Fellowships, scholarships and paying for grad school

TalentEgg Incubator. 7 September 2010.

The good thing about grad school: you take fewer courses and fewer years to complete your degree.

The bad (bad, bad) thing about grad school: your tuition per course is more than for undergrad classes, so grad school can still be just as expensive or even more so than a bachelor’s degree.

The good thing about it being more expensive (if anyone in their right mind would consider it a good thing!) is there are more ways for graduate students to pay for their education.

Scholarships, fellowships, research assistantships, teaching assistantships, as well as provincial and national awards can all help pay the bills.

Scholarships, fellowships, research assistantships, teaching assistantships, as well as provincial and national awards can all help pay the bills.

Scholarships

Graduate scholarships are similar to undergrad scholarships in that they are based primarily on academic merit and often awarded based on need. There is no one way to obtain scholarships: some require applications while others are awarded by the university or specific departments.

Research assistantships

Research assistantships are awarded to students based on academic merit and begin as soon as the student starts their studies at a school. A research assistant (RA) helps a supervising professor to complete their professional research. As a result, the money granted through an RA-ship is actually from their supervisor’s funding partner (body), and not the school itself.

Students completing an RA-ship work a certain number of hours per week, for which they are paid an hourly wage.

Teaching assistantships

All undergraduate students have encountered at least one TA during the course of their studies, and as a result have a fairly good idea of what a teaching assistantship may require. The majority of TAs lead labs or tutorials, mark student assignments, labs, tests and papers, maintain office hours and help get materials ready for classes.

There are also marking TAs who have no interaction with students and only mark the papers, assignments and tests of students. TAs are allotted a certain number of hours and get paid an hourly wage for the hours they work.

Fellowships

There are two kinds of fellowships, portable fellowships and institutional fellowships:

Portable fellowships can be used by students at any institution they choose, and are often called external fellowships, since funding normally comes from outside organizations.

Institutional fellowships, on the other hand, are granted by an academic institution for study at that school, and are sometimes restrictive to the program being studied, as well as the subject manner.

Provincial and national awards

Students thinking about applying to graduate school often don’t apply for provincial or national awards since they typically require in-depth applications that are incredibly competitive. Nevertheless, they can provide excellent sources of funding during the course of your graduate degree.

Some provinces that offer graduate programs at their university offer awards to students studying in that province, such as the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, or the Pacific Centry Graduate Scholarship.

National programs include NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR. Awards from these organizations can also granted to post-doctoral fellows and tenured faculty.

The bottom line

All of the funding options listed above are competitive in nature. Your grades, extra curricular activities, research statement, and prior work in academia may be considered when you apply for these positions and awards.

There is a good possibility that you won’t get any funding help, so if that happens, how do you plan on paying for grad school?

Inexpensive kitchen gadgets that will save you lots of money

February 5 2010. Launch Magazine.

Gen Y is by far the most technologically savvy generation to reach adulthood: we grew up playing Nintendo (and all its incarnations), had computers, taught ourselves to use the Internet, and have had a cell phone or two.

We are also part of the generation always looking out for the newest gadget and gizmo to make our lives easier or possibly more entertaining. However, many of us students and young grads don’t recognize that there are certain devices we should own before spending our sparse resources on that next gadget.

I admit that their functionality is limited and they’re not exactly sleek or very pretty. They’re not portable, either. But they’ll save you lots of money in the end. You can find them in a kitchen.

Give up?

Coffeemaker

I seem to be one of only a few friends with a coffeemaker and I don’t understand why. If you drink one cup of coffee a day and buy it from outside your home, the cost over time really adds up.

Let’s say you buy one $1.50 coffee Monday to Friday every week of the year. Each week you spend $7.50 on coffee and in a year that amounts to $390! And that is for one very cheap cup of coffee! If you go to premium coffee shops or buy more than one cup each day that number increases exponentially.

You can buy a coffeemaker for one person (less than six cups) for around $50 or a larger one for a little less than $100. A large canister of coffee can be bought for around $5 if it is on sale, and that canister can make you around 100 cups of coffee. All you need to get are some coffee filters (less than $3 a package) and a travel mug (like my amazing one with the caffeine symbol on it), and you’re good to go!

Slow Cooker

More popularly known as a Crock Pot, a slow cooker is used to cook dishes at a low temperature for long periods of time.

