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If a graduate student knows that they are on the lower end of the stipends offered to their cohort, and if they are performing as good or better than their other cohort members (as measured by grades, number of publications, number of current collaborations, etc.), then is it acceptable to ask for a higher stipend? If so, how would you go about this?

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    Isn't the stipend the same between grad students from the same department, the same level of education, and provided that they have the same source of funding (RA/TA with X experience/fellowship X/etc)? In other words, how do you define the cohort you mention? Nov 1, 2015 at 18:29
  • All students in my department's cohort have a particular fellowship from the college or from the graduate school. The awarded amount differs between students. There is up to $6,000 difference between students in my cohort, and I am on the low end.
    – RNG
    Nov 1, 2015 at 18:35
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    There should be, but I doubt you'll be successful. We (my year's cohort) had all the same living stipend which was about $10k less than minimum wage; to be more competitive, this was more than doubled for the following and subsequent cohorts. I asked if at least some adjustment was possible, and was reminded that the higher stipend was not in my (our) contract. :) It doesn't hurt to ask though. Nov 1, 2015 at 18:48
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    Do you mind if I ask who you approached to ask about the raise, gnometorule?
    – RNG
    Nov 1, 2015 at 18:50
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    @FranckDernoncourt not necessarily — the story that gnometorule mentions happens still today at a university whose program I'm familiar with. Stipends were doubled from $800/mo to 1400/mo, but only for the new incoming students, not for current students who will continue to get $800/mo for the rest of their tenure in the program. It's more than a bit unfair, but the funding model at the school budgets the whole five years of funding upon entry for each student, rather than all students each year. Nov 1, 2015 at 21:17

3 Answers 3

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Yes, you can certainly ask that the department reconsider the amount of your stipend. However, you should also prepare for the case where they do not adjust it.

Normally, I would start by talking with your advisor, as she will most likely have to be on board for any increase to be successful. Then, I'd approach either the graduate student advisor orthe graduate student administrator for the department. There may already be rules and policies in place for how to request a stipend increase. If that doesn't work, the next steps are probably to contact the chair of the department and the dean for graduate students (or other appropriate officer at your institution).

However, depending on where your funding comes from, it may or may not be possible to get an increase. For instance, NSF or NIH stipends are normally set at a uniform level across a college or university. It's also possible that the students with higher stipends have outside funding which reduces the actual cost to the college. Finally, your advisor may not be able to afford a large stipend increase.

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I'd recommend talking with your advisor or another mentor to see whether they have any information about how stipend decisions are made behind the scenes. The $6k disparity sounds high to me, and it's really awkward if it gets decided early on and then never adjusted, since how impressive someone seems on entering is imperfectly correlated with their accomplishments four years later. On the other hand, no department wants to individually negotiate each stipend on a yearly basis.

The first question is whether you are proposing an isolated fix for yourself (with the theory being that the current system is generally good, except for the poor result in your case), or a systemic change. If it's the latter, then it's probably best if you can get a faculty member to take up the cause, since they can try to build widespread faculty support in a less confrontational way than graduate students could. The best chances of change are probably if there's some clear unfairness or disparate impact. For example, if the current system is on average giving lower stipends to female students, not explicitly because of gender or performance but (let's say) because they negotiate less vigorously before signing, then I'd bet the administration will be eager to make changes. On the other hand, other large-scale changes may take more time and political finesse.

If you are just dealing with your own case, then you could still benefit from an advocate but can more easily try to make the case yourself. How tricky it is depends on what sort of argument you are making:

  1. You might argue that your stipend was wrongly set from the beginning. This will be a difficult argument to win unless you can point to something objective, because the department will not want to set a precedent that might encourage half the grad students to try making the same argument. However, it can't hurt to try if you do it tactfully (nobody likes to be told that they screwed up in the past, so you should treat this gingerly).

  2. You might argue that your initial stipend was reasonable, but the circumstances have changed dramatically. This may be your best shot, but again you need an objective argument that distinguishes you from the other students who would also like increased stipends.

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Graduate students are not expected to have a lot of money. Just enough money to live, plus a beer or two at the weekend, is the general consensus in Biology. In my PhD intake, we were all placed on 50% contracts (approx. $1300), while the following year's intake all got a 60% contracts (approx. $1400). This came after years of student protests by current and former Max Plank graduates. And $100 a month goes a long way - at the very least I could get some health insurance, so I asked a few times if could be bumped up to the 60% contract, and the response from the Max Plank was a resounding "NO!"

But then one day I received an electricity bill for $2000, which was the sum of the last two years bills combined which I thought was included in the rent but now apparently had to pay. I went to the institute's financing department to ask for help or legal advice, but again I received a definite "not our problem."

After this I became quite poor. I sold what luxuries I had acquired over the last 10 years, I started working evenings as a freelance programmer, and I became quite depressed. I was "visibly poor" so to speak. Poor, depressed and very very tired.

That year my old contract was canceled, then a new contract given to me at 60% rate.

So I see the moral of this story as, you don't have to be nice to your sheep, but dead sheep are no use to anyone. Use the little leverage you have by saying to your institute "Pay me more money or I will have to divert my time and energy into something that does", and you will see the true value of your meat in the academic marketplace.

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    Honestly, '-1'. While one does not get rich with A-13 / 2 or the equivalent IMPRS stipend; the roughly 1.000 Euro after taxes should be enough to live quite decent. The moral of this story should actually to plan things properly, including health insurance and electricity.
    – choener
    Nov 2, 2015 at 18:04
  • 1-room apartment rent is on average €700/mo in this city (I pay more), which is just over 50% of most student's earnings. With the undisclosed €2000 a year extra electricity bill ( I was wrong in my initial post, it was two payments of €2000 I had to make), rent and electricity together would make 66.6% of a typical PhD earnings. With health insurance between 80-100€ a month, approaching 7-8% of ones earnings, you can see why many foreign stipend holders leave it out. Blame it on preparation, but 10% pay rise provides a buffer against financial disaster than no amount of planning could. Nov 2, 2015 at 22:09
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    This answer is disturbingly self-belittling. Grad students are "expected" to be poor to the point of suffering from depression, as long as they don't become "dead sheep"? Aside from this not being very good advice for the OP, truly I'm concerned for the psychological well-being of the person writing this. @J.J, good luck with your career. I hope you remember you deserve better than to be treated like an almost dead sheep, and have some good friends to remind you that life can be good and that you are more than just "a piece of meat in the academic marketplace".
    – Dan Romik
    Nov 3, 2015 at 3:46

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