he directly asked the Graduate Director if there is any other money available, such as other fellowships, and explained that he has other offers with higher financial value. The Graduate Director is the one that can control the money. The faculty can only put in good word on a student’s behalf. So as a prospective PhD student, you should know who you can talk to and know who you can negotiate with. You don’t need to be afraid to ask tough questions about financial aid.

The PhD program interview was a good time to negotiate PhD stipend offers. John waited until he received all offers to see where he stood across the field, and this gave him some leverage. Negotiating like this is is what people do with any other job. John told the Graduate Director that he had other offers, but he didn’t show them the letters themselves. Negotiating before receiving all other offers and before the interview can seem desperate. But if he negotiated after the visit, it might seem like that offer wasn’t his first choice and he was only negotiating after losing another offer. John also believes that talking in person is the best type of communication. Negotiating in person puts them on the spot.

During his interview visit for University 2, John asked the Graduate Director about the potential for a better financial package. The Graduate Director told John that they would get back to him a couple hours. Later that day, John received an email with a offer for a fellowship package. This showed John that they were willing to work on his behalf. He was surprised by this because he had expected them to negotiate and push back. During the interview visit, the department is most focused on recruitment, so they quickly considered his request and acted on it.

John went into the meeting with a set plan for negotiation. He had a notebook and visibly took notes during the conversation, which indicates that he took the negotiation seriously. Treating graduate school interviews like a professional scenario sets you up for success.

14:35 What new offer did you receive after negotiating?

Because he negotiated with the Graduate Director, John received an offer of a university fellowship instead of a teaching assistantship. The new offer was university-based funding, not department-based funding like his original offer. The university fellowship had different teaching requirements than the department teaching assistantship. It was more money in total, as well as better health care coverage. This showed what kind of control the department and university has over financial awards for PhD students. Even if the university can’t raise stipends, they can cover more fees or provide better benefits.

16:22 What outcomes did you get from negotiating with the other two universities?

John learned that not everyone would negotiate. At Michigan State, he had a generous offer that he was already happy with. Even so, he asked the Director of Graduate Studies at Michigan State about his financial award. The director kindly told him that his original financial award was what the department was willing to offer. John later learned that his department offers different financial packages based on a tiered system, and he was happy with the offer he received.

At University 3, John had a virtual meeting with the department. John brought up that he had offers with much more value than what they had offered him. John says that honestly, he was displeased with University 3’s financial offer. He learned that due to financial constraints at University 3, the department couldn’t offer more money. The department suggested term-to-term options. John didn’t want to be on his toes every semester wondering if he’d get paid. Though University 3 offered paid tuition, the money offered for teaching/research was not enough to even consider.

It’s important for prospective PhD students to recognize that some offers only tell you about the first year, while others present a five-year plan for funding.

19:35 Based on what you experienced, what would you do to negotiate differently?

John says he wouldn’t change much. While he knew negotiation was possible, he personally didn’t know anyone in his cohort group that negotiated their stipend offer. John heard from his advisors and mentors that it’s ok to ask, but you have to know to ask. John says this is one of those hidden things in academia. If prospective graduate students receive multiple offers, this is a chance to use offers against each other.
even if you get one offer, be happy, but if you get more offers you can use them

Emily brings up that often, applicants don’t feel a lot of confidence. They often think, “Who am I to be receiving these offers?” This imposter syndrome deters prospective PhD students from negotiating their stipends and ensuring that they receive the best offer.

22:27 How did you know negotiating your PhD offer would be possible and welcome?

John’s MA program advisor told him how to negotiate PhD stipend offers. First, you have to apply to multiple universities and know their programs well. Second, you need to know who you want to work with. Third, you need to talk with current graduate students. This is the most important advice. If you find their email on department websites, you can email them directly. Fourth, online communities like GradCafe help you connect with people who can help you.

John says that graduate school applicants should treat a PhD position like any other job. John says this profession should not be excluded from the process of negotiation. John’s experience at GEAR UP, where he helped low income students fight for undergraduate school money, showed him that there is a lot of money out there. He says it’s unfortunate so many undergraduates go into a lot of debt, when there are all types of money out there for different skills and talents. John wonders why graduate students can’t have that money too? There are different organizations, based in different fields, but money is out there. He suggests prospective students apply to everything they’re qualified for, but they also ask universities and departments what they can give.

Emily adds that prospective PhD students need to consider cost of living. If you have school A versus school B with higher stipend and in lower cost of living, you can ask the school A’s department what they can do to make the offer comparable.

26:44 Has your negotiation had any lasting impact on your graduate career?

John says the negotiation process doesn’t stop when you receive your final offer. Negotiation is a longer standing issue to think about in the future. At Michigan State, John and his peers negotiate for conference money, travel money, research money for the summer. Some graduate students can’t find money beyond teaching assistantships. Because he considered these benefits in his financial offer, he accepted a position that allows him the time and money to not worry. He has summer funding and he can teach online. For instance, he taught a seven week class online while being in Ukraine for research. He chose a school with an institutional investment. The department is doing well and it is investing in its students. He saw that the department was willing to invest continually in their students. He thinks the investment will continue after he graduates.

29:33 Final Comments

John says prospective graduate students should feel free to reach out to him. He likes to help in any way he can. When you get your offers, the first thing you should do is celebrate, and get a round of applause. After celebrating, look over your financial offer, and look beyond stipend to health insurance and benefits. If you get multiple offers, compare them. Be confident about your acceptance into a program and don’t be afraid to negotiate. Know that you have power in these situations. Even though graduate students often don’t have much power, this is the situation where you do. You have all the power and you should use it while you can.John treated PhD offers like job offers because it’s also a job, in literal and figurative sense.

31:27 Conclusion

This PhD Student Paid Off $62,000 in Undergrad Student Loans Prior to Graduation

September 10, 2018 by Emily

In this episode, Emily interviews Dr. Jenni Rinker, a mechanical engineering PhD currently working as a researcher at the Denmark Technical University. Jenni paid of $62,000 of student loans from her undergraduate degree while pursuing her PhD at Duke University. Her average payment was approximately $1,500 per month on a post-tax income of $2,700-$3,000 per month. Jenni shares her motivation for setting her lofty debt repayment goal and the practical strategies she used to accomplish it. After paying off her student loans, Jenni even saved enough money to take six months off from work post-defense.

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Links mentioned in episode

0:00 Introduction

1:10 Please Introduce Yourself

Dr. Jenni Rinker is a postdoc researcher at the Denmark Technical University. She attended Harvey Mudd University for undergraduate studies in engineering then went to Duke University for graduate studies. Her PhD is in Mechanical Engineering.

2:28 We’re talking today about your debt repayment journey. Can you tell us about this?

After undergrad at Harvey Mudd in 2011, Jenni had $62,000 student loan debt. She set the goal to repay the full debt during her PhD. She accomplished this goal, paying off the debt in 3 years and 7 months.