Some common things you can make are soups, stews and chili, but the possibilities are endless. They allow you to toss a bunch of items in before you leave for the day, and when you get home your dinner is ready! It is also economical because if you eat meat, you can buy lower-quality cuts and still have something that tastes really good.

The best part about them (and arguably my favourite thing): they reduce the amount of dishes you have to wash! Slow cookers can cost as little as $20 to over $100 depending on size, brand and where you are shopping.

If you still have that thermos you had from when you were a kid, you can bring in whatever you made the night before for lunch and save money that way, too. If you don’t still have your My Little Pony Thermos kicking around somewhere, water bottle company Sigg makes some really nice but expensive ones, or you could check out places like Walmart and Canadian Tire for cheaper options.

Beans give you the healthiest bang for your buck

November 4 2009. Launch Magazine.

There are many reasons why one may choose to adopt the vegetarian lifestyle, but vegetarians primarily focus on religious beliefs, ethical grounds and/or dietary reasons when they opt to go veg.

As for myself, I am a semi-vegetarian because eating some kinds of meat now literally makes me ill due to an intestinal infection I had several years ago.

The meat I consume now is poultry or some kind of fish, in addition to substitutes made from soy. I am a little bit of a weenie though – I don’t prepare uncooked meat because the thought of it grosses me out.

Quite often, however, people don’t recognize going vegetarian once a week (or more!) can save them quite a bit of cash. The best way to do this? Eating beans and other legumes to get the protein you need.

If you think about it from an economic standpoint, “growing” meat costs money. The animals need to be housed, fed, transported and inoculated. Depending on what those animals eat , all these processes could contribute to meat’s higher cost.

Of course, vegetable crops also need to be fed, harvested and transported, but the costs involved are much smaller than those for meat. The difference is ultimately reflected in the prices they sell for in the store or supermarket.

Looking at my local grocery store’s flyer for this week (utilizing flyers is another way to shop frugally), I found the sale price for one pound of boneless stewing beef is $3.99, one pound of boneless chicken breast is $4.99, and a pound of pork loin chops with bones is $1.49.

In comparison, a 540 gram can of beans at the regular price costs around a dollar. There are approximately 454 grams in a pound, so if you were to compare costs relatively, a pound of beans costs you 84 cents. If you buy dried beans in larger quantities (1-5 lb bags), they cost even less than beans in the can ($2-3), but they do take longer to cook.

Beans are one of the best foods you can consume in terms of nutritional value. They are low in calories, high in fibre and protein, and full of all kinds of other nutrients and vitamins. Beans are also believed to regulate blood sugar, reduce cholesterol, and prevent cancer as well as heart disease. Due to the fact that they are inexpensive and so nutritionally sound, they are a staple food item all over the world.

Of course, not everyone likes the taste of beans, but there are some easy ways to add them into your diet in smaller amounts until you get used to the flavour. Even substituting half or a quarter of the meat you eat with beans can save you quite a bit of money over the course of the year.

If you’re not sure where to start in terms of recipes with beans, there are tons for you to peruse on the internet, and for free. There are even recipes for brownies with beans in them (I haven’t had time to test those yet though)!

And to make beans even more fun to eat, there is that little rhyme we’ve all known since childhood…

Why I walked away from a job opportunity

Why I walked away from a job opportunity

This is the first year in a few that I do not have a job for the school year, and am not involved in any way in Welcome Week (McMaster’s orientation/frosh week). But I happen to have McMaster’s campus events co-ordinator on Facebook, and in my news feed it showed up that a company she knows of was hiring a promotion team for a few days during Welcome Week.

It also turns out that I somehow managed to get both Thursdays and Fridays off for first semester this year (long weekend every weekend woohoo!). In my head, I thought “Hey, this could be a good way to make some extra money before school, and maybe turn into something a bit more permanent during the year.” So I emailed the contact person asking what sort of information they wanted from me, hoping for a quick response.

Shortly afterwards, I got a reply. They told me to send the sort of things I was expecting:

• Resumé
• Contact info
• Time available for a phone interview
• Availability during the school year

But there was another item on the list that really threw me off. I was required to submit a head shot. But I didn’t feel comfortable applying for a job where part of the basis for me being hired was my physical appearance.

