Timeline for Negotiating PhD stipend
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 21, 2017 at 5:02 | vote | accept | Manish | ||
| Jan 18, 2017 at 19:41 | comment | added | Hobbes | @DanRomik, In my cohort, there were veterans (literally someone who 4 months previous was dealing with their soldiers being killed) as well as students coming from 10+ years of leading industry experience. No one asked for more money. After that first year, by all means negotiate. But that fellowship is a gift. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 19:39 | comment | added | Hobbes | @DanRomik, I don't know if it's fair to assume I'm jealous. I think I have some survival instincts that were telling me that this individual is at risk of making himself look foolish. I'm not faculty,so I have limited experience, but the first year fellowship, in most cases, is basically a gift from the university. It is designed so that the student doesn't have to commit to a lab right off the bat. Asking for more money, especially after having already accepted, just seems straight stupid to me. Especially if the justification is 4 years of work experience. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 18:43 | comment | added | Sana | @DanRomik, quite to the contrary, I am not that junior (professor at a large research university with a large PhD program), and my answer is definitely not stemmed from jealousy. I actually think that asking for a raise does have negative implications (a slight one, but people do talk, and if OP turns out to be a bad fit for the department, this kind of behavior only provides more ammunition to his/her critics), and I do not plan on revising my answer. This is exactly what I would advise my undergraduate students. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 18:23 | comment | added | Dan Romik | Also notice that in my own answer I also agreed that the chances that OP could get a raise at this point are quite low. So perhaps we don't disagree as much as it seems. All I'm saying is that asking for a raise when there is evidence to support that a higher salary figure makes sense is a completely reasonable and acceptable thing to do, and would not be viewed negatively by anyone. If Sana revises his/her answer to remove the implication that there's anything negative about asking for a raise, that would make this answer a much better one. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 18:19 | comment | added | Dan Romik | Sana, Hobbes, @dimpol, SSimon, and others who upvoted this answer: I don't mean to cause offense, but I notice that some of you seem to be graduate students or early career researchers. I'm wondering (again, naively and not out of a desire to offend) if part of your resistance to OP asking for improved conditions might have something to do with simple jealousy - i.e., an aversion to the notion that a talented and unusually qualified grad student might be able to gain access to higher compensation or other improved funding terms. Is that really so hard to accept, or am I missing something? | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 14:45 | comment | added | SSimon | I dont understand why people hate this answer from SANA; she or he, answered what reality is! | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 14:12 | comment | added | Dan Romik | @dimpol let me say again, I downvoted the answer for "I wouldn't even try." You are welcome to upvote it (or to not be concerned about that part of it) because of the contradictory parenthetical remark "maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask once." In my opinion writing two contradictory statements does not mean you get to claim that your opinion is the one your reader agrees with most. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 8:44 | comment | added | dimpol | @DanRomik, I don't think we disagree, I think we both interpreted it differently when Sana wrote: "(OK, maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask once, but I wouldn't try very hard)" | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 8:31 | comment | added | Dan Romik | @dimpol You are right that it should not be presented as a negotiation, since OP has no leverage by this point. It should simply be presented as a request for a higher salary or an improved funding package, accompanied by supporting evidence for why that makes sense. If you still think that will be seen as negative, then I guess we will simply have to disagree. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 8:27 | comment | added | dimpol | @DanRomik: well, people won't really hold a grudge for asking (as Sana said, it wouldn't hurt to ask once), but if you first accept an offer and then start negotiating as if starting at that university is still up for debate, that will likely be seen as very negative. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 8:27 | comment | added | Dan Romik | ... but no one will "remember you" in a negative way. Quite the opposite - as I said in my answer, if your request is presented in a polite and professional manner and is grounded in a solid analysis, you are likely to gain a small amount of respect from the people you are negotiating with, even if the request is turned down. It is a small effect, to be sure, but it goes in the opposite direction than this answer claims. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 8:20 | comment | added | Dan Romik | -1 for "I wouldn't even try, because you're already committed to going there, and the people will remember you for trying something like that". We can debate the rest of your answer with which I have some not very important disagreements, but this sentence is based on a flat-out incorrect (and very harmful IMO) premise that there is something wrong with "trying something like that". At least in an American cultural context, there is nothing wrong with asking for pay commensurate with one's skills and experience. It may indeed not work, but no one will "remember you" in a negative way. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 6:06 | history | answered | Sana | CC BY-SA 3.0 |