Do you pay fees?

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futureapppsy2

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I'm just curious--for those of you in funded programs, do you have to pay your own student fees, or are they waived? In my first grad program (where I got my masters), I had a fellowship in addition to my GAship, so they were covered by that money. In my current PhD program, we have to pay a few hundred a semester in fees, but I think our stipends are high enough to make that doable without a lot of financial stress (I hope!).
 
Well I'm not in a program, but FWIW while researching potential schools I'm pretty sure they've all said that the tuition remission does not cover fees with GA/TAs (not sure about fellowships). Most schools seemed to have their fees at around $1000 per year or so, so I guess you are doing good?
 
I just paid the fees for my grad program a few days ago, and it almost emptied my bank account. I have to pay about $1500 in fees every semester (!). My stipend covers living expenses (barely), but it's definitely not enough to cover a year's worth of fees (or even a semester's worth). So even though I'm in a fully funded program, I most certainly will be taking out loans for the upcoming years. I'm just lucky my loans will be from paying fees and not from having to pay tuition!
 
yup, we pay fees too. It's "only" around 350 dollars per semester though...
 
Yep, had to pay fees all throughout, including while on internship (despite not being physically present and able to take advantage of any of the things for which I'm paying); they generally totaled about $600-700 per semester. I'm not at all upset about it, though, mind you. Truth is, I still ended up getting paid to earn a doctorate. At the end of the day, that's a pretty sweet deal.
 
All my fees are waived except for the computer fees. Instead ~$500,I pay only $34 🙂
 
Sorry to take this in another direction (even though that's what discussion forums are for, right?), but when we consider things like this:

Yep, had to pay fees all throughout, including while on internship (despite not being physically present and able to take advantage of any of the things for which I'm paying); they generally totaled about $600-700 per semester. I'm not at all upset about it, though, mind you. Truth is, I still ended up getting paid to earn a doctorate. At the end of the day, that's a pretty sweet deal.

Does that mean that some folks are getting out without any loans? I'm finding that the moving costs alone were astronomical! Granted, in the grand scheme of things they weren't as expensive as paying full tuition for a doctorate, but how can someone apply to all of these programs, travel to interviews, move to a new location, take a few weeks (or months) off of work to move and start a program, without loans? I know I'm old and I don't have a mom/dad to throw cash my way, but my gosh, I can't imagine doing it without some loan help. I just want to be clear that some people do take out loans for various other expenses, too, right?
 
We pay fees, around 720 dollars per semester. Though this year, we are supposed to get a 100 rebate from our college within the university.
 
We pay some fees, though it's not too much, maybe a few hundred a semester. Health insurance is heavily subsidized. They are taken out of our paychecks via payroll deduction so we don't have to pay them upfront.

Psychadelic2012- I don't have any loans. I had saved up money from my RA job and beforehand to apply and had a safety net for living. Actually...I think I only had a month off between my RA job and grad school since my POI hired me to do research a little early. My RA salary was barely enough to get by on it but I was really glad I had saved, though I know most people can't do that.
 
Yes, we have to pay fees. We're fully funded plus tuition, but student fees come to about $950 per semester. 🙁
 
We can do 3 payments as well, but it's still a lot of money. Ah well.
 
Does that mean that some folks are getting out without any loans? I'm finding that the moving costs alone were astronomical! Granted, in the grand scheme of things they weren't as expensive as paying full tuition for a doctorate, but how can someone apply to all of these programs, travel to interviews, move to a new location, take a few weeks (or months) off of work to move and start a program, without loans? I know I'm old and I don't have a mom/dad to throw cash my way, but my gosh, I can't imagine doing it without some loan help. I just want to be clear that some people do take out loans for various other expenses, too, right?

There are definitely folks who make it out without any loans (as PsychPhDStudent shows), and many more who take out rather small amounts. I, unfortunately, didn't fall into either of those categories (I took out more in loans than I'm happy with), but it's certainly possible, particularly if you either have money saved up coming into the program, or have a partner who's contributing to household expenses.
 
I'm in a Canadian program, our tuition is covered by an internal scholarship but there's about ~900.00 in extra fees (health/dental plan, bus pass, etc) that aren't covered. I also have an external scholarship though, and my institution takes those fees directly from that. Of course, for students without external funding they must pay out of pocket.
 