3:48 Can you tell us more about what kinds of loans you had?

Jenni kept a spreadsheet, a valuable tool that she used to track her debt repayment. She only had the option of unsubsidized student loans because she comes from a middle class household. At the time she started graduate school in September 2011, Jenni had $62,00 total from nine different loans. Federal student loans from Sallie Mae and Nelnet made up $28,000, at 6.8% interest rates. Jenni’s private student loans came to $34,000 total. Her single largest loan was from Alaska Advantage, a loan of $8,500 at 7.3% interest. She had several low interest (3-4%) private loans from Wells Fargo.

5:54 What was your income during your PhD?

Overall, Jenni’s post-tax income varied from $2,700 to $3,000 per month throughout her PhD. Before she started graduate school, Jenni was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. This fellowship provides an annual income of $34,000 for 3 years. When she started, Duke University offered her income in addition to her NSF fellowship. After the NSF fellowship period ended, Jenni won another external fellowship through the Office of Science that offered $3,000 per month.

However, Jenni started graduate school in debt and did not have any savings or assets she could use to reduce her debt.

10:50 Why were you so determined to pay off student loans during grad school?

Although student loan repayment could have been deferred while she was in graduate school, Jenni was uncomfortable with debt and letting interest accrue. She thought that keeping the debt would limit her choices after graduate school. The student loans felt like a weight over her head that was growing every day, and she wanted the freedom that would come after debt repayment.

Jenni decisively started paying off her student loans as soon as she started graduate school. She saw that her income was higher than her monthly expenses, so she made it her priority.

13:53 How did you pay off your student loans?

Jenni committed to her financial philosophy that the money earned from her job goes to rent, utilities, food, loans and other essential expenses first and foremost. Money for her other interests had to come from side income. Jenni earned extra income as a technical copyeditor. She had private clients and worked for the American Journal Experts. She funded several trips from her side income.

Spreadsheets were Jenni’s most important tool. She had a spreadsheet for each year, where each month had a tab. She calculated that $1,300 per month needed to be budgeted for student loans in order to pay off the debt in 4 years. Her living costs, the “monthly nut,” were $800 to $900 per month. She kept frugal habits, such as rarely going out to dinner.

Jenni implemented the strategy of paying herself first. Right after receiving her paycheck, she made her loan payment so the $1,300 was out of her account immediately and she wouldn’t be tempted to use it elsewhere. However, Jenni paid her student loans instead of building up her emergency fund, which was drained after she needed a car repair.

Jenni paid her loans manually, so she could pay the highest interest loans first. Her biggest loan also had the highest interest rate, so she prioritized this one first. Though she had nine different loans, she focused on paying off one loan completely before paying towards another loan.

Her story is an example of the debt avalanche method. Jenni prioritized bigger loans with higher interest to pay off first. She was motivated by paying as little interest as possible. This is in contrast to the debt snowball method, where a person pays off the smallest loans first, to feel motivated by these easy wins.

Jenni also identified where she overspends. She would take out cash to be more aware of her expenses.

28:23 Did you have any speed bumps during your debt repayment journey?

Though Jenni had one instance where she paid for car repairs, she feels like she got lucky with no major financial setbacks. Paying her student loans was her highest priority, and she ended up paying about $1,500 per month on average over three years and seven months. She paid her loans back faster than she expected.

29:53 How did you feel after paying off your student loans? Did anything change in your life?

Jenni realizes that this is an unusual accomplishment. She posted on Facebook and got many congratulations. At the time she made the final student loan payment, Jenni was still working on her dissertation.

She was so used to immediately using $1,300 for student loans, that she started saving that amount each month for travel. After she defended her PhD, she had stress-free travel for 6 months. She went to Patagonia, Europe, and traveled around the United States. Jenni already had a job lined up, so her travel was a true vacation to celebrate finishing her PhD and repaying her undergraduate debt. Jenni learned that traveling is very important to her, so this experience rejuvenated her and put her in the right mindset to start her postdoc.

34:30 Is there anything you wish you had done differently?

Jenni wishes she had rebuilt her emergency fund after she drained it for her car repair. Overall, she’s satisfied with her debt repayment journey. She balanced frugality with having a good quality of life.

During debt repayment, Jenni allowed herself flexibility for how much she paid every month. In the beginning, her repayment was more aggressive but she relaxed as time went on. She knew that in an emergency, her family could support her and she could pay her parents back for financial help in a tough situation.

38:14 Did this experience affect how you approach personal finance?

When Jenni moved to Denmark, she stopped tracking her daily expenses so carefully and has allowed herself to indulge in treats and go to cafes.

However, her budget spreadsheet is still her most valuable tool. She created her own spreadsheet template that makes sense to her. Jenni briefly considered using software budgeting tools like Mint, but never ended up trying one out. By using her own spreadsheet that she updates manually, she feels like she has more control of her budget. This manual system forces her to actively consider how she’s spending her money.

43:00 What advice would you give to someone starting graduate school with student loans?

First, Jenni recommends that graduate students with student loans set realistic goals. Your income must be more than your expenses, and you still need to have a good quality of life. Figure out your “monthly nut” and compare it to your income. Then, identify your problem areas in your expenses.

Second, she encourages graduate students to reevaluate their financial strategies. As graduate students, we have to educate ourselves about finance and learn from our mistakes. If your financial strategy is unsustainable, you can change it.

46:37 Final Comments

Jenni’s inspiring story is applicable to anyone in any kind of debt repayment scenario. The financial strategies Jenni used can help graduate students pay off their own student loan debt.

47:47 Conclusion

How to Find, Apply for, and Win a Fellowship During Your PhD or Postdoc

September 3, 2018 by Emily

Applying for fellowships is an essential component of your PhD training. My fellowship application advice is to apply for a few relevant fellowships as a prospective PhD student, whether you are coming from an undergraduate degree, master’s degree, job, or other fellowship. It’s also a great idea to keep applying for fellowships and grants throughout your PhD and postdoc for any years when you’re not already a fellow.

The advice in this article is on why, where, and how to apply for fellowships successfully. It has a particular focus on outside fellowships that are portable (you can use them at any institution), remunerative (they provide at least stipend/salary support), and broad (many research fields are eligible).

Fellowships at the graduate level are similar to scholarships at the undergraduate level in that they are awards that are given based on merit, and sometimes only a narrow slice of students is eligible. They are “free money” similar to scholarships and grants in the sense that they do not have to be repaid. What is different is that fellowships typically pay part or all of a PhD student or postdoc’s stipend/salary and may also include some money for tuition and fees. However, as a fellow you do have the responsibility of making progress in your research or else your fellowship is not likely to be renewed. PhD-level fellows are free to focus their attention solely on their research (in addition to classes in the early stage of training).

