Choosing an Offer Discussion

[CoffeeBean]

I'm trying to decide between a couple programs that I was admitted to and feel conflicted. It's especially hard since one of the schools will not be hosting an in-person visit. That makes it hard to compare them.

How is your decision making process shaping up?

[pkzrd]

I'm trying to decide between a couple programs that I was admitted to and feel conflicted. It's especially hard since one of the schools will not be hosting an in-person visit. That makes it hard to compare them.

How is your decision making process shaping up?

This is how I make my decision among my offers, from higher importance to lower:

• Prestige of the Program
• Amount of Stipend vs Cost of Living
• Area of research the program provides, usually this doesn't matter if you don't know what area of research you're going into and especially if the department is large
• Culture of the department, this can usually be figured out via open house/department visits or asking a current graduate student, obviously you don't want to go to a program with toxic professor/colleagues. It wears you down mentally.
• Proximity to Family/Friend/SO
• Climate
• Number of good restaurants and Costco warehouses available

[kaubrey]

I'm trying to decide between a couple programs that I was admitted to and feel conflicted. It's especially hard since one of the schools will not be hosting an in-person visit. That makes it hard to compare them.

How is your decision making process shaping up?

This is how I make my decision among my offers, from higher importance to lower:

• Prestige of the Program
• Amount of Stipend vs Cost of Living
• Area of research the program provides, usually this doesn't matter if you don't know what area of research you're going into and especially if the department is large
• Culture of the department, this can usually be figured out via open house/department visits or asking a current graduate student, obviously you don't want to go to a program with toxic professor/colleagues. It wears you down mentally.
• Proximity to Family/Friend/SO
• Climate
• Number of good restaurants and Costco warehouses available

[CoffeeBean]

I'm trying to prioritize high stipend for the cost of living of the area and low teaching duties when I'm making my decision.

[Jerry99]

I'm trying to prioritize high stipend for the cost of living of the area and low teaching duties when I'm making my decision.

Agree, stipend, and teaching duties actually affect research.

[clopensets]

I'm trying to prioritize high stipend for the cost of living of the area and low teaching duties when I'm making my decision.

What I'm finding is that the stipends seem to correspond with the cost of living in the area. I have a $26k offer in Boston, $25k offer in Long Island and a $20 k offer in Chicago. That roughly corresponds to the relative cost of living. Not much help there.

[YellowBee]

I definitely think stipend levels can vary a little bit. Some schools offer additional fellowships to either increase the stipend or decrease the number of years you have to TA. I can definitely see a noticeable difference between offers even taking into account for cost of living. For me, there is one offer that is clearly financially the best one out of the ones I have.

[Weil98]

I'm trying to prioritize high stipend for the cost of living of the area and low teaching duties when I'm making my decision.

Aren't teaching duties in every university the same? What makes one TA duties less than the other?

[CoffeeBean]

I'm trying to prioritize high stipend for the cost of living of the area and low teaching duties when I'm making my decision.

Aren't teaching duties in every university the same? What makes one TA duties less than the other?

I received a release of TA duties for 2 years compared to normal package based on a fellowship I received from one school. Also some schools don't require any students to TA for first year or even a couple years whereas some programs make you TA pretty much every year.

[MadMax]

I'm trying to prioritize high stipend for the cost of living of the area and low teaching duties when I'm making my decision.

Aren't teaching duties in every university the same? What makes one TA duties less than the other?

The difference can be huge. I think most TA offers say 20 hrs per week (international students are only allowed to work 20 hrs per week on campus). However, in a rich private university, that is equivalent to one discussion section with no more than 7 hrs of work per week. In a large public university, you may have three discussion sections and need to literally work for 20 hrs per week.

[Weil98]

Ah nice! I didn't know that.