Positions, Stipends, and Benefits
Do you have to work as a Teaching Assistant (TA)?
In a typical program, you are required to work as a TA for at least 1-2 quarters or semesters in order to gain teaching experience. Beyond that, the need to TA varies based on whether you have other funding opportunities (e.g., fellowship, graduate student research position/research assistant (GSR/RA), etc.).
What are your responsibilities as a TA? Are you in charge of entire classes or act as a support to a main professor?
This will depend somewhat on the class. Higher level courses may demand more time outside of class (~20 hours a week) while introductory level courses usually demand less time (~5-10 hours a week). Most classes have a main instructor (sometimes called the instructor of record). This is often a professor or a postdoctoral researcher. Sometimes, graduate students can serve as the instructor of record, but this is not as common due to the higher workload and experience required. If you are a TA for a large lecture class, a lot of your time will probably go into grading and being available for students during office hours. Typically, TAs will lead discussion sections for these larger lecture classes as well, which will require you to make slides/presentations. Some courses also have lab sections, where you actually walk students through simple laboratory experiments.
How do I determine the limits to the amount of TAing I can do per quarter or year?
You can ask the program administrator about these limits as they are often set by the university. For example, at UC Davis you can TA up to 30 hours per week any quarter (considered 75% of your time employed) and up to 15 quarters (not including summers) which is equivalent to 5 years.
How do I find out the limits to amount of TA’ing I can do per quarter or year and how many people get TAships in the program I’m applying for?
Some programs make guarantees about getting their students TA positions. For example, in Population Biology at UC Davis, students are guaranteed TA positions in an introductory evolution and ecology course during the school year and are supposed to be funded by their advisors during the summer so that they can focus on research. Other programs don’t make any guarantees - in such cases it’s important to talk with current students to find out how easy it is to get TA positions and whether anyone has ever been unable to get one when they needed to.
How many people get TAships in the program I’m applying for?
Some programs make guarantees about getting their students TA positions. Other programs don’t make any guarantees. In such cases, it’s important to talk with current students about how easy it is to get TA positions, whether anyone has ever been unable to get one when they needed to, and how they were able to get funded during that time.
Is the PhD funding stable over time? In other words, can I expect to make the same amount of money during my tenure in graduate school?
PhD stipends can change depending on how you are being funded. For example, if you are being funded as a teaching assistant one quarter and as a research assistant the next you might be paid different amounts of money. Additionally, as you gain more experience, your stipend may increase. That being said, you want to be making enough money to be financially secure when you combine all the given sources in a year. You may be guaranteed a minimum amount of funding for a certain number of years when you receive your offer letter.
Is your pay as a TA sufficient to fund your PhD or you had (or are allowed?) to complement in another way? Do you have the chance to save some money for future plans?
I am not sure if UC Davis or other schools tend to have restrictions about additional employment, but I don’t think most people take jobs outside of TA positions (though there are exceptions). It’s also important to note that TA positions are not the only way people are funded during grad school. Some other sources of funding include fellowships, Graduate Student Researcher positions (often paid by the advisor off of a specific grant), and internships. Some funding sources (like fellowships) may have rules about secondary employment. When students do have other sources of income, it is often things like running a small business or selling things (bicycle repairs, selling house plants, music lessons, etc). Some students also take on consulting work. Finances and the ability to save during grad school varies a lot from person to person. Most graduate students choose to live with roommates to save on housing costs. The cost of living in the area where you attend school can have a big influence on how far your salary/stipend goes. I recommend watching the funding video on the website to get more information about this as well!
Does my funding cover summer pay?
Some programs guarantee summer pay from your primary advisor. However, this isn’t universal. It’s valuable to be in a program or lab that provides summer funding because summers can be a very productive time if you are able to focus solely on your research. There may be opportunities to find a summer TAship, research assistantship positions, internships, or external fellowships for the summer as well.
Do programs typically offer health insurance?
Most programs do (and should!) offer health insurance. However, whether or not that includes dental and vision insurance varies. At UCs, dental and visual are included in your health insurance, and most programs that do not offer those often have reduced rate dental programs for example, so you can save a lot of money.
In a typical program, you are required to work as a TA for at least 1-2 quarters or semesters in order to gain teaching experience. Beyond that, the need to TA varies based on whether you have other funding opportunities (e.g., fellowship, graduate student research position/research assistant (GSR/RA), etc.).