Further Reading:

Why Apply for Fellowships

Regularly applying for outside funding is an expectation in graduate school (and often before and after) that should be made more explicit. Even if you are fully funded by your program or group, you will benefit from applying for fellowships throughout your PhD and postdoc. The only reason to forgo submitting at least one fellowship application in a given year is if you are already funded by an outside fellowship in the upcoming year.

Further Reading: Why You Should Apply for Fellowships Even If You’re Fully Funded

There are numerous reasons apply for fellowships regularly, some of which apply even if you don’t ultimately win a fellowship.

1) A Higher Stipend/Salary

Often, outside fellowships are structured to pay a higher stipend than what is typically paid to a graduate student or postdoc. This is especially true for the prestigious, competitive, national fellowships. Winning an outside fellowship that awards a higher stipend/salary is one of the very few ways a graduate student or postdoc can secure a significant raise within the same career stage. Even if the fellowship pays a stipend/salary lower than the baseline amount for the department, typically the department will supplement the fellowship stipend/salary up to or even above the baseline pay as a gesture of appreciation to the student or postdoc for winning the fellowship.

2) Greater Independence

Depending on the PhD’s stage and department, an outside fellowship may confer an increased degree of research independence. For example, a fellow may be able to set up a new collaboration, pursue a side project, or complete additional lab rotations when a graduate student funded by another means would not be given permission. This is because the fellow’s funding is not tied to working on any specific project the way a grant would specify.

3) Negotiation Power

Virtually all PhD students and many postdocs assume there is no room for negotiation in their funding package. However, there are two points at which negotiation is possible: Upon admission to a program and upon winning an outside fellowship (best if combined). If you are funding yourself through a fellowship, that’s money that your advisor/department does not have to spend on you (assuming they would have), and that money has now been freed up for other purposes.

After finding out that you have won a fellowship, you can tactfully ask your advisor or department chair if it is possible for you to receive an extra benefit. You could ask for an increase in pay, a one-time or yearly bonus, or one of the extra degrees of independence listed above.

4) Excused from “Work”

One aspect of PhD funding that is not necessarily widely discussed is the difference between being funded by a fellowship and being funded by an assistantship.

A research assistant, teaching assistant, or graduate assistant is virtually always an employee of her university (as well as a student). You can be sure of this status if you receive a W-2 at tax time. The graduate student’s stipend or salary is being paid for work she does: teaching, research, or another type of service.

A fellowship, on the other hand, is an award, and there is not supposed to be any work requirement tied to it, although in practice the PhD student must of course make adequate degree progress.

There is not much of a functional day-to-day difference between graduate students funded by research assistantships in which the research is included in their dissertations and graduate students funded by fellowships. In both cases, 100% of the graduate student’s time (less time spent completing courses) can be devoted to his dissertation.

However, being funded by a fellowship makes an enormous difference in the day-to-day life of a graduate student who would otherwise be funded by an assistantship that requires non-dissertation-related work. That work requirement is typically 20 hours per week. Winning a fellowship excuses the graduate student from that work requirement, meaning that 20 hours per week can be devoted to research that furthers the student’s degree progress. This might very well shorten the time it takes for the student to complete his PhD.

5) CV-Booster

One of the unsung but most important benefits of winning a fellowship, particularly a prestigious national fellowship, is its effect on your CV. Once one fellowship committee has deemed you worthy of funding, that stands as a testament to your ability that is seen by every subsequent funding committee. Winning your first fellowship gives you momentum toward career success. Assuming you continue to be an excellent candidate, winning subsequent fellowships and grants becomes more likely.

6) Shows Initiative/Effort

In my opinion, applying for at least one outside fellowship concurrently with applying for graduate school is an unspoken requirement. Being able to say on your grad school application or in your interviews that you have applied for outside funding (even if you don’t ultimately win) shows the faculty members reviewing your application that you take initiative and are ambitious. Even once you are settled into a department and group in grad school, attempting to fund yourself will almost certainly be viewed favorably by your advisor, even if you are not awarded a fellowship.

7) Applying Forces You to Frame and Justify Your Research

Writing a fellowship application can be a wonder pause and possibly reset point in your research progress. You have to step back from your day-to-day work, think about the underlying motivations and aspirations for your project, and explain why they (and you) are worth being funded. This exercise alone is likely to benefit your research and experimental design.

8) Good Practice

The final benefit of applying for fellowships is that it’s good practice. If you stay in academia or research long-term, applying for grants is likely to become part of your regular work rhythm. You may as well start early, gain experience, and hone your message.

When to Apply for Fellowships

Most fellowship application deadlines are in the fall, though a few occur at other points in the academic year. Over each summer, you should create a list of the fellowships you plan to apply for in the upcoming academic year, including ones with deadlines later in the year. Create calendar reminders leading up to each fellowship deadline to ensure that your applications stay on track.

Where to Find Fellowship Opportunities

Your first stop for finding fellowship opportunities should be your research and/or program advisor (postdoc, graduate, or undergraduate). Ask him or her what fellowships you should consider applying to and what fellowships other students and postdocs at your same stage apply to. You can also ask your peers which fellowships they have applied to in the past or are applying to now.

Another great place to look are websites that maintain databases of fellowship opportunities. Your university or department may cultivate such a list. In the next section, I have provided my own list of broad fellowships to consider. Other great databases can be found at:

Finally, try a simple Google search with keyword combinations of “fellowship” or “scholarship” along with anything particular to you, such as your field, research interests, career stage, demographics, standout qualities, etc. You may find a fellowship or scholarship that is tailored to you that your peers wouldn’t qualify for and therefore overlooked.

When looking for fellowship descriptions and listings, always consider both the large, well-known programs that fund a lot of fellows and lesser-known opportunities that may be a good match for you in particular, either because of your demographics or your research area. All of the advantages of fellowship funding apply to both types.

Fellowship Programs for Graduate Students and Postdocs

Below is a list of portable fellowship programs that are granted to a large number of fellows each year in a broad array of fields. These fellowships provide full or nearly full levels of stipend/salary support, often in addition to tuition and fees.

