Question About Fellowships/Stipends in Grad School

[camcool21]

I am under the impression that if you are accepted to a graduate school (PhD) with funding, you receive a stipend.

I am planning on applying for as many fellowships as I can that are similar to these:
http://scgf.orau.gov/benefits.html
http://www.krellinst.org/csgf/
http://www.nsfgrfp.org/

If I am granted a fellowship similar to these will I still receive a stipend from my school, or will I only get the fellowship? Does it depend on the school?

 

[ParticleGrl]

Generally, schools have rules about not getting double-funding. This means an outside fellowship will mean giving up your internal funding. It also usually means you can't hold two outside fellowships at the same time.

 

[camcool21]

Thank you for the speedy reply ParticleGrl. I'm trying to decide whether or not to pursue a PhD, and obviously money is a big factor. It is too bad that you have to practically be in poverty to get a PhD.

 

[Choppy]

In my experience, graduate schools tend to "top up" people who come in with external funding. If you come in with a full scholarship they award you a bonus stipend. It's not quite a double whammy, but it's better than nothing. This might be a Canadian thing though.

 

[Geezer]

Generally, schools have rules about not getting double-funding. This means an outside fellowship will mean giving up your internal funding. It also usually means you can't hold two outside fellowships at the same time.

This.

I have an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. The university and department pay the difference between the school tuition and the amount the NSF pays towards tuition ($10,500/year if I recall), but that's all the department contributes to my education and expenses. I don't get a stipend or other monies from the university or department. However, the fellowship does pay $30K/year, which is more than most TAs or RAs in my department make, so it's not like I'm suffering or anything by not getting departmental money.

The real bonus with outside fellowships is that you don't have to TA. That might not sound like a big deal when you're an undergrad, but when you're an extremely busy grad student trying to stay on top of course work, research, and studying for qualifying exams, not having to TA is very, very nice.