What are your responsibilities as a TA? Are you in charge of entire classes or act as a support to a main professor?
This will depend somewhat on the class. Higher level courses may demand more time outside of class (~20 hours a week) while introductory level courses usually demand less time (~5-10 hours a week). Most classes have a main instructor (sometimes called the instructor of record). This is often a professor or a postdoctoral researcher. Sometimes, graduate students can serve as the instructor of record, but this is not as common due to the higher workload and experience required. If you are a TA for a large lecture class, a lot of your time will probably go into grading and being available for students during office hours. Typically, TAs will lead discussion sections for these larger lecture classes as well, which will require you to make slides/presentations. Some courses also have lab sections, where you actually walk students through simple laboratory experiments.
How do I determine the limits to the amount of TAing I can do per quarter or year?
You can ask the program administrator about these limits as they are often set by the university. For example, at UC Davis you can TA up to 30 hours per week any quarter (considered 75% of your time employed) and up to 15 quarters (not including summers) which is equivalent to 5 years.
How do I find out the limits to amount of TA’ing I can do per quarter or year and how many people get TAships in the program I’m applying for?
Some programs make guarantees about getting their students TA positions. For example, in Population Biology at UC Davis, students are guaranteed TA positions in an introductory evolution and ecology course during the school year and are supposed to be funded by their advisors during the summer so that they can focus on research. Other programs don’t make any guarantees - in such cases it’s important to talk with current students to find out how easy it is to get TA positions and whether anyone has ever been unable to get one when they needed to.
How many people get TAships in the program I’m applying for?
Some programs make guarantees about getting their students TA positions. Other programs don’t make any guarantees. In such cases, it’s important to talk with current students about how easy it is to get TA positions, whether anyone has ever been unable to get one when they needed to, and how they were able to get funded during that time.
Is the PhD funding stable over time? In other words, can I expect to make the same amount of money during my tenure in graduate school?
PhD stipends can change depending on how you are being funded. For example, if you are being funded as a teaching assistant one quarter and as a research assistant the next you might be paid different amounts of money. Additionally, as you gain more experience, your stipend may increase. That being said, you want to be making enough money to be financially secure when you combine all the given sources in a year. You may be guaranteed a minimum amount of funding for a certain number of years when you receive your offer letter.
Is your pay as a TA sufficient to fund your PhD or you had (or are allowed?) to complement in another way? Do you have the chance to save some money for future plans?
I am not sure if UC Davis or other schools tend to have restrictions about additional employment, but I don’t think most people take jobs outside of TA positions (though there are exceptions). It’s also important to note that TA positions are not the only way people are funded during grad school. Some other sources of funding include fellowships, Graduate Student Researcher positions (often paid by the advisor off of a specific grant), and internships. Some funding sources (like fellowships) may have rules about secondary employment. When students do have other sources of income, it is often things like running a small business or selling things (bicycle repairs, selling house plants, music lessons, etc). Some students also take on consulting work. Finances and the ability to save during grad school varies a lot from person to person. Most graduate students choose to live with roommates to save on housing costs. The cost of living in the area where you attend school can have a big influence on how far your salary/stipend goes. I recommend watching the funding video on the website to get more information about this as well!
Does my funding cover summer pay?
Some programs guarantee summer pay from your primary advisor. However, this isn’t universal. It’s valuable to be in a program or lab that provides summer funding because summers can be a very productive time if you are able to focus solely on your research. There may be opportunities to find a summer TAship, research assistantship positions, internships, or external fellowships for the summer as well.
Do programs typically offer health insurance?
Most programs do (and should!) offer health insurance. However, whether or not that includes dental and vision insurance varies. At UCs, dental and visual are included in your health insurance, and most programs that do not offer those often have reduced rate dental programs for example, so you can save a lot of money.
Research Funding
What work requires research funding?
All students require research funding, but the amount needed can vary based on the materials you need to complete your project and if your lab already has these supplies/instruments. Some examples of research funding uses include travel, equipment/materials, specimens, space, rentals, and hiring undergraduate assistants. Every discipline has different financial costs associated with doing research. For example, genomic sequencing is very expensive, but collecting insects on a nearby reserve is much less costly. Or, computational research may have fewer supplies to purchase, as they do not have to buy wet lab supplies, but a big financial item for computational researchers is computer time! However, it is typical for labs that do computational work to provide those resources in some form to their students. For example, at UC Davis many labs have access to computer clusters run by colleges within the university.