American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowships

Website
Fields: All
Eligibility: US citizen or permanent residents; applicant must identify as a woman; current PhD students who will complete their dissertations between April 1 and June 30
Award: $25,000
Number of Awards: Not specified
Deadline: November 15, 2023

American Association of University Women Postdoctoral Fellowships

Website
Fields: All
Eligibility: US citizen or permanent residents; applicant must identify as a woman; must hold a Ph.D., Ed.D., D.B.A., M.F.A., J.D., M.D., D.M.D., D.V.M., D.S.W., or M.P.H. at the time of application
Award: $50,000
Number of Awards: Not specified
Deadline: November 15, 2023

Department of Defense Science, Mathematics & Research for Transformation (SMART)

Website
Fields: Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering; Biosciences; Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering; Chemistry; Civil Engineering; Cognitive, Neural, and Behavioral Sciences; Computer and Computational Sciences and Computer Engineering; Cybersecurity; Data Science and Analytics; Electrical Engineering; Environmental Sciences; Geosciences; Industrial and Systems Engineering; Information Sciences; Materials Science and Engineering; Mathematics; Mechanical Engineering; Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering; Nuclear Engineering; Oceanography; Operations Research; Physics; Software Engineering
Eligibility: Citizen of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, or United Kingdom; 18 years of age or older; Requesting at least 1 year of degree funding; Able to accept post-graduation employment with the DoD for every year of funding requested; Minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale; Enrolled in a regionally accredited U.S. college or university or awaiting notification of admission for fall term.
Award: 1-5 years of support; $30,000-46,000/year stipend, full tuition and fees, $2,500 health insurance allowance, $1,000 miscellaneous supplies allowance
Number of Awards: Not specified
Deadline: December 1, 2023

Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF)

Website
Fields: Science & Engineering Track: Aeronautics, Astrophysics, Biological Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Science, Materials Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics. Mathematics/Computer Science Track: applied mathematics, statistics, computer science, computer engineering or computational science.
Eligibility: Prospective and first-year graduate students; US citizens or permanent residents; full time uninterrupted study toward a Ph.D. at an accredited U.S. university
Award: up to 4 years of support; $45,000/year stipend, full tuition and fees, professional development allowance of $1,000 per year
Number of Awards: not stated; there are ~110 current fellows
Deadline: January 17, 2024

Ford Foundation Dissertation

Website
Fields: Research-based programs, e.g., American studies, anthropology, archaeology, art and theater history, astronomy, chemistry, communications, computer science, cultural studies, earth sciences, economics, education, engineering, ethnic studies, ethnomusicology, geography, history, international relations, language, life sciences, linguistics, literature, mathematics, performance study, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, religious studies, sociology, urban planning, women’s studies, and interdisciplinary programs
Eligibility: Previous Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship recipient; Current PhD students who will complete their dissertations no later than fall 2024; Enrolled in an eligible research-based program leading to a Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree at a not for profit U.S. institution of higher education; US citizens, nationals, permanent residents, and DACA recipients; Indigenous individuals exercising rights associated with the Jay Treaty of 1794; individuals granted Temporary Protected Status; asylees; and refugees; committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level in the U.S.
Award: 1 year of support; $28,000/year stipend
Number of Awards: ~36
Deadline: December 12, 2023

Ford Foundation Postdoctoral

Website
Fields: Research-based programs, e.g., American studies, anthropology, archaeology, art and theater history, astronomy, chemistry, communications, computer science, cultural studies, earth sciences, economics, education, engineering, ethnic studies, ethnomusicology, geography, history, international relations, language, life sciences, linguistics, literature, mathematics, performance study, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, religious studies, sociology, urban planning, women’s studies, and interdisciplinary programs
Eligibility: Individuals who held a previous Ford Foundation Fellowship; Individuals who completed or will complete their PhDs or ScDs between 12/08/2015 and 12/08/2022; US citizens, nationals, permanent residents, and DACA recipients; Indigenous individuals exercising rights associated with the Jay Treaty of 1794; individuals granted Temporary Protected Status; asylees; and refugees; committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level in the U.S.
Award: 1 year of support; $50,000/year stipend
Number of Awards: ~24
Deadline: December 12, 2023

Graduate Fellowships for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Diversity (GFSD)

Website
Fields: Astronomy, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geology, Materials Science, Mathematical Sciences, Physics, and their sub-disciplines, and related engineering fields (Chemical, Computer, Electrical, Environmental, Mechanical)
Eligibility: Prospective and current graduate students available for two summer internships; US citizens with the ability to pursue graduate work at a GFSD university partner
Award: Up to 6 years of support; $20,000/year stipend
Number of Awards: Varies
Deadline: December 29, 2023

Hertz Foundation

Website
Fields: Applied physical and biological sciences, mathematics, or engineering
Eligibility: Prospective and first-year PhD students; US citizens and permanent residents
Award: Up to 5 years of support; $38,000/9-month stipend and full tuition; $5,000/year stipend for fellows with dependent children
Number of Awards: 15 in 2023
Deadline: October 27, 2023

Life Sciences Research Foundation

Website
Fields: Life sciences
Eligibility: PhD or MD/DVM recipients (awarded less than 5 years ago); US citizens working in any geographic location and non-US citizens working in US laboratories; begun (or will begin) working in your postdoc lab between August 1, 2022 and July 31, 2024; Postdoctoral training must be completed in a lab different from that of your graduate (thesis) lab
Award: 3 years of support; $66,000/year for salary and $11,000/year for research
Number of Awards: 18-27
Deadline: October 1, 2023

National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG)

Website
Fields: Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering; Astrodynamics; Biomedical Engineering; Biosciences (includes toxicology); Chemical Engineering; Chemistry; Civil Engineering; Cognitive, Neural, and Behavioral Sciences; Computer and Computational Sciences; Electrical Engineering; Geosciences; Materials Science and Engineering; Mathematics; Mechanical Engineering; Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering; Oceanography; Physics; Space Physics
Eligibility: Prospective and current (first or second year) PhD students; US citizens and nationals
Award: 3 years of support; $3,400/month in stipend, up to $1,400/year in health insurance, and full tuition and fees
Number of Awards: Up to 500
Deadline: November 3, 2023

National GEM Consortium MS Engineering and Science Fellowship Program

Website
Fields: Science and engineering
Eligibility: Senior or graduate of an accredited engineering or computer science program; Minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.8/4.0; Agree to intern for two summers with sponsoring GEM Employer; under-represented students (American Indian/Native, African American/Black, Hispanic American/Latino); US citizens or permanent residents
Award: Employer Fellows: full tuition and fees; $4,000 living stipend per full-time semester up to 4 semesters; minimum $16,000 total stipend over the entire Master’s program; up to two paid summer internships. University Fellows: full tuition and fees; Associate Fellows: full tuition and fees; at least $8,000 stipend per year
Number of Awards: ~180 in 2022
Deadline: 2nd Friday in November

National GEM Consortium PhD Engineering and Science Fellowship Program

Website
Fields: Science and engineering
Eligibility: Senior, masters student, or graduate of an accredited engineering or applied science program; Minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0/4.0; Agree to intern with sponsoring GEM Employer; under-represented students (American Indian/Native, African American/Black, Hispanic American/Latino); US citizens or permanent residents
Award: Employer Fellows: full tuition and fees up to the 5th year of the PhD; $16,000 stipend for one academic year, supplemented by university; a minimum of one paid summer internship. Associate Fellows: full tuition and fees; at least $16,000 stipend per year
Number of Awards: ~240 in 2022
Deadline: 2nd Friday in November

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP)

Website
Fields: STEM and STEM education
Eligibility: Pursuing a research-based Master’s or Ph.D. at an accredited United States graduate institution, with a US campus; Completed no more than one academic year of full-time graduate study; Graduate students can apply only once either in their first or second year; US citizens, nationals, and permanent residents
Award: 3 years of support; $37,000/year in stipend, $12,000/year to institution
Number of Awards: 2,750
Deadline: October 16-20, 2023 (date varies based on discipline)

Paul and Daisy Soros

Website
Fields: Unrestricted
Eligibility: Prospective and current (first or second year) graduate students; immigrants and the children of immigrants age 30 or younger
Award: 1 or 2 years of support; $25,000/year stipend, 50% of tuition and fees up to $20,000 per year
Number of Awards: 30
Deadline: 10/26/2023

How to Create a Winning Fellowship Application

You can’t throw together an excellent fellowship application in a weekend. They take a great deal of time and effort to conceive, write, re-write, and improve with feedback. Below are the steps you must follow to submit a potentially winning fellowship application.

