EPP
GRADUATE EDUCATION
Information and Frequently Asked Questions
Financial Support
Being
admitted to an excellent, but expensive graduate
school, such as Carnegie Mellon, is generally
only the first prerequisite for a student to enroll
and attend. Most students require and receive
some financial support to cover some or all of
their tuition, and many receive a stipend for
their living expenses.
- When
you have been "admitted with aid pending,"
we haven't determined as yet whether and how
much financial support we can provide you.
We will contact you later in the process with
a determination.
- If
you have been "admitted without aid,"
you will be responsible for paying your own
tuition (currently $34,000 per year, $17,000
per semester) and covering your own living
expenses (average for a single person in Pittsburgh,
$23,000 per year, for a couple with one child,
the cost would be approximately an additional
$10,000 per year). If you have
applied indicating that you have secured outside
funding already, e.g., from your company or
home county, then we may admit you "without
aid from the University, but with the recognition
that your government, company, etc., will
cover your tuition (and in some cases stipend,
though your government or company may elect
to pay your stipend to you directly, rather
than through the University)." If you
are a foreign student, we will require you
to provide documentation to prove that you
have the financial resources to cover your
tuition and living expenses prior to enrollment.
If we admit you without aid, don't come expecting
to get aid after a semester or two.
Come only if you can organize sufficient resources
to complete your graduate education.
- If
you are "admitted with full tuition and
stipend support," we will pay your tuition
and pay your stipend. Stipends for the
2006-2007 academic year will be $1,800 per
month for students entering with a BS, and
$1,825 per month for students entering with
a M.S. or relevant work experience.
Before you compare our stipend with offers
you receive from other programs, consider
the living expenses. Ours are relatively
low in Pittsburgh. Also, it's a stipend
to cover living expenses, not a salary indicative
of your intellectual, economic or spiritual
worth. You're worth more, but that's
not the purpose. If you decide to attend
CMU or anywhere else primarily because of
the amount of the stipend, you are probably
being shortsighted, but who are we to judge.
- If
you are "admitted with tuition support
only," we will pay your tuition, but you
will not receive a stipend. Foreign
applicants in this case are required to provide
documentation that they can cover their own
living expenses prior to enrollment.
In certain cases, we may offer "partial
tuition support," for example, covering
one half or two thirds of your tuition.
You are then responsible for the rest.
We may do this for students who we believe
are good enough to succeed in our program,
but for whom there are currently no available
sources of research support. In this
case, departmental funds (rather than outside
research funds) are used to support the student.
We usually expect such students to work actively
after they arrive with faculty writing proposals
for fellowships and research grants to cover
their tuition, and hopefully provide stipend
as well, for future years.
Where
does the money for financial support of tuition
and stipend come from?
As
indicated above, most graduate students in the
department are supported as research assistants
on projects for government agencies, foundations
or private industry. The budgets for these
projects include funds for graduate student
tuition and stipends, as well as other project
costs, such as a fraction of the salaries for
participating faculty, administrative and secretarial
support, computing, travel for meetings and
conferences, supplies and overhead. For
a summary of the current research activities
in the department, see the section of the web
page on Research.
A
few students are supported on teaching assistantships,
which generally cover both tuition and stipend.
The department has support for two TA's per semester
to help in the teaching of our undergraduate freshman
course, Introduction to Engineering & Public
Policy, and positions are occasionally available
for other courses as well. TA slots are
usually filled by more senior students; often
those for whom there is an interruption in available
research funding. TA positions are limited
to those with good English communication skills;
occasionally students seeking new or additional
teaching experience will ask to serve as a TA,
even when they already have research grant support
for their studies.
Students
with fellowship support, for example, from the
National Science Foundation, the US Department
of Energy, or a private foundation, usually have
their tuition paid directly by the fellowship
granting organization, with stipend also generally
funneled through the University to the student.
Particular arrangements for tuition and stipend
payment for students with their own outside support,
e.g., from their government or company, are made
on a case by case basis. The department
also has funds to support a small number of students
per year, though we generally like to restrict
these funds to tuition or partial tuition support
for new students, or to provide carry over (tuition
and/or stipend) for more senior students when
there has been an interruption or delay in outside
funding.
For
how long will my financial support be guaranteed?
Our
support letters generally stipulate support for
one year. So long as you remain in good
academic standing and continue to exert reasonable
effort and make reasonable progress on your research,
we consider it our responsibility to find a way
to support your continued studies. However,
we expect you to help us in this endeavor.
If outside research grant support does not materialize
as we had hoped, or if your grant is ending, we
will encourage, indeed expect you to apply for
available fellowships and to help us in the writing
of appropriate research proposals. If such
efforts are made by the student, but are unsuccessful,
we can usually find some other way to continue
your funding. For that matter, we also encourage
students with secure funding to apply for available
fellowships, since success in this effort can
free up project funds to support other students.
In short, we view the need to generate funds for
student support as a collective responsibility
and a team effort. You may also view your
role in this as good training for the real world
you will undoubtedly face after graduation, be
it in academia, industry, consulting or government
research and management.
What
about financial support and joint degrees?
If
you want to do a joint MS or Ph.D. with some other
department, the best kind of financial support
to have is a fellowship. If you are supported
on some EPP faculty member's research grant or
contract, you will need to discuss with them whether
the support can be used to cover the extra time
and course work needed to complete the non-EPP
part of the degree. Sometimes the courses
for the other degree fit into what you need to
do the research. But when they don't, there
may be problems, since research assistantships
support students to do specific research, not
to take extra courses.
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