Stipend

[waitingsucks]

Hello everyone,
With important decisions coming up, I am wondering if everyone could share their thoughts on stipends and the offers they got. I am pretty sure I am attending UT Austin, and have been offered a TA for 16.5k a year (9 months). The amount seems low compared to what I've seen on the profiles thread. I am not from the USA so I don't have a clear idea on how this amount permits you to live. Of course, an opinion from someone living in Texas would be more convenient, but every comment is appreciated.
By the way, is it common to attend physics grad school with only a TA/RA stipend on your back, or are fellowships common?

[midwestphysics]

Hello everyone,
With important decisions coming up, I am wondering if everyone could share their thoughts on stipends and the offers they got. I am pretty sure I am attending UT Austin, and have been offered a TA for 16.5k a year (9 months). The amount seems low compared to what I've seen on the profiles thread. I am not from the USA so I don't have a clear idea on how this amount permits you to live. Of course, an opinion from someone living in Texas would be more convenient, but every comment is appreciated.
By the way, is it common to attend physics grad school with only a TA/RA stipend on your back, or are fellowships common?

The most common starting funding is TAing, sometimes RAing, but most people start out as a TA because pretty much every university requires that you gain teaching experience. Internal fellowships are kind of common depending on the school, even then, for all the schools I know that give them only a small amount of entering students get fellowships. Outside fellowships are hard to get, you need to have a very good profile to even be considered and a lot of good profiles get turned down. As for the 15.6k amount, the cost difference between cities matters in looking at those numbers. According to the cost of living calculators, an offer of 15.6k in Austin is equal to an offer of 23k from Harvard, or 26.5k from Berkeley. Look at housing, off campus, to see if it is enough for the area, just check the online listings as housing is usually the best indicator

[bfollinprm]

Hello everyone,
With important decisions coming up, I am wondering if everyone could share their thoughts on stipends and the offers they got. I am pretty sure I am attending UT Austin, and have been offered a TA for 16.5k a year (9 months). The amount seems low compared to what I've seen on the profiles thread. I am not from the USA so I don't have a clear idea on how this amount permits you to live. Of course, an opinion from someone living in Texas would be more convenient, but every comment is appreciated.
By the way, is it common to attend physics grad school with only a TA/RA stipend on your back, or are fellowships common?

16.5k/9 months + $6500-8000 summer RA = ~24k/year.
In Austin, a $500 apartment isn't a stretch, so... Since 24k/year = ~1500/month after taxes, that leaves you with $250 week for food and other expenses. More than enough to live a decent life. And remember, the TA is only the money you get your FIRST year, the amount will go up when you move to an RA (most likely, anyway). It's nice to find a group that wants you for the summer before you accept, though, if at all possible (you should be emailing professors/asking them at open houses). Especially if you can find money for THIS summer.

[midwestphysics]

why does Skype want me to call Singapore, are we supposed to get tech support to verify this?

[sphy]

why does Skype want me to call Singapore, are we supposed to get tech support to verify this?

Probably waitingsucks is from Singapore.

[midwestphysics]

Hello everyone,
With important decisions coming up, I am wondering if everyone could share their thoughts on stipends and the offers they got. I am pretty sure I am attending UT Austin, and have been offered a TA for 16.5k a year (9 months). The amount seems low compared to what I've seen on the profiles thread. I am not from the USA so I don't have a clear idea on how this amount permits you to live. Of course, an opinion from someone living in Texas would be more convenient, but every comment is appreciated.
By the way, is it common to attend physics grad school with only a TA/RA stipend on your back, or are fellowships common?

16.5k/9 months + 6500-8000 summer RA = ~24k/year.
In Austin, a $500 apartment isn't a stretch, so... Since 24k/year = ~1500/month after taxes, that leaves you with $250 week for food and other expenses. More than enough to live a decent life. And remember, the TA is only the money you get your FIRST year, the amount will go up when you move to an RA (most likely, anyway). It's nice to find a group that wants you for the summer before you accept, though, if at all possible (you should be emailing professors/asking them at open houses). Especially if you can find money for THIS summer.

