I’m going to some American grad school for PhD in math in 2016. I heard from users in CC that it is usually true for students pursuing for PhD in math that scholarship and teaching assistant job cover the entire tuition and other expenses. I’d like to know about how much of living expenses such as housing and meals will be covered by them. I have to pay for the $40k of loan due to the tuition of my undergrad school. What should I do to earn the extra money? Should I do more TA? Or is there any other job offered by school?
Your university might limit the number of hours you can work at the U to 20 a week as a full-time student, but perhaps you could tutor math on the side and make more money. Do you need to start making payments for your undergrad loan or are they deferred while you are still in school?
Some grad students do live on their stipends, which might require having roommates and not spending a lot on expenses.
Thanks for your answer. Whether I will be required to do or not, I will live with somebody else to minimize the living cost. The loan is from my grandparents, so there’s no due or interest. I need to earn $40k until obtaining PhD, so I have plenty of time. I think tutoring math is better-paid than TA, and I hope it’s available to int’l student like me and not so time-consuming.
Officially, you can only work at the university as an international student since your F-1 restricts you. Tutoring is really not a viable option unless you are working illegally and if you don’t have a Teaching Assistantship, it is likely that you will not receive the tuition scholarship for graduate school. Sorry, I think your only legal option as an international student is employment at the university as a TA with your tuition covered plus a stipend.
It is always possible to live on the stipend you get from the TA position. It will be more or less depending on the location of the university but usually a full TA is enough to make it on and possibly even save some money. You can’t focus on only the total amount of stipend because you compensation also really includes the tuition that you do not have to pay.
Thanks for that information!
Can you ask your grandparents if you can defer repayment until you are done with the PhD program? Most educational loans allow you to defer repayment until you are out of school.
If you plan to attend in 2016, that means you haven’t applied yet. Most PhD programs pay a stipend of around $30K (give or take), which is probably enough for you to repay your loans if you are frugal otherwise. And in most cities that is enough to cover housing, food, and other living expenses while still putting a little on the loans. But most students defer repayment until after they finish.
I’m relieved to know that the stipend can cover all of the things you mentioned. I’m extremely frugal, and my grandparents told me that I can pay back the loan after getting PhD. Since I think I can also make money by summer research in my grad schoolq, I will be able to have enough money until getting PhD.