1) Find Fellowships that Are a Good Match for You

You will dramatically increase your odds of winning a fellowship if you are selective about which ones you apply to. Don’t waste time applying to fellowship programs that have been cultivated for candidates with characteristics or research interests that you don’t share or for which you are unambiguously unqualified.

2) Read the Fellowship Application Components and Prompts Carefully

It may seem like all fellowship applications are similar, but there are actually overt or subtle differences among them. Most if not all fellowship programs will want to hear about your research or research interests (research statement) and also about you personally (personal statement), but the particular aspects of each that they are looking for may differ. It’s vital to fully answer the specific prompts for each different application. Make it easy for the evaluators to confirm that you have addressed every component of their rubrics, e.g., intellectual merit and broader impacts (for the NSF GRFP), career aspirations, etc.

You may be able to use similar points and even prose across your fellowship applications, but each application statement must be carefully tailored.

Early on, it’s also important to identify the various non-statement components of the fellowship application so you can gather them without rushing. These components may include letters of recommendation, test scores, and transcripts.

You may be required to receive your current university’s permission (nomination) to apply for a fellowship, so you need to be aware of the requirements and deadline for applying for that pre-selection stage.

3) Select and Notify the Writers of Your Letters of Recommendation

Give the writers of your letters of recommendation plenty of notice regarding the fellowship applications you request that they submit to (at least a couple months). It is helpful to share with them a spreadsheet or similar in which you can list all the different applications, their due dates, and submission links for each application season.

Different fellowship applications may require different types of letter writers, so you may need to reach out to faculty members or other mentors who are not your primary research advisors for one application or another.

Give faculty members who have never written you a letter of recommendation in the past an extra-long period of time to prepare the letter and offer to meet with them to discuss your application.

4) Begin Drafting Your Fellowship Application Materials Well in Advance of the Deadline

Once you are finished preparing, it’s time to start writing. Again, writing well in advance of the application deadline is imperative. You need to give yourself time for high-quality research, reflection, and crafting. Finish a draft, walk away from it for a few days or a week, and then come back with fresh eyes. At any stage you may ask for feedback: outline, sketchy draft, full draft, or the I-think-it’s-complete draft.

5) Write for the Proper Audience

As with any piece of writing, it’s vital to write for a certain audience. In the case of fellowship applications, you must understand, possibly by reading between the lines, what the evaluators of the fellowship applications are looking for. This is not to say that you will simply tell them what they want to hear, but rather that you will highlight the specific components of your application that you know they have to or want to see included. You should also use language that the evaluator will understand, which likely does not include obscure jargon.

6) Seek Input from Advisors, Peers, and Past Winners

To create a competitive fellowship application, you need outside eyes and expertise. You can get feedback and tips from:

1. Your Research and/or Academic Advisor(s)

Your undergraduate or graduate advisor is the best person to read your statements and give you feedback from his or her perspective as a career researcher who has advised other fellowship applicants and winners. He or she may even be overseeing the project you have proposed in your application, in which case the feedback will be even more specific and useful. Your advisor is likely also writing you a letter of recommendation, so it’s a great idea to give him or her full awareness of what you’re proposing.

2. Other Research and/or Academic Mentors

You may reach out to other faculty or staff members at your current or past institutions to read and provide feedback on your fellowship application. Your university may even designate a specific faculty or staff member as a mentor for certain fellowship applications. Your current institution may hold workshops and seminars to guide you in your applications, which you should make every effort to attend.

3. Your Peers Applying for Fellowships

Forming a reading group for one or more specific fellowship applications is among the most powerful steps you can do to take your application from ordinary to extraordinary. Your group should be composed of your peers of a similar stage and field who are applying to one or more of the same fellowships. You should agree on deadlines for producing outlines and drafts of your statements and read one another’s work at one or more of the stages to help one another improve the ideas and writing therein.

4. Prior Fellowship Winners

You can learn from the past awardees of the fellowships you are applying to. The first network to tap is your personal one: your friends and (older) peers from your college or graduate school who have previously won the fellowship you are applying to. You can also search for advice from fellowship winners online. Ask these winners to share their tips with you, in particular anything that is unique to that one fellowship. Some past winners may even share their statements with you as a model, but if you do read them be quite careful to avoid even inadvertent plagiarism.

7) Finalize Your Fellowship Application

Once you have incorporated the feedback you receive from your mentors and peers, it’s time to finalize your statements and application. Follow all formatting specifications precisely, and even beyond that format your statements so that they are easy to for the evaluators to read.

Be sure to proofread the final version of your statements carefully. While you can complete this step yourself, it is probably even better to ask a friend or family member who has not yet read your statement to go through it with fresh eyes to catch any grammatical, spelling, or formatting mistakes. You might even be able to use your university’s writing center for this step.

Again, don’t wait to the last minute to load your application materials into the application portal. Do this a couple of days in advance of the deadline so you can be sure you have prepared all the materials properly. Finally, you’re ready to submit!

The main advice in this section is to give your application plenty of time and careful attention and to ask for feedback from anyone willing to give it to you!

How to Be an Excellent Fellowship Applicant

This last subject is arguably the most important one of this entire article. Submitting a large number of marvelously written fellowship applications will not propel a weak applicant to success. That is to say, prior to and concurrently with searching out and applying for fellowships, you should also take steps to increase your strength as an applicant.

Of course, fellowships vary in what they look for in a candidate. But there are commonalities:

Research experience with demonstrated results and/or deliverables (e.g., papers, posters, presentations, patents)
High grades and test scores
Strong and detailed letters of recommendation
Community service
Stand-out experiences
Career commitment to research, teaching, service, etc. (whatever is in line with the ideals of the fellowship program)

It’s a great idea to keep track of accomplishment or activity you participate in throughout your college years and beyond with a few annotations about your contributions to draw upon when preparing fellowship applications.