Maybe it's me but it shows up in bfollinprm post, maybe it's just my Skype

[bfollinprm]

Hello everyone,
With important decisions coming up, I am wondering if everyone could share their thoughts on stipends and the offers they got. I am pretty sure I am attending UT Austin, and have been offered a TA for 16.5k a year (9 months). The amount seems low compared to what I've seen on the profiles thread. I am not from the USA so I don't have a clear idea on how this amount permits you to live. Of course, an opinion from someone living in Texas would be more convenient, but every comment is appreciated.
By the way, is it common to attend physics grad school with only a TA/RA stipend on your back, or are fellowships common?

16.5k/9 months + $6500-8000 summer RA = ~24k/year.
In Austin, a $500 apartment isn't a stretch, so... Since 24k/year = ~1500/month after taxes, that leaves you with $250 week for food and other expenses. More than enough to live a decent life. And remember, the TA is only the money you get your FIRST year, the amount will go up when you move to an RA (most likely, anyway). It's nice to find a group that wants you for the summer before you accept, though, if at all possible (you should be emailing professors/asking them at open houses). Especially if you can find money for THIS summer.

Maybe it's me but it shows up in bfollinprm post, maybe it's just my Skype

$ fixes all problems.

[midwestphysics]

I don't know about that, Jay-Z's still got 99 problems

[bfollinprm]

I don't know about that, Jay-Z's still got 99 problems

Do any of them involve wayward number trawlers leading him astray to Singapore?

Nevermind, I know the answer to that.

[midwestphysics]

I know one thing that isn't his problem.

[bfollinprm]

I know one thing that isn't his problem.

The Riemann Hypothesis, obviously. Biggest bitch I ever tried to handle.

[WhoaNonstop]

Materials you will need:
Crayolas
Map of the United States

Three Steps:

1. Color all coastal areas red.
2. Draw a green line through the middle, in a North-to-South direction, of the United States.
3. Color in the rest of the spectrum.


This will give you a pretty good idea on living expenses in general. However, if living in a larger city, the color tends to be more red.

-Riley

[bfollinprm]

Materials you will need:
Crayolas
Map of the United States

Three Steps:

1. Color all coastal areas red.
2. Draw a green line through the middle, in a North-to-South direction, of the United States.
3. Color in the rest of the spectrum.


This will give you a pretty good idea on living expenses in general. However, if living in a larger city, the color tends to be more red.

-Riley

The gradient is pretty damn steep. In Berkeley, $2000/month for a 2 bedroom, 700 square feet apartment. In Sacramento (1 hr west), a 2500 square foot, 4 bedroom house is 1700/month.

[tady]

Yeah I agree with Riley. Specifically, the coastal cities of California have extremely high (almost unreasonably so) cost-of-living and some of the best weather I've ever seen. Too bad their budget sucks.

[waitingsucks]

Thanks for the comments, I actually feel better now.
As for the Skype thing, I didn't really understand it :p... I'm not from Singapore.

[enthree]

Thanks for the comments, I actually feel better now.
As for the Skype thing, I didn't really understand it :p... I'm not from Singapore.

When you run the Skype plugin on your browser it automatically turns strings of numbers into dialable phone numbers. So when bfollinprm wrote "6500-8000" it must've been interpreted as a Singaporean phone number (for whoever was running the Skype plugin).

[waitingsucks]

Thanks for the comments, I actually feel better now.
As for the Skype thing, I didn't really understand it :p... I'm not from Singapore.

When you run the Skype plugin on your browser it automatically turns strings of numbers into dialable phone numbers. So when bfollinprm wrote "6500-8000" it must've been interpreted as a Singaporean phone number (for whoever was running the Skype plugin).

Ah I see. Thanks.