There are definitely folks who make it out without any loans (as PsychPhDStudent shows), and many more who take out rather small amounts. I, unfortunately, didn't fall into either of those categories (I took out more in loans than I'm happy with), but it's certainly possible, particularly if you either have money saved up coming into the program, or have a partner who's contributing to household expenses.

Yeah, I already know I'm not in that boat, because I have an enormous loan burden from my master's degree. The relative free-ness of my PhD program helps to offset that, in the long-run, because I will have more options than my masters-level colleagues. But still...
 
Yeah, I already know I'm not in that boat, because I have an enormous loan burden from my master's degree. The relative free-ness of my PhD program helps to offset that, in the long-run, because I will have more options than my masters-level colleagues. But still...

I had a few people in my program who had their parents footing the bill for lots of things. It was annoying but good for them.
 
Sorry to take this in another direction (even though that's what discussion forums are for, right?), but when we consider things like this:



Does that mean that some folks are getting out without any loans? I'm finding that the moving costs alone were astronomical! Granted, in the grand scheme of things they weren't as expensive as paying full tuition for a doctorate, but how can someone apply to all of these programs, travel to interviews, move to a new location, take a few weeks (or months) off of work to move and start a program, without loans? I know I'm old and I don't have a mom/dad to throw cash my way, but my gosh, I can't imagine doing it without some loan help. I just want to be clear that some people do take out loans for various other expenses, too, right?
I decided to take out a relatively small amount for my first year, because I figured this would be the worst year financially, with moving and everything else. I'm hoping that I can avoid this in subsequent years.
 
Must be nice. 🙄

That it must. I certainly don't begrudge them it, but it's not something I had available (nor did you, Pragma, or many others here, by the sound of it).

Even for those students who generally made it through loan-free, I know of at least a few who took out some funds prior to the year they applied, and later moved, for internship owing to how expensive that process can be.
 
We pay around $750/semester (significantly less in summer). Technically that isn't "fees" (these are only around $50 for us) but our school has some goofy regulations regarding tuition waivers whereby it can't cover more than x% of in-state or y% of out-of-state tuition. That said, our stipend is somewhat higher than average, which makes up for it.

Regarding the loans discussion - I should (just barely) eek out without loans for grad school, but would not have come close if I didn't have significant savings going in and lead a pretty frugal lifestyle. This hasn't been mentioned yet, but I think a lot of this also depends on the area you are in. We've discussed issues of cost of living in various locations around the country after graduation, but the impact cost of living has is multiplied several times over when you are earning grad-student-level wages. Cost of living here is about as cheap as "big cities" get in the US. 20k goes pretty far. If I was in NY, LA, Chicago, etc. even if my stipend was significantly higher (and at most schools in those areas...it wouldn't be) I'd still likely be sinking a much larger percentage of it into rent and the basics (e.g. utilities). There's no way I would have even come close to surviving without loans in an area with a higher cost of living.
 
We pay around $750/semester (significantly less in summer). Technically that isn't "fees" (these are only around $50 for us) but our school has some goofy regulations regarding tuition waivers whereby it can't cover more than x% of in-state or y% of out-of-state tuition. That said, our stipend is somewhat higher than average, which makes up for it.

Regarding the loans discussion - I should (just barely) eek out without loans for grad school, but would not have come close if I didn't have significant savings going in and lead a pretty frugal lifestyle. This hasn't been mentioned yet, but I think a lot of this also depends on the area you are in. We've discussed issues of cost of living in various locations around the country after graduation, but the impact cost of living has is multiplied several times over when you are earning grad-student-level wages. Cost of living here is about as cheap as "big cities" get in the US. 20k goes pretty far. If I was in NY, LA, Chicago, etc. even if my stipend was significantly higher (and at most schools in those areas...it wouldn't be) I'd still likely be sinking a much larger percentage of it into rent and the basics (e.g. utilities). There's no way I would have even come close to surviving without loans in an area with a higher cost of living.

My 16K stipend was enough to cover rent in my 1 BR apartment. Nothing more. Of course, I live in a major city, so that is part of it. Taking out loans wasn't really a choice for me, even though I was fully funded. I found it difficult to get by - I can't imagine what it is like for people who pay tuition as well.