At the end of the day, what makes you an excellent fellowship applicant has a great deal of overlap with what makes you an excellent undergraduate or graduate student or postdoc, effective researcher, and personable individual. Effort you put toward making yourself a stronger fellowship applicant will benefit many other areas of your life as well.

This Grad Student in DC Prioritizes Living Alone and Investing in Mental Health

August 27, 2018 by Emily

In this episode, Emily interviews Christina Padilla, a PhD candidate at Georgetown University in human development and public policy earning $38,000 per year. Christina shares her top five expenses as a DC resident: rent, groceries, eating and drinking out, regular monthly expenses (i.e., phone, internet), and the copay for her therapist. They discuss Christina’s tips on leveling up her housing, meal planning, living car-free, and finding frugal fun in the city.

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Links Mentioned in Episode

0:00 Introduction

1:18 Q1: Please Introduce Yourself

Christina Padilla is a PhD candidate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She is in the psychology department, and specifically in the human development and public policy program. Her research focuses on early childhood, parenting, and early education.

Christina completed her undergraduate studies in Baltimore before taking a 2-year research position at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the D.C. area, and then stayed for graduate school.

3:11 Q2: What are the top expenses that you have, either in a typical month or in the last month?

Christina’s top five expenses per month are rent, groceries, eating and drinking out, other regularly occurring monthly expenses like phone and internet access, and a copay for therapy, which she started in the fall.

4:15 Expense #1: Rent

Her first year at the NIH, Christina lived in Maryland because it was closer to her lab and her rent was only $600-$700 plus utilities, but she hated being so far outside the city. In her second year at the NIH, she moved to a group house and paid $800 a month. However, it was a very old house and required Christina to have four roommates. She lived there for three years, including her first two years of graduate school, and then decided it was worth it to live by herself. She had saved money to be able to live in a studio.

Now, Christina is budgeting with an income of $38,000 for the fall 2017 through the summer; after that, her funding situation is uncertain. She allocates $2,700 per month, and of that, rent is $1,350. For a place in D.C., that is not very expensive. Christina lives alone in a rent-controlled studio apartment in a very desirable area outside of Dupont Circle.

Transportation was once one of Christina’s top expenses, and she would spend $150 a month to get to and from campus. She does not own a car: all the costs were for public transportation. At present, she is able to walk to campus, and now spends about $40 every other month on Metro costs. Georgetown also has a free shuttle between the area she lives and the university campus.

9:13 Is the building that you’re living in popular with students?

Another graduate student living in the building recommended it to Christina when she moved out, but Christina took a different unit because the cost was significantly less due to rent control factors. A number of other Georgetown students do live in the building; there are quite a lot of young people and quite a lot of long-term residents, but very few people in between.

11:43 Expense #2: Groceries

Christina spends about $200 per month on groceries on average. Unless she is going to a social event, she tries to cook all of her meals at home instead of ordering out. Christina has a small kitchen, which it is in a separate room from the rest of the apartment. She does not have a dishwasher or garbage disposal, but all other major appliances are included.

13:11 Have you always tried to cook at home, or is that something you decided to do along the way?

Cooking dinner at home is a habit Christina has always had; eating out was only for special occasions, rather than a casual habit. Even when she was at the NIH, she would cook every day. Her savings enabled her to take a lengthy trip to Europe before starting graduate school—Christina and another woman compared their spending and found that a major factor in Christina’s savings for the trip was that she was not ordering out, and the other woman was ordering food almost every day.

16:17 Do you have any comments on how you keep food costs down in a high cost of living area?

Christina also allocates $200 per month for eating out, but her ability to stay within both budgets was enhanced when she started meal planning. Planning meals for a week and only buying what’s necessary for that week has helped her stay within her budget. Christina enjoys cooking, and so cooking food and freezing it is both relaxing and budget-friendly.

On Sundays, Christina will make breakfast and lunch for at least Monday through Wednesday, and cook again on Wednesdays. Previously, she would try to prepare meals one day ahead of time but would often find that she was too tired or busy to do so, and ended up having to cook in the morning or buy meals. By planning meals ahead and cooking in bulk, Christina saves herself money and time.

19:13 Expense #3: Eating and Drinking Out

Christina sometimes feels that $200 per month for eating and drinking out may be high, but acknowledges that D.C. is an expensive city to eat in—one brunch could cost $50 or $60. Brunch and happy hours are both popular in the city, and the costs of each can add up. The $200 also includes going out for celebrations and other social events. Christina avoids going out to eat unless it is with other people so that it stays a treat instead of becoming an expensive habit.

21:21 Expense #4: Other Regular Monthly Expenses

Other regular monthly expenses make up the fourth largest category for Christina, which amount to about $100 per month. She pays $35 each month for her phone, $43 for internet access, $13 for dental insurance, and $5 for Spotify, which is cheaper with a student membership. The cell phone price is for the cost of the actual phone; the one thing Christina’s parents still pay for is Verizon service.

22:12 Expense #5: Therapy Co-Pays

In the fall, Christina was having a difficult time with her dissertation. The $200 per month she now spends on co-pays were originally going into savings and have transitioned into payment for counseling. Christina mentions that all graduate students need support but sometimes struggle with talking about it or feeling justified in seeking out help, and enjoys talking about counseling to help de-stigmatize it. She considers it an investment in herself and getting through graduate school in one piece.

23:24 Will you be finishing grad school soon?

Christina has an external fellowship for $30,000 for two years, and her department gave her an extra $8,000 to match everyone else’s stipends. She will continue to receive the $30,000 stipend but does not know whether her department will award the $8,000 again. She hopes to finish in January of 2019. She may drop her counseling sessions to once or twice a month instead of each week.

25:33 Q3: What financial goals are you working on?

In addition to the five categories and other spending, Christina saves at least $200 per month. $100 goes into a mutual fund with Schwab and $100 goes into a Roth IRA that she set up last year.

Christina does not get a very good interest rate on her savings account and chose to invest in a mutual fund because of an episode of the John Oliver Show “Last Week Tonight,” from which she learned it would be a good option for her savings goals. She has not decided whether to use it for a mid-life expense or for long-term savings, such as a down payment on a house or for retirement.

28:03 Q4: What don’t you spend that much money on that might surprise people?

People are often surprised by how little Christina goes out to eat. Many people in graduate school tend to order in a lot for convenience. However, many people bring lunch to campus, so Christina regularly eats lunch with other people in her lab, and bringing food has not been an isolating experience.

29:24 Q5: What are you happy with in your current spending and what would you like to change?

Christina is overall happy that she is staying afloat and able to save money even though she lives in an expensive city. Many of her friends have “real” jobs where they make more money, and it is hard to compare herself to them, but she is pleased with being able to save at all. She tries to think positively about being paid to get a degree and be happy that a stipend is available, that tuition is covered, and that she has no student loan debt.

31:43 What advice would you have for someone who is starting in their first year at Georgetown?