Am I expected to raise my own funds for research?
This varies on a case by case basis. If your dissertation research is closely related to a grant your advisor has, you may not have to raise any funds for your research. However, if your research is very different from your advisor’s to be funded from one of their grants, or if they don’t have enough funding to cover your research, then you may need to apply for research funding. This is something you can discuss with potential advisors before choosing a lab. You should also ask potential labmates about their experiences with securing research funds vs being given funding from the advisor.
All students require research funding, but the amount needed can vary based on the materials you need to complete your project and if your lab already has these supplies/instruments. Some examples of research funding uses include travel, equipment/materials, specimens, space, rentals, and hiring undergraduate assistants. Every discipline has different financial costs associated with doing research. For example, genomic sequencing is very expensive, but collecting insects on a nearby reserve is much less costly. Or, computational research may have fewer supplies to purchase, as they do not have to buy wet lab supplies, but a big financial item for computational researchers is computer time! However, it is typical for labs that do computational work to provide those resources in some form to their students. For example, at UC Davis many labs have access to computer clusters run by colleges within the university.
Am I expected to raise my own funds for research?
This varies on a case by case basis. If your dissertation research is closely related to a grant your advisor has, you may not have to raise any funds for your research. However, if your research is very different from your advisor’s to be funded from one of their grants, or if they don’t have enough funding to cover your research, then you may need to apply for research funding. This is something you can discuss with potential advisors before choosing a lab. You should also ask potential labmates about their experiences with securing research funds vs being given funding from the advisor.
Fellowships
If I have an external fellowship, am I still required to teach?
This depends on the external fellowship. Some fellowships require that your graduate program waive your requirement to teach so that you can focus on research, but this isn’t always the case. It’s best to check on the policy of each fellowship you’re applying to and to talk with your program coordinator to determine if your program will allow you to adhere to these requirements.
How can I apply for a fellowship if I don't know that I have been accepted into a program?
Some external fellowships, like the NSF GRFP, support the student no matter where they end up going to grad school. This is because generally, if you apply for a fellowship that is not based at a university while applying to grad school, the fellowship funds YOU as a scientist rather than a particular program.
For the GRFP, if you haven’t already gotten into a program, it is typical to pick the advisor you’re most excited to work with and ask them if they’d be willing to work on the fellowship proposal with you. Then, you write the proposal like you will be going to that lab. This is also a chance for the professor to get to know you. We recommend reaching out to professors by early September about this.
You can often apply to program-specific fellowships while applying to the graduate programs. These often require you to submit a small extra application or apply by a certain deadline - you should talk to the PI or graduate program coordinator about any opportunities to do this!
Should I use my one chance to apply to the NSF GRFP this year when they are emphasizing Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Information Science, and Computationally Intensive Research (i.e, not traditional biology or basic science)?
The new “topics of emphasis” in the NSF GRF are definitely confusing and unclear. But, here are a couple links to help clarify the situation including a blog post and a tweet by NSF. As noted in these links, much research in Evolution and Ecology can be related to these priority areas and NSF is continuing to fund GRFPs that don’t fit into these areas.
If I’m applying to graduate programs and the NSF fellowship at the same time, do I make a general application and mention the schools I am considering? Or does each fellowship application require me to state my intention to attend one specific school? In other words, if I’m applying to more than one school, do I have to apply for each external fellowship multiple times indicating each school I intend to apply to?
Even if you are applying to multiple graduate programs, you can only apply for the NSF GRFP once before applying to graduate school and once as a graduate student. You typically write your application as if you know which program you would attend and who your advisor would be. However, if you get the NSF fellowship, you are completely free to go somewhere else and work with a different advisor! For other external fellowships it is also frequently the case that if you are awarded the fellowship you can then attend a school other than the one you proposed attending. However, we don’t know that this is the case for every fellowship out there, so it’s worth finding out the details for any fellowship you’re considering applying for.
I have a master’s so I’m ineligible for the NSF GRFP. Are there other big grants/fellowships that I can apply for?
