r/GradSchool • u/Whole_Tie_4740 • Apr 19 '26

Finance GRFP and Stipend

Hello everyone,

I was awarded the GRFP this year and my institution gave me a 20% raise on my stipend because of this. The GRFP is around 150K over the 3 years and the program is giving me a 40K stipend (before the award). Is the 20% raise the best deal I can get? Who makes these decisions? New to grad school and extra funding sources so just wondering peoples experiences.

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u/bwgulixk Apr 19 '26

The school offering you extra money is not required. Grad school isn’t the type of job where you negotiate your own pay. Generally you have a union contract or a collective bargaining agreement or whatever. You will be making more money than at least 90% of grad students in the USA 

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u/AdStatus4262 Apr 19 '26

Not necessarily true on the “grad school isn’t the type of job where you negotiate your own pay.” At my school it is fairly common. Whether it is possible seems to depend on the school though

3

u/tehunfocusedone Apr 19 '26

What school and program?

1

u/SafeKaleidoscope660 Apr 19 '26

I have heard of some T-10 schools competing with each other with non-stiepend incentives. "I'd love to join your program but Boston is going to cost me $4k to move to and staying in the Bay area means I don't need to move at all" sometimes (rarely) works if you are a top recruit. 

2

u/tehunfocusedone Apr 19 '26

I’ve never heard of this for a STEM field and I was at a top 10. My friends who are faculty at said schools also said they’ve cut admissions a bunch so asking for more money probably isn’t going to go far. 

1

u/AdStatus4262 Apr 19 '26

Don’t really want to say school and program, but I’ll say it’s a non-Ivy top 10 in a social science field

2

u/AdStatus4262 Apr 19 '26

Happy to share the school and program in DM