Christina’s number one piece of advice is to be honest and reflective with yourself about your priorities in terms of housing. It’s not always possible to live in a luxury building in a great location without roommates and have low rent. There are housing options for all priorities, but you have to be honest about what you want and to be ready to make sacrifices in terms of money, location, or roommates. A lot of people live outside D.C. in Virginia or in Maryland, but many of those areas have become as expensive as D.C., so comparing prices is important.

Georgetown does not offer much graduate student housing, and what’s available is about equally expensive as other housing options if not more. Georgetown does provide shuttles, however, because the campus is not connected to the Metro line.

35:30 Any closing thoughts or other comments about living in D.C. on $38,000 per year?

D.C. has a lot of free activities, especially in the summer. There are many free outdoor concerts, and all of the D.C. museums and monuments are free to visit.

No matter where you live, setting a budget and sticking to it is immensely helpful. Christina uses the free version an app called Good Budget, which allows you to create spending categories and record your transactions. The app will show a green bar decreasing as you spend throughout the month. Christina found that Mint was not helpful for her in curbing her spending and now uses Good Budget instead.

Trying to keep up with people who have “real” jobs and salaries is impossible, but it is possible to politely take charge of social situations. For example, Christina recommends offering to choose the restaurant where friends will gather and selecting a lower-cost option. Other people may not recognize that their budget constraints might be looser than a graduate student’s.

Christina opts for casually steering events with friends towards more affordable activities, and will occasionally decline to go to things if they are too expensive. She has found that most people are fairly sensitive to graduate student budgets and have no problem with less expensive activities and options.

40:13 Conclusion

How Fellows Should Prepare for Tax Time at the Start of the Academic Year

August 20, 2018 by Emily

Most Americans don’t like to give any thought to their taxes between when their tax returns are due in mid-April and when their income forms arrive at the end of January. (Scratch that: they don’t want to think about tax anytime outside of the two weeks in early April when they scramble to assemble their returns!) The exception is when they start a new job and are asked to set up their income tax withholding by filing a W-4.

A version of this post first appeared on GradHacker.

Graduate students and postdocs – lucky us – have extra opportunities to consider tax withholding, namely every time we change funding from a compensatory source to a non-compensatory source or vice versa. Compensatory funding for your stipend comes from your job as a research, teaching, or graduate assistant. Non-compensatory funding for your stipend comes from fellowships and training grants that are technically awards, not payment for work. (If that distinction makes little sense to you, you’re not alone!) Similarly, postdoc salaries can come in compensatory and non-compensatory versions as well.

As the vocabulary that universities use for these types of funding varies somewhat, here’s how you can definitively determine which type you receive: Compensatory pay is reported at tax time on a W-2. The broadest statement that can be made about non-compensatory pay is that it isn’t reported on a W-2. Universities have different methods for reporting this pay, which include: a 1098-T in Box 5, a 1099-MISC in Box 3, a 1042-S (for international trainees), a courtesy letter, and not at all.

When it comes to tax withholding, compensatory pay is handled by universities the same way employee pay is handled by employers: The trainee files a W-4, which calculates the fraction of each paycheck that will be sent to the IRS throughout the year. Each spring, the taxpayer files a tax return that delineates her exact amount of tax due, and any excess money withheld is refunded or any additional tax due is paid. That system is relatively easy to grasp because it’s the same as what all employees in the US experience.

Fellows (by which I mean trainees whose stipends/salaries are non-compensatory) usually have a different experience with respect to tax withholding, which is the focus of this post.

A small number of universities allow fellows to set up tax withholding using a W-4, just like trainees who receive compensatory pay. If you are a fellow at one of these universities, file your W-4 and join the rest of the country in putting taxes out of your mind until next spring.

However, the large majority of universities do not handle any tax withholding on behalf of their fellows. This does not necessarily exempt those fellows from sending tax payments to the IRS throughout the year; by default, the IRS expects to receive regular payments from each taxpayer. Instead, fellows must engage with the 1040-ES and estimated tax payments, which are more typically used by the self-employed. (But: graduate students are not self-employed!) This omission of services on the part of the universities can be especially challenging for first-year graduate students on training grants or receiving fellowships, who not only may be unfamiliar with the quirks of non-compensatory pay but also the US tax system at large, especially if they have never been a full-time employee.

Further reading: The Complete Guide to Quarterly Estimated Tax for Fellowship Recipients

Fortunately, there are only a few simple steps that fellows need to take at the start of the academic year to prepare for their tax due next April:

1) Use Form 1040-ES to estimate the amount of additional tax you will pay for 2018.

Form 1040-ES is a one-page form (page 8) that assists you in making a high-level estimation of the amount of tax you will owe for this year. (If you want even more information, check out Publication 505.)

You will enter your expected adjusted gross income for 2018 in line 1. If your grad student stipend or postdoc salary is your only income, simply multiply the income on your paycheck by the number of paychecks you expect to receive in 2018. If you have a side income or were otherwise employed prior to starting your fellowship/training grant, add in that income as well.

The worksheet will then walk you through a truncated version of the calculations you will make on your tax return: subtracting your deduction (standard or itemized), calculating your tax due, and factoring in your credits and self-employment tax (from your side income, possibly).

In the end, you will have three relevant numbers: the estimated amount of tax you will owe for 2018 (line 11c), the amount you have to pay throughout 2018 to avoid being penalized (line 12c), and the amount of withholding expected in 2018 (line 13) (for instance, from your job or compensatory pay prior to your switch to non-compensatory pay).

2) Determine whether you are required to make quarterly estimated tax payments, and do so if you are.

If for 2018 you expect to have more tax withheld than the amount required to avoid a penalty, once again you can forget about taxes until next spring.

If for 2018 you will owe at least $1,000 in additional tax, you are required to make quarterly estimated tax payments. (Exception: If your withholding in 2018 is greater than the smaller of 90% of your 2018 tax due or 100% of your 2017 tax due if your 2017 tax return covered 12 months. See Figure 2-A of Publication 505.) You will send in to the IRS one-quarter of your additional tax due (line 15) by September 17, 2018 (for the period of June to August), January 15, 2019, April 15, 2019, and June 15, 2019. You can pay by mail using the vouchers in Form 1040-ES or online at www.IRS.gov/payments.

If in 2018 you will owe less than $1,000 in additional tax, you are not required to make quarterly estimated tax payment, but you will owe a lump sum at tax time.

3) Set up a system of self-withholding to prepare for your tax due quarterly or yearly.

Whether you are required to pay quarterly estimated tax or a lump sum at tax time, the best practice to handle those payments is to prepare for them with each paycheck. Basically, you should simulate your own personal tax withholding system to avoid being forced to come up with a large sum quarterly or yearly, which can be a shock to your budget or cash flow.