I don't begrudge the people who had mommy and daddy paying for things. But it did add a little chip on my shoulder knowing that while I was working my butt off over the summer at outside jobs and making sure I would not take any longer than the 5 year minimum to graduate, some folks were off vacationing around the world and complaining about the "rough adjustment" coming back after the summer. I agree - it would be a "rough adjustment" 😉 I also would say that these were the folks who did the most complaining about workload. I know for me, as an undergrad I had to work 30 hours per week still to pay the bills. Some of these folks had never worked in college and grad school seems, logically, like a ton of work.
 
We have about $500 in fees each semester. I took out some students loans to pay for moving costs, deposits, books, and general things for the semester. I figured it's worth it so I'm not super stressed about money all the time.
 
My 16K stipend was enough to cover rent in my 1 BR apartment. Nothing more. Of course, I live in a major city, so that is part of it. Taking out loans wasn't really a choice for me, even though I was fully funded. I found it difficult to get by - I can't imagine what it is like for people who pay tuition as well.

I don't begrudge the people who had mommy and daddy paying for things. But it did add a little chip on my shoulder knowing that while I was working my butt off over the summer at outside jobs and making sure I would not take any longer than the 5 year minimum to graduate, some folks were off vacationing around the world and complaining about the "rough adjustment" coming back after the summer. I agree - it would be a "rough adjustment" 😉 I also would say that these were the folks who did the most complaining about workload. I know for me, as an undergrad I had to work 30 hours per week still to pay the bills. Some of these folks had never worked in college and grad school seems, logically, like a ton of work.

Wait, people in your program actually got to take time off during the summer? In both my programs, we've been expected to take classes, practica and/or research hours in the summer and continue our GAships, if they were 12 month ones. If someone just decided that they were checking out for 2-3 months and didn't have a valid reason (major health issue/family member's major health issue, new baby, etc), I imagine the faculty and other students would assume they were joking. I think we had 1-2 weeks at the beginning and end of summer where we could potentially take time off if our GAship supervisor and advisor approved of it but definitely not an entire summer or most of it!
 
I don't begrudge the people who had mommy and daddy paying for things. But it did add a little chip on my shoulder knowing that while I was working my butt off over the summer at outside jobs and making sure I would not take any longer than the 5 year minimum to graduate, some folks were off vacationing around the world and complaining about the "rough adjustment" coming back after the summer. I agree - it would be a "rough adjustment" 😉 I also would say that these were the folks who did the most complaining about workload. I know for me, as an undergrad I had to work 30 hours per week still to pay the bills. Some of these folks had never worked in college and grad school seems, logically, like a ton of work.

Yeah, that's the thing--not that you begrudge someone (that's a waste of time), but that it kind of puts you behind others because you don't have those advantages. As much as we pretend, we're not all on equal ground. That said, I also agree with you about what I interpret you saying about work ethic (or, so as not to offend, work habits). I'm coming from a masters program where I worked 30+ hours per week in various part-time jobs with no benefits and hefty commutes, went to class, had a 15-20 hour/week practicum, and supported myself. I'm already seeing some complaining about workload and I'm thinking this is cake! I have so many pockets of time to finally do research, I'm thrilled! In fact, the down time is hard because I don't know what to do with myself :laugh:. Anyway, what I'm saying is that I feel prepared for grad school and my future career in a way that someone straight from undergrad (or who is otherwise not used to hustling) may not--at least that's how I like to think of it.
 
Anyway, what I'm saying is that I feel prepared for grad school and my future career in a way that someone straight from undergrad (or who is otherwise not used to hustling) may not--at least that's how I like to think of it.

:laugh: I'll take it that you mean 'working hard" and not hustling in the other sense of the word. However, I do think that grad school involves a little bit of the latter as well 😉

Agreed on your other points. It's not that you HAVE to have worked hard or were less privileged economically than others in order to succeed. But I do think that folks like us who didn't have rich parents perhaps had less of a problem adjusting, simply because we were used to putting in extra hours working already (just to live).
 
Wait, people in your program actually got to take time off during the summer? In both my programs, we've been expected to take classes, practica and/or research hours in the summer and continue our GAships, if they were 12 month ones. If someone just decided that they were checking out for 2-3 months and didn't have a valid reason (major health issue/family member's major health issue, new baby, etc), I imagine the faculty and other students would assume they were joking. I think we had 1-2 weeks at the beginning and end of summer where we could potentially take time off if our GAship supervisor and advisor approved of it but definitely not an entire summer or most of it!

