How Do NMT Assistantships Compare With Those
From Other Universities?
We feel that our assistantships are quite
competitive with those from similar universities. Certainly there are
schools with higher stipends, but in making your comparisons we hope that you
will compare apples with apples.
Many universities provide students with an
assistantship stipend and then, in addition, pay the student's tuition each
semester. For reasons I won't go into here, New Mexico Tech (NMT) does not do
this. At NMT the stipend offer is increased by the amount of your resident
tuition and then you are asked to pay for your tuition out of this amount.
I agree that it seems silly to give money and then take it back, but for
the institute, there is a rationale behind it.
Q. How can I compare the NMT stipend offer
with those from other universities?
A. For the 2007-08 academic year, 9
month resident
tuition (Fall and Spring) is $3,700.44. This amount has been
added to the stipend offer made to admitted students. If you would like to compare this
offer with that of a university that pays your tuition separately, simply subtract
the tuition amount ($3,700) from the dollar amount of the offer NMT made to
you. For example, if we offered you a 9-month RA at the level of $17,212 this
leaves $13,512 in salary after covering tuition. A listing of minimum
stipend levels and tuition charges (including summer semesters) is available
online at http://infohost.nmt.edu/~grad/staff/stipends.pdf.
Keep in mind that tuition may well rise for 2008-09. If it does, your
assistantship will be increased by the amount of any tuition increase to
conform to the minimums for 2008-09.
Q. This means that the tuition will be counted
as earnings and taxable - right?
A. Yes it does, but if your
situation is typical of most domestic graduate students, including your tuition in the stipend should
not cost you more in taxes and may even result in less of a tax burden
depending on your overall tax liability. The Lifetime Learning credit (http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96273,00.html)
provides for a credit of up to $2,000 to be applied to the annual tax bill for
domestic students. In test cases conducted by our Graduate Student
Association, it appears that one is typically no worse off and in some cases, tax bills
are smaller than those where tuition is provided as a fringe benefit. Let me
be clear that you need not itemize your taxes to qualify for this credit.
Simply attach the Educational Credits Form 8863 to either Form 1040 or 1040A.
Q. But when is tuition due? Do I need to come
up with the entire amount at the beginning of the semester?
A. No. Students holding an assistantship
qualify for a Graduate Deferred Payment (GDP) plan. This is a contract that
distributes the cost of tuition over the entire semester. The effect
is that your pay each pay period is identical to that you would have received
if we had paid your tuition separately.
Q. How does the cost of living in Socorro
compare with other locations?
A. The cost of living index (based on six
components: utilities, grocery items, transportation, health care and
miscellaneous goods and services) for Socorro is calculated by one
source to be 84.6 (compared to 99.5 nationally). The economies of living in Socorro relate
primarily to the lower cost of housing. As a means of
comparison, the cost of living for the most and least expensive urban areas
are as follows:
Most
Expensive: First Quarter 2005
| Ranking |
Urban
Areas |
State |
Index |
| 1 |
Manhattan |
New York (NY) |
203.9 |
| 2 |
San Francisco |
California (CA) |
178.7 |
| 3 |
San Jose |
California (CA) |
167.2 |
| 4 |
Honolulu |
Hawaii (HI) |
156.9 |
| 5 |
Los Angeles - Long
Beach |
California (CA) |
153.7 |
| 6 |
Orange County |
California (CA) |
152.8 |
| 7 |
Oakland |
California (CA) |
150.7 |
| 8 |
Stamford |
Connecticut (CT) |
148.0 |
| 9 |
San Diego |
California (CA) |
146.9 |
| 10 |
Nassau County |
New York
( NY) |
144.1 |
Least
Expensive: First Quarter 2005
| Ranking |
Urban
Areas |
State |
Index |
| 1 |
McAlester |
Oklahoma
(OK) |
77.8 |
| 2 |
McAllen |
Texas
(TX) |
83.1 |
| 3 |
Salina |
Kansas
(KS) |
83.7 |
| 4 |
Conway |
Arkansas
(AR) |
84.0 |
| 5 |
Paris |
Texas
(TX) |
84.4 |
| 6 |
Joplin |
Missouri
(MO) |
84.4 |
| 7 |
Douglas |
Georgia
(GA) |
84.8 |
| 8 |
Clarksville |
Tennessee
(TN) |
85.0 |
| 9 |
Tupelo |
Mississippi
(MS) |
85.1 |
| 10 |
Jonesboro |
Arkansas
(AR) |
85.3 |
While important, the money paid in stipends is
only one of several factors (quality of faculty and facilities, research
opportunities, completion rates, time to degree, future employment potential, recreational
activities, location, etc.) related to selection of a graduate program and only
you can weigh these factors. The oversimplification that follows is
intended only to put the matter of stipend level into the context of the cost
of living index.
- If you receive an offer from Arkansas
State University in Jonesboro that is roughly equivalent to the offer from
NMT, you might regard the stipend factor as equivalent because
your dollar will go about as far in Jonesboro as in Socorro.
- If you have an offer from Stanford
University (San Jose, CA),
that offer will need to be more than twice the NMT offer to provide
comparable purchasing power.
Links
D. Johnson, Dean of Graduate Studies
12/21/07
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