Divide your tax due, whether quarterly or yearly, by the number of paychecks you’ll receive in the period it covers. Transfer that amount of money each time you are paid to a dedicated savings account for tax payments. Then, when you pay your quarterly or yearly tax, draw your tax due from the “withholdings” you’ve created in that savings account. (You can also leave this money mixed in with other cash in your checking or savings accounts, but be sure to keep careful track of the amount you have earmarked for taxes so you don’t dip into it for other purposes.)

For the time that you receive non-compensatory pay, you’ll have to stay on top of making your quarterly estimated tax payments or verifying that you are not required to make them. First-year graduate students in particular should redo Form 1040-ES in January for their 2019 income, because while receiving non-compensatory pay for only the fall semester might not meet the requirement for paying quarterly estimated tax, receiving it for the entire calendar year probably will.

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Serving as a Resident Advisor Freed this Graduate Student from Financial Stress

August 13, 2018 by Emily

This episode’s money story features an interview with Adrian Gallo, a PhD student at Oregon State University. Adrian serves as a resident advisor in a fraternity house close to campus. For most of his four years in the role, it was a dream side hustle: high-paying (in defrayed costs), low time commitment, and personally gratifying. However, when the house experienced a calamity, the time he had to spend in the role rocketed up; his research suffered, and he had to have difficult conversations with his advisor. We discuss the pros and cons of side hustles generally and resident advisor roles in particular, including how this side hustle frees Adrian from the financial stress some of his peers experience.

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Links mentioned in episode

0:00 Introduction

1:06 Please Introduce Yourself

Adrian Gallo is a fifth year at Oregon State studying carbon cycling. He also hosts a radio show, Inspiration Dissemination, which interviews grad students about research and their path to grad school.

2:45 What is the scope of your role as a resident advisor?

Adrian started as a resident advisor concurrently with starting grad school. His contractual obligations are minimal: he is a liaison between undergraduates and landlords and responsible for dealing with big-picture items, such as replacing appliances.

The role is in a fraternity house; Adrian is also a member from his undergraduate years. He knew the possibility for growth inherent in participating in this fraternity, so he decided to also serve as a mentor to the fraternity members. He helps with big-picture planning such as five-year goals.

The time commitment of the role fluctuates throughout the academic year and has also varied year-to-year. When the fraternity leadership was running well, Adrian didn’t do as much, but he became more involved when it was warranted.

On average, the time commitment of the position is 2-3 hours per week, which includes two hour-long meetings. Typically, he chats with the kitchen manager or house director as well a few times. On the ‘big’ weeks, the job has taken 20+ hours.

7:33 What pay and/or benefits do you receive for the role?

Adrian doesn’t pay rent (the average rent in Corvalis is $500 to $700+) and lives very close to campus so it is quite convenient to get to and from campus. He has two bedrooms in the fraternity house (one serves as his office) and his own washer/dryer. Utilities and a parking spot are included.

He also receives food service during the academic year: breakfast, lunch, and dinner five days per week. He can get to and from the house and eat a pre-prepared meal in just an hour lunch break. This is an amazing degree of time savings.

10:09 How did you land this resident advisor position?

Adrian initially inquired with the local fraternity chapter about finding a place to live and a roommate. Instead, they offered him the resident advisor position, which he though was outlandish. He was nervous about living in a fraternity house with approximately 50 college students. However, after a few phone conversations, he decided to give the position a try for a year. After one year in the position, he realized he really enjoyed the role and had found a home.

13:41 How do you make sure you’re fulfilling the expectations of you as a graduate student while holding this side position?

At first, there was no problem as the time commitment was so low.

Last year, 10 rooms in the house flooded and the floors had to be removed. The damage was so extensive that it couldn’t be fixed right away, which deprived everyone of sleep and wore them down.

Adrian had to spend significant time dealing with contractors (all day on the phone) and contacting the landlords, which kept him out of the lab for some time. He wishes he had asked for help from the student leadership in dealing with this situation much earlier as the time management was so difficult.

17:00 Did you let your advisor and co-workers know what was going on during the house disaster?

For about a week and a half, Adrian wasn’t at work and finally his advisor initiated a conversation with him about what was going on, at which point Adrian filled him in. He wishes he had been more forthcoming.

Adrian’s advisor knew about the position and that he was able to balance the roles well for the first two years. His advisor started to question whether the resident advisor role was compatible with Adrian’s role as a graduate student.

Ultimately the floor repair took approximately 2.5 months. Adrian learned more than he ever expected to about working with contractors, repairs, etc. The time commitment was very intense at the beginning but tapered over time.

22:22 How did you decide to stay in the resident advisor role and also convince your advisor that it was a good idea?

Adrian finds witnessing and facilitating the growth of the undergraduate fraternity members so fulfilling that he didn’t seriously consider resigning his position. Another job wouldn’t compare to the resident advisor role.

25:10 Have you received any additional intangible benefits aside from the mentorship that you’ve found fulfilling?

Staying in close contact with the undergraduates helps Adrian in his teaching role because he can make relevant references, which his students find engaging.

27:28 What might cause you to resign this position?

Adrian had second thoughts about the position during the flooding situation, particularly because he couldn’t sleep in the house with the soundproofing missing. The sleep deprivation really got to him; he couldn’t think or work well.

30:30 Do you think you’ll continue with the role even through writing your dissertation?

Adrian already has written his master’s thesis while in the resident advisor role and actually found it helpful to live in the fraternity house. He would come out of his office mentally exhausted and find refreshment in the escape of interacting with the undergraduates. This approach isn’t for everyone, but it worked well for Adrian.

33:28 How has your role as a resident advisor affected your finances?

Adrian paid off his student loans from his undergraduate degree and bought a car. He bought a nice mountain bike, which bring him a lot of joy and health benefits.

The chief intangible benefit is that he doesn’t have to feel concerned about his finances. Many of his friends have to budget very tightly to make it on their stipends. In contrast, Adrian can absorb unexpected expenses without worrying.

As an undergraduate paying his way through college, Adrian found concern about finances to be a constant cloud over his head, but it’s not something he experiences any longer thanks to his side hustle. The resident advisor role frees Adrian from the constant cloud of financial stress in exchange for (usually) only a few hours per week.

The benefits of this role have on balance been very much worth the time put in, even though he went through the tough period during the renovation. Thankfully, his advisor was ultimately supportive.

Resident advising is a great solution to the problem of insufficient stipends, and often comes with the side benefit of mentoring students.

41:15 Final comments

There are a few other graduate students serving as resident advisors to the fraternities and sororities, including two who had not previously been involved in the Greek system. A social scientist might find it very interesting, and in fact the person who held the role prior to Adrian used observations from her resident advisor role in her dissertation.

Try serving as a resident advisor out! Being willing to experiment with this role has enabled Adrian to make significant financial progress during graduate school. What’s the worst that could happen by saying “yes” for a year?

Undergraduates are worth getting to know as well (networking)!

36:40 Conclusion

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