There was no coursework in the summer. We also didn't have practica during the first year. Later on there were practicum responsibilities during the summer, although I can think of a few folks who either did a 9-month practicum or worked it out so that they could have some extended time off during the summer. I'd say MOST students used the time for things like studying for comps and thesis/dissertation stuff, but not all did. I knew someone who went to Europe for a couple of months and came home complaining about the thesis requirements.

In my case, I was able to keep working as an RA during the summer as well, but not everyone's lab had funding. I worked seasonal jobs during the summer to make extra $ since there was no class.

Remember, in my city practica aren't paid. Usually supervisors were fairly understanding if people wanted more flexibility during that time and the transition during summer was usually around July 1. Also, for people who took (or are taking) longer in the program, some of them opted out of doing practica during later years. They took paid jobs or only focused on their dissertations.
 
There was no coursework in the summer. We also didn't have practica during the first year. Later on there were practicum responsibilities during the summer, although I can think of a few folks who either did a 9-month practicum or worked it out so that they could have some extended time off during the summer. I'd say MOST students used the time for things like studying for comps and thesis/dissertation stuff, but not all did. I knew someone who went to Europe for a couple of months and came home complaining about the thesis requirements.

In my case, I was able to keep working as an RA during the summer as well, but not everyone's lab had funding. I worked seasonal jobs during the summer to make extra $ since there was no class.

Remember, in my city practica aren't paid. Usually supervisors were fairly understanding if people wanted more flexibility during that time and the transition during summer was usually around July 1. Also, for people who took (or are taking) longer in the program, some of them opted out of doing practica during later years. They took paid jobs or only focused on their dissertations.

My program sounds very similar to yours in many other respects, Pragma, but here it actually sounds a bit closer to futureapppsy2's (not a bad or good thing, of course, just an observation). We typically took perhaps one class over the summer (that's when my advisor taught a lot of his neuropsych courses), and were expected to maintain practicum (paid or unpaid, and which for us actually began in our first semester) and research hours. This was fairly obvious for students who had 12-month externships, but even those with 9-month GAships were expected to stick around and work (perhaps for the department clinic on a per-hourly basis in addition to research, for example).

I believe one student took a month or two off once during the summer, and people talked about it for years afterward owing to how rarely it happened. Good times, good times.
 
We are also generally expected to be around over the summer, though I suppose in the event someone wasn't funded there would be a bit more flexibility. External practica depend on the site, but we are expected to continue seeing clients at our psychology clinic throughout the summer. Many take courses at other departments (e.g. advanced stats) though our department generally doesn't offer grad-level courses over the summer. Many teach undergrads over the summer, and pretty much everyone continues doing research. I can't imagine any of our faculty saying okay if someone was going to dodge out for months at a time. Personally, I'm just hoping I can manage to get 2-3 weeks for my wedding and honeymoon next summer! Even that seems like a stretch, and an impossibility if I have to teach again....
 
We are also generally expected to be around over the summer, though I suppose in the event someone wasn't funded there would be a bit more flexibility. External practica depend on the site, but we are expected to continue seeing clients at our psychology clinic throughout the summer. Many take courses at other departments (e.g. advanced stats) though our department generally doesn't offer grad-level courses over the summer. Many teach undergrads over the summer, and pretty much everyone continues doing research. I can't imagine any of our faculty saying okay if someone was going to dodge out for months at a time. Personally, I'm just hoping I can manage to get 2-3 weeks for my wedding and honeymoon next summer! Even that seems like a stretch, and an impossibility if I have to teach again....

I don't think anyone would be okay with people leaving for the summer if they were getting paid to do an RAship. I was always around in the summer because of that. But with no summer courses, I was able to do more things from home (e.g., set up dissertation camp one year) and only come in a few days a week.

I guess my program had a nice culture in that regard. A lot of the faculty preferred to do summer conferences and travel themselves, so it was acceptable for students to do so. If students were not being funded, they weren''t expected to be there. Actually, the students were very organized at my school and had teamed up wtih faculty members to spell out a clear policy about these things. They also had organized around health care, etc.

When it comes to practica, those just varied by the site people were at. I still did mine in the summer, but I knew some folks who negotiated early departure for various reasons (e.g., weddings, etc).
 