This position instantly reminded me of the scantily-clad girls at sporting events and concerts handing out swag, samples or coupons. That is something I could never see myself doing. I do not ever want to feel like I’m using my body to sell a product – it would make me feel I had abandoned my values.

I’m not necessarily insulting my physical appearance here, but I feel that my ability to work for an organization should have nothing to do with what I look like, but the skills I possess. I have developed lots of skills that would be useful for doing promotions because I’ve previously done some niche marketing work.

Now, I’m not saying that the people who do this kind of work are knowingly using their physical appearance to sell products. Money is money and sometimes jobs in your field of interest can be hard to get, especially without a degree to back it up. I’m just saying it’s not for me because I feel it compromises my values.

Part of me still wonders if I should have gone through the application process. Maybe I’m making everything seem worse off than it is. I don’t know how likely it would have been for me to be walking around campus in booty shorts and a halter top hawking a product – as well as part of myself – to passers-by.

What I do know, however, is that having a bit more extra spending money right now would be useful.

How to make extra money by “moonlighting”

"How to make extra money by “moonlighting”", August 27 2009

As students, we’d all like to have a bit more money. Some of us work in the summer months and/or during the school year and this is still not always enough.

What do you do if you need a little more cash to get you through the month?

If you’ve already cut all your unnecessary expenses, it might be time to try moonlighting: taking a second (or third) job that is often paid “under the table” – meaning the employer pays you in cash and, more often than not, the income is not submitted at tax time.

Catering staff

Catering companies work primarily on evenings and weekends, which is optimal for most students. If you are involved in food prep, it’s a good way for you to get more familiar with cooking. If you’re serving, you’ll get some customer service experience. The pay is usually pretty good too.

Teaching or tutoring

High school students, as well as students in your school, may not be as proficient as you are in your studies. If you have an aptitude for certain subjects, why not tutor other students for a fee? This is a great way for you to gain some teaching experience if you are considering teacher’s college for the future. You can also edit people’s essays and papers for a fee, either a flat rate per piece or on a per word/per page basis.

Cleaning

Nobody likes to clean up after themselves and, in many cases, people will pay good money to have their homes cleaned for them. This often include cleaning houses or doing maintenance outdoors. All you need are some cleaning supplies and transportation, and you’re set.

Trials and experiments

I’m not necessarily advocating participating in drug trials, but there are several different ways you can participate in trials and earn some extra money. Many campuses pay students for participating in kinesiology and psychology studies. Marketing focus groups often pay good money for helping them get customer feedback on their products as well – sometimes $50 or $100 for a few minutes of eating chocolate bars or drinking beer. Watch out for advertisements on poster boards around campus to see what you can find.

Food Deliveries

Many restaurants will deliver to customers for a fee. As a driver, you will usually get paid an hourly wage as well as make money from tips. As long as you have a car, this is a way to make some easy cash.

Pets

Just like people don’t like cleaning up after themselves, they also don’t particularly enjoy cleaning up after their animals. Busy pet owners will pay for a “professional” pooper-scooper to come clean up after their dogs. You may want to offer your dog-walking services for people who can’t let their animals out during the middle of the day. You can also give pet sitting a try for people who go away on business for the weekend or on a vacation.

Paper delivery

This may have been a job you had when you were a kid, but there are always ads for these positions in the paper. This is a good way for you to get some exercise as you can complete your route through riding a bike or rollerblading. However, you need to be able to wake up pretty early in the morning if you are delivering a large daily paper!

Of course there are tons of other possibilities out there for you if you are looking to make a little bit of extra money on the side. Regardless of what skills you are advertising for hire, remember to use the resources around you to put yourself out there and to get hired. Even if you’re not making a huge amount of money, take what you learn from these jobs with you the next time you are looking for work. You never know what skills and connections this experience can give you!

Entry-level living: New grads need a new budget

"Entry-level living: New grads need a new budget", July 23 2009

Your first new grad job will be a completely new experience for you: new responsibilities, wardrobe, hours and expectations. You will also be getting your first (or one of your first) series of substantial pay cheques that will help you into the next stage in your life.

Many recent graduates don’t know how to set a proper budget when they start their first job and this can be a problem for a couple of reasons. First, it can contribute to frivolous spending habits later in life, and second, it can prevent you from getting a good jump on saving for the rest of your life. Since you have a fresh start, this is when you should be utilizing your pay to the best of your ability.

