ORSP Process for Budgeting for a Graduate Student

You will need to consider tuition, fees, stipend, F&A costs, and fiscal escalation.

Tuition

• Graduate tuition and fees are paid twice a year

• Graduate school pays if they are a TA
• PI pays through their grant or discretionary funds if they are an RA
  • Tuition and fees are charged if ID or designated fund accounts are used (as for internal grants like PRGs)
  • Tuition is not charged if start-up is used (fees are charged)
• Tuition and fees calculations are provided on this page.
  • The % of total tuition charged changes annually and differs if the grant is above or below $100K in MTDC costs per year 
  • MTDC = total direct costs less, equipment, graduate tuition, participant support costs, and the portion of each subaward in excess of $25,000
  • For proposals that request less than full-time stipend support, the RA’s % effort will be applied to the tuition request amount. For example, a 50% time RA would request 50% of our full-time graduate student tuition cost.

Fees

• Fees are paid by semester. Grants will cover the fees when a student is being supported as an RA. Effective July 1, 2026, these fees per student, per academic year are:

• Health Insurance $3,210
• Student Health Fee $624
• Technology Fee $150

Stipends

• Amount by program can be found here.
• Summer support (optional). If a faculty member wants to pay a graduate student as an RA for the summer months, they can supplement the stipend up to a maximum of 1/9 of the stipend per month for the 3 summer months (mid-May through mid-August) from grants or discretionary or start-up accounts. GCMs are responsible for entering student summer payments into Workday.
• Graduate student payment scheduling
  • Graduate student stipends are paid out so that 50% of the stipend is received in each academic semester. The Fall semester is July-December. The Spring semester is January-June except for new students. 
  • New Students: In the Fall of their first year, the student will be paid August through December.  Because the Fall stipend total is distributed over 5 months (August–December) and the Spring stipend total is distributed over 6 months (January–June), the Fall monthly payout amount will be higher than the Spring monthly payout. A student must be paid in full for each semester—receiving exactly 50% of their total stipend in the Fall and 50% in the Spring. Stipends are never prorated. See chart below.
    1. If multiple funding sources are needed for an RAship, they can follow two models:
       1. Simultaneous Funding: A student is split between two sources for the entire semester (for example, a 50% TA and 50% RA appointment).
       2. Mid-Semester Adjustments: A student starts the semester on one funding source (like a specific grant), but GSAS is later requested by the Program Director or GCM to transition them to a different source during the semester.
  • For continuing students, the Fall stipend is paid out July through December and the Spring stipend is paid out January through June.
  • For graduating students: the spring stipend will be paid January through May. 

Facilities and Administrative Costs

• F&A does not apply to graduate student tuition but does apply to their salary/stipend and fees

Fiscal escalation

• Unless otherwise restricted by the awarding funding agency, anticipate fiscal escalation of 4.5% for graduate student stipends and fees, with each subsequent year of the project.
• Please note total tuition is currently flat each year ($38,650) and the percent charged to the grant increases each year. Use the table here for tuition escalation.