Sorry to take this in another direction (even though that's what discussion forums are for, right?), but when we consider things like this:



Does that mean that some folks are getting out without any loans? I'm finding that the moving costs alone were astronomical! Granted, in the grand scheme of things they weren't as expensive as paying full tuition for a doctorate, but how can someone apply to all of these programs, travel to interviews, move to a new location, take a few weeks (or months) off of work to move and start a program, without loans? I know I'm old and I don't have a mom/dad to throw cash my way, but my gosh, I can't imagine doing it without some loan help. I just want to be clear that some people do take out loans for various other expenses, too, right?
I haven't taken any loans out, but it hasn't been easy. My stipend is about $18,000/yr and I also get a little help from my significant other. The fees are a killer though, plus the fact that our tuition is only covered for 10 credits/semester when we really have to take more than that for the first couple of years. I am paying about $2,000 out of pocket per semester for tuition and fees.
 
We are also generally expected to be around over the summer, though I suppose in the event someone wasn't funded there would be a bit more flexibility. External practica depend on the site, but we are expected to continue seeing clients at our psychology clinic throughout the summer. Many take courses at other departments (e.g. advanced stats) though our department generally doesn't offer grad-level courses over the summer. Many teach undergrads over the summer, and pretty much everyone continues doing research. I can't imagine any of our faculty saying okay if someone was going to dodge out for months at a time. Personally, I'm just hoping I can manage to get 2-3 weeks for my wedding and honeymoon next summer! Even that seems like a stretch, and an impossibility if I have to teach again....


Congrats on the engagement, Ollie! 😀
 
I haven't taken any loans out, but it hasn't been easy. My stipend is about $18,000/yr and I also get a little help from my significant other. The fees are a killer though, plus the fact that our tuition is only covered for 10 credits/semester when we really have to take more than that for the first couple of years. I am paying about $2,000 out of pocket per semester for tuition and fees.

We had the issue for having to take more credits than were covered by a tuition waiver, too. They covered 9 and we had to take between 12-15 a semester. If I hadn't received additional tuition coverage from my fellowship, it definitely would have been a struggle to pay the extra tuition and still have enough stipend money to live on.
 
I haven't taken any loans out, but it hasn't been easy. My stipend is about $18,000/yr and I also get a little help from my significant other. The fees are a killer though, plus the fact that our tuition is only covered for 10 credits/semester when we really have to take more than that for the first couple of years. I am paying about $2,000 out of pocket per semester for tuition and fees.

They may as well just say they have you covered, but your stipend is $14K 😉

As I have read these posts in this thread, I can't help but wonder about how much voice students have at your respective institutions. That seems to explain part of the differences I am detecting. For my graduate school, we had a formal student organization within the psychology department that worked directly with faculty leadership. Our faculty were generally collaborative and advocates for students.

Through the student organization, students were able to get formal limits to their assistantships. A policy spelling out exactly how many hours were required per week, how those hours should be distributed throughout the semester (e.g., students were not expected to work during finals weeks, etc.), what dates students were expected to work and what dates were protected (e.g., during formal breaks, summers, etc), and a policy for grievances. The group also worked with faculty to go from very crappy and expensive healthcare options to obtaining reasonable health care insurance alternatives for graduate students (with funding). I am sure there are other initiatives on the calendar as well.

Did others have students organized this way? This organization was done at the department level. It seems like a group like this could address significant student fees with the appropriate authorities at the school.
 
We are actually unionized (across the entire institution), which dictates our hours and various other things (i.e. healthcare). Of course, some positions obviously bend the rules a bit - teaching you "work until its done" so its hard to set an hour limit on that - can't exactly not write an exam since it would have put me over hours. That's just academia though - the hours are always unpredictable as there is always "more" work one could be doing. Then again, sounds like we are treated relatively well compared to some others as our fees sound moderate relative to many (and better than the stipend).

Overall, I'd say here it works like most any other salaried job would. Even with an expectation that we be around all summer, its still FAR more flexible than many people get from their jobs.
 
Of course, some positions obviously bend the rules a bit - teaching you "work until its done" so its hard to set an hour limit on that - can't exactly not write an exam since it would have put me over hours. That's just academia though - the hours are always unpredictable as there is always "more" work one could be doing. Then again, sounds like we are treated relatively well compared to some others as our fees sound moderate relative to many (and better than the stipend).