To create a budget, make a series of lists:

• list the money you owe from student loans and/or credit card debt
• list your expenses for one month (including rent, clothing, transportation, food, utilities, entertainment and gifts)
• list the income you expect in a month

From these three lists you are going to make your monthly budget.

Don’t forget that a portion of your pay cheque will be deducted for taxes and employment insurance (unemployment), but it’s possible there will also be deductions for health benefits, retirement plan contributions and union dues depending on your employer. Your budget should take those deductions into account and only include your net pay, not your gross pay.

For entry-level employees, a suggested spending guideline based as a percentage of your pay is as follows:

• 30% housing
• 10% utilities
• 10% food (both takeout and restaurant and well as groceries)
• 15% transportation (car loan, and/or public transit passes)
• 10% repaying debt (student loans and credit cards)
• 10% savings
• 5% clothing
• 5% entertainment
• 5% for car insurance and miscellaneous other expenses

These expenses can be variable, however. For example, if you’re living at home and paying nominal rent you don’t need to put all 30% toward housing – you can put more of that toward debt repayment or savings. At the same time, if you’ve recently bought an expensive car you may need to re-configure how much money is in your budget since a large portion will be paying for your new vehicle.

Ideally, you should have some of your budgeted money left over each month, and you should try to save as much of that as you can. This money can either be used for emergency purposes, to start a nest egg for retirement, or for a rainy day, which will put you in the habit for saving for your future.

The key to saving money (although this seems really obvious) is for you to spend less money than you earn, and in order to do so you really need to keep track of what you are spending, when and why.

Once you have consolidated a budget, make sure you are keeping track of it properly. This should be done either via computer program (there are many you can purchase), online budgeting software such as Mint.com, Wesabe or moneyStrands (formerly Expensr), a self-created spreadsheet or in a notebook.

Although you may think you have a mind like a steel trap, you are likely to forget and it also helps you find out exactly how much you are spending – sometimes you won’t realize how often you really buy convenience food unless you are tracking it.

Hopefully if you keep these tactics in mind you will be able to start saving for the more expensive things than come across in adult life – like a house, a car or your retirement fund.

Free Money

"Free Money", May 2008

I think we all know the saying “money doesn’t grow on trees”. It’s the really annoying one that parents say to you when you ask for

money (or maybe that’s just mine?). Money isn’t exactly easy to come by for some people. Actually, it isn’t easy for most people to come by. Unless we’re lucky enough to have been born into obscene amounts of it, we need to work in order to make some. For various reasons, sometimes finding work is difficult.

Earlier, I wrote an article that talked about looking for employment during the summer. Not being able to work in the summer due to classes, or being unable to find work can be incredibly stressful for students. For some tips on finding work in the summer (or the lack thereof), check out The Summer Job Hunt: What to do If You Are Unsuccessful.

Aside from turning tricks in the corner somewhere downtown, there are very few options, especially if you do not wish to have something consistent or regular, due to school or vacations (lucky jerks! I wish I was going for a prolonged (i.e. more than 3 days) vacation this summer...).

But there is a way to earn some quick, easy cash if you’re in Hamilton. Be a lab rat! I don’t mean pump yourself full of random drugs to help a pharmaceutical company. Although I suppose if you were REALLY desperate for money you could do that...it does pay well after all. Anyways, getting back on track here...various departments and faculties within McMaster pay participants for participating in studies.

Most often the studies are from the Psychology and Kinesiology departments, but occasionally economics, marketing, and others have studies you can participate in. Some take only a few minutes while some occur over the course of days or even weeks. Payment can be $5 to upwards of $100 or more. Again, it all depends on the length of the study and how much money the researchers have available to pay their participants.

By now you may have gathered that the studies are put on by people doing research in these areas. Mostly they are for Master and PhD students, but occasionally you will end up interacting with professors or undergraduate students as well. It too depends on the study.

So how do you find out about these studies? Read the McMaster Daily News. It seems like there are new studies cropping up every few days, and are often mentioned several times over the course of a month. You will need to email whomever is running the study to see if you are eligible, but that is a small price to pay for what is essentially free money.

I’ve done a few studies myself over the years, and for what they expected from me the money was good...so I recommend you try and find some too!