Tution/ Conferences

[bloodyeuphoria]

I'm trying to figure out grad school finances (not applying until next year though) and have a question. Do you owe tuition every year you are in grad school (PhD) even when you are doing your research/ writing your dissertation or only for the first three years your doing coursework

Comments

[roseofjuly]

You ARE trying to get a favor out of them. But don't worry; they don't know that. Think about this -- the majority of social relations between humans is based on wanting to get something out of someone, whether that's more abstract (love, friendship) or something more concrete (money, admissions).

I used to wonder exactly what they wanted out of me too but do recognize that they're not giving you something for nothing. You DO have something to offer -- your intellect, point of view, and manpower. When you go to the school they're expecting you to work about 20 hours a week in someone's lab, helping them complete their research. I also have the vague idea that once you graduate successfully and go out in the field, they have a new contact and get some other kind of benefit from their tenure as your advisor. I told my advisor I want to be a program officer -- imagine what it's going to be like for him to submit a grant proposal to the CDC some day and I'm his program officer? (Program officers, among other things, decide who gets grant money).

So actually, no, don't let them forget that you are a student who stands to benefit from their interest. Just make sure that they know through your intellect and expertise (however limited) and interest in an area they stand to gain, too.

[flamingjune07]

I just don't buy a lot of this stuff. (First of all, I don't really believe that "relations are based on getting things" stuff entirely, at least not the way it's usually told -- I think that's a superficial view of it, but that's beside the point). Really, my intellect?? I think I'm smart and I think I have a lot of potential and am perhaps better read than your average bear, but a professor -- especially a professor of the kind of consequence that means undergrads from across the country will know who he is and try to suck up to him -- isn't exactly in a position where he has a dearth of "intellect" around and needs my help. I also surely hope that a professor isn't talking to me because of the chance that I might govern his grant money in the future. As far as I can tell, the reason most professors talk to undergrads like me is because they care about the health of the profession on the whole and want to make sure the next generation is a good one, and so it makes sense to meet with those who want to be next and try to encourage the ones with promise. So I guess I do have something to offer -- this vague "promise" thing. But that's what makes me so nervous -- if it really was my "intellect," I'd feel a lot more solid about it, since I think my intellect is pretty decent though. "Promise" is a lot sketchier.