Yes! As a start, the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, the NOAA Nancy Foster Scholarship, and Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship are open to students with master’s degrees (with certain exceptions). Check out some scientific society or graduate program websites for a longer list! For example, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology members have access to a pretty exhaustive list of graduate student grants and fellowships on their website (link here).
Can you apply for the same fellowships offered to PhD students to do a Masters project?
Only if master’s students are also eligible for that fellowship. For example, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program is open to master’s students as well as PhD students, but the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship is only open to PhD students.
This depends on the external fellowship. Some fellowships require that your graduate program waive your requirement to teach so that you can focus on research, but this isn’t always the case. It’s best to check on the policy of each fellowship you’re applying to and to talk with your program coordinator to determine if your program will allow you to adhere to these requirements.
How can I apply for a fellowship if I don't know that I have been accepted into a program?
Some external fellowships, like the NSF GRFP, support the student no matter where they end up going to grad school. This is because generally, if you apply for a fellowship that is not based at a university while applying to grad school, the fellowship funds YOU as a scientist rather than a particular program.
For the GRFP, if you haven’t already gotten into a program, it is typical to pick the advisor you’re most excited to work with and ask them if they’d be willing to work on the fellowship proposal with you. Then, you write the proposal like you will be going to that lab. This is also a chance for the professor to get to know you. We recommend reaching out to professors by early September about this.
You can often apply to program-specific fellowships while applying to the graduate programs. These often require you to submit a small extra application or apply by a certain deadline - you should talk to the PI or graduate program coordinator about any opportunities to do this!
Should I use my one chance to apply to the NSF GRFP this year when they are emphasizing Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Information Science, and Computationally Intensive Research (i.e, not traditional biology or basic science)?
The new “topics of emphasis” in the NSF GRF are definitely confusing and unclear. But, here are a couple links to help clarify the situation including a blog post and a tweet by NSF. As noted in these links, much research in Evolution and Ecology can be related to these priority areas and NSF is continuing to fund GRFPs that don’t fit into these areas.
If I’m applying to graduate programs and the NSF fellowship at the same time, do I make a general application and mention the schools I am considering? Or does each fellowship application require me to state my intention to attend one specific school? In other words, if I’m applying to more than one school, do I have to apply for each external fellowship multiple times indicating each school I intend to apply to?
Even if you are applying to multiple graduate programs, you can only apply for the NSF GRFP once before applying to graduate school and once as a graduate student. You typically write your application as if you know which program you would attend and who your advisor would be. However, if you get the NSF fellowship, you are completely free to go somewhere else and work with a different advisor! For other external fellowships it is also frequently the case that if you are awarded the fellowship you can then attend a school other than the one you proposed attending. However, we don’t know that this is the case for every fellowship out there, so it’s worth finding out the details for any fellowship you’re considering applying for.
I have a master’s so I’m ineligible for the NSF GRFP. Are there other big grants/fellowships that I can apply for?
Yes! As a start, the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, the NOAA Nancy Foster Scholarship, and Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship are open to students with master’s degrees (with certain exceptions). Check out some scientific society or graduate program websites for a longer list! For example, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology members have access to a pretty exhaustive list of graduate student grants and fellowships on their website (link here).
Can you apply for the same fellowships offered to PhD students to do a Masters project?
Only if master’s students are also eligible for that fellowship. For example, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program is open to master’s students as well as PhD students, but the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship is only open to PhD students.
Financial Planning
How do I plan for the future (savings, retirement, home ownership) with the funding resources I have?
That really depends on the cost of living where you attend school and the stipend that school offers. There are a small but increasing number of resources on budgeting and financial planning for graduate students. For example, UC Davis had a financial advisor lead a seminar on PhD finances, which helped students navigate taxes and thinking about saving for the future (here is the speaker’s website: http://pfforphds.com/). Most graduate programs do not have a retirement plan built into their payment system.
That really depends on the cost of living where you attend school and the stipend that school offers. There are a small but increasing number of resources on budgeting and financial planning for graduate students. For example, UC Davis had a financial advisor lead a seminar on PhD finances, which helped students navigate taxes and thinking about saving for the future (here is the speaker’s website: http://pfforphds.com/). Most graduate programs do not have a retirement plan built into their payment system.