Overall, I'd say here it works like most any other salaried job would. Even with an expectation that we be around all summer, its still FAR more flexible than many people get from their jobs.

This. I did a substantial portion of work for my GAship (which was primarily administration/program development and evaluation, with some teaching and research) on "off hours," which allowed me to be more flexible with clients, meetings, personal stuff, etc. Also, my schedule differed a lot from week to week, depending on what was going on with my GAship projects. Some weeks we didn't have a lot going on (waiting for IRB approval, etc) and I could devote more time to outside research while other weeks (especially teaching weeks) were quite time consuming. Overall, it worked out while, and I really enjoyed that GAship (it helped that I worked with awesome people, too 🙂)
 
We are actually unionized (across the entire institution), which dictates our hours and various other things (i.e. healthcare).

Cool and glad to hear that your students took that step.

That's just academia though - the hours are always unpredictable as there is always "more" work one could be doing.

Sure...but there is probably a reasonable limit. I mean, I formally worked my 20 hours per week or whatever, but anything beyond that was up to me. I did work a lot beyond that - because I wanted to publish more papers, etc. But no one was going to force me to do it. My mentor respected my time. I know that can't be said for all mentors.

As far as teaching goes - that is a different schedule, but still is predictable if you plan adequately. Aside from responding to student emails and being available at office hours, you can really work whenever you want. It's nice.

I was a TA one year, and that just required negotiating what/when I would work. I was okay with putting more time in during finals week, but requested some time off during the term in exchange for the heavier hours on the back end. Once again, very predictable.
 
A little more than $200 for fees in fall/spring with a 50% waiver. Need to sign up for practicum credit in the summer with no waiver (smaller fee though). Health insurance needs to be paid (but very affordable). No loans or help from anyone money-wise in grad school. I stopped working on a Friday and moved out to my school (halfway across the country) on Monday, started school a week later. Stipend isn't large but cost of living is low. Taking out significant loans for this degree is not a financially wise decision.
 
My funding also covers fees, but it's a university fellowship, so I don't know if the departmental assistantships normally cover fees. However, I'm in the same situation as psycstudnt in that my funding only covers tuition and fees for 10 credits, and I'm taking more than 10 in my first two semesters. The extra credits cost about 2k per semester, which reduces my first year stipend by 4k. I haven't protested because my stipend is generous and I live in in a mid-sized city, but it shows how intensive psychology graduate programs are, because talking with my friends in other programs, they never need to take more than 10 credits.
 
I'm just curious--for those of you in funded programs, do you have to pay your own student fees, or are they waived? In my first grad program (where I got my masters), I had a fellowship in addition to my GAship, so they were covered by that money. In my current PhD program, we have to pay a few hundred a semester in fees, but I think our stipends are high enough to make that doable without a lot of financial stress (I hope!).

Just out of curiosity, and this is a big question, but are most PhD clinical psychology schools fully funded for incoming students? And would they be funded for students coming from Canada? How do you find out about external funding/scholarships in the USA? Do you apply within school or to a particular scholarship?
 
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Most university-based PhD are fully funded (tuition waiver and stipend). Usually this is through research or teaching assistantships, although sometimes it through administrative assistantships, fellowships, or (in latter years) paid practicum placements. AFAIK, international students are usually eligible for this funding as well, although I'm not an international student and so can't speak to that directly. Most programs should have this information on their websites or at least providing it during interview days.
 
Most university-based PhD are fully funded (tuition waiver and stipend). Usually this is through research or teaching assistantships, although sometimes it through administrative assistantships, fellowships, or (in latter years) paid practicum placements. AFAIK, international students are usually eligible for this funding as well, although I'm not an international student and so can't speak to that directly. Most programs should have this information on their websites or at least providing it during interview days.

I think "most" is probably right, but certainly not all. Sometimes the way these issues are discussed on these forums, it appears that uni-based = fully funded, FSPS = self-pay. But there are some uni-based programs where funding varies within cohorts, where some folks are fully funded and others aren't, or some folks are fully funded for part but not all of the program. I know a psych student who has to hump it up by simultaneously working two 25% TAships in other departments in order to cover tuition, and s/he was one of the top funded folks in her/his program.
 
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