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[a_salika]

Thanks oseph for the eye-opener. I am an MA student so I guess that counts as a grad student but I live in a cheap country where expenses are minimal. My top choice school is in a little town with free transportation, so this is a plus. But you're right, things can add up, I'm glad my husband will be working so we don't have to go into major debt.

As for everyone who is interested in the issue of negotiation, in an email to my potential adviser, I subtlety mentioned that I had two very attractive offers from other schools but that I wanted to be able to choose hu's school because of its suitability and not because its financial package. Hu understood where I was getting out and outright asked me how much the other offers were so hu could advocate on my behalf. Hu said said hu wanted to make sure that hu's school would at least match if not surpass the packages from the other schools so that I could make my choice without thinking about the money.

So this is great news, I'm in the humanities and I guess it is OK to negotiate if you have a connection with a professor in the department. I've been in touch with this professor for a while and hu has been recruiting me for some time and is very enthusiastic about my application.

I'll let everyone know what happens and how attractive the offer turns out to be. Thanks for all of your suggestions and comments!

[grasshopper]

Actually, negotiating the admission pack is quite an habitual practice in my field of the humanities (Foreign Languages/Literatures). You are usually offered a base pack, and if you are good in negotiating you improve it.

You negotiate on:
the number of quarters you will have off;
summer funds;
dissertation fellowships.

I know people in the UC system that were offered, let's say, 5 years of funding in TAships, and ended up getting the first and the fifth year off.

What does it mean to get quarters or first and fifth years off? Off from what? What do you mean by "dissertation fellowship"? Is this distinct from your PhD scholarship package?

I'm in the humanities, and I have no idea what you're talking about.

[pamplemoose]

i'm assuming the poster means you get funding without having to TA...

[littlejay]

Actually, negotiating the admission pack is quite an habitual practice in my field of the humanities (Foreign Languages/Literatures). You are usually offered a base pack, and if you are good in negotiating you improve it.

You negotiate on:
the number of quarters you will have off;
summer funds;
dissertation fellowships.

I know people in the UC system that were offered, let's say, 5 years of funding in TAships, and ended up getting the first and the fifth year off.

What does it mean to get quarters or first and fifth years off? Off from what? What do you mean by "dissertation fellowship"? Is this distinct from your PhD scholarship package?

I'm in the humanities, and I have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm sorry if I was unclear: I meant the number of quarters one gets funded without having to teach.

[iomhaigh]

iomhaigh's estimates for what living costs were extremely conservative.  That said, you will be able to get by fine on a combined $35K, since you will be living in a cheap town.  My point is that just because you have been able to get by on very little money thus far doesn't mean that you will be able to keep it up during grad school. 

Oseph is dead on here (and throughout).  Lest I lead anyone astray, I was in a cheap part of the country.  I'd double that whole thing for an expensive area. 

[oseph]

iomhaigh's estimates for what living costs were extremely conservative.  That said, you will be able to get by fine on a combined $35K, since you will be living in a cheap town.  My point is that just because you have been able to get by on very little money thus far doesn't mean that you will be able to keep it up during grad school.

Oseph is dead on here (and throughout).  Lest I lead anyone astray, I was in a cheap part of the country.  I'd double that whole thing for an expensive area. 

Oh, only too true.  My stipend puts me at making about half of what someone living right at the poverty level in my area makes.  Spouse and I have been lucky because of generous family, but even then we are leaving with not insignificant debt. 

It's such a weird thing, figuring out strategies here.  I was offered a moderate funding package at a good program in an expensive area and a generous funding package at a respectable program in a very inexpensive area.  I took the moderate funding at the good program in part because I figured it would help my job chances.  I was right -- I got offered a good job.  On the other hand, it took me much longer to finish, because of teaching to pay the bills (although I think all the teaching helped me on the market too), I was under much more stress because of financial worry, which damaged my health, and this strategy can really backfire if you end up finishing with substantial debt.  I have had friends here at moderate funding school/expensive area finish, not do so well on the market right out (just because they are ABD -- the program is still good), and then they aren't in a position to wait it out with some adjunct teaching until the next go-round, because they have huge bills to pay -- so they go into 'real world' jobs and never get out again.  On the other hand, I've seen people at the not-as-good program strike out first time on the market, but, because they have little to no debt and in some cases a small savings cushion, they are able to ride it out another year with just a little adjunct teaching and then get jobs the second time around.  So it is a gamble.  Good luck!  Honestly I'd go where you like the people/ideas best, and then just keep being thrifty (within reason).

[pamplemoose]

This is true. In my dept, there are a few different scholarship packages that are offered. And if a student is bringing in external money, too, that changes things quite a bit.

But the department only has so many packages of "Scholarship A" that it can offer, and I've never heard of anyone being able to negotiate a higher stipend from an offer.

So, I've learned a bit more about this, and apparently at private schools where funding is uniform across the cohort, this is not possible.  At public schools, where funding is not uniform, this can be more than possible.  I just talked to a current student at a top public school who said she faxed to the department her award letters from 3 other top programs, although apparently this was after her program of choice had already offered to match whatever Harvard or whoever else was going to give her.

I think bargaining is actually very common in some programs.