Teaching Assistant vs Graduate Assistantship/NIH NRSA Support/NSF Predoc Fellowship?
Depending on the grant situation, I support two levels of graduate research assistantships. One level is equivalent to the 9 month TA salary scale for graduate students. The second level is via self-secured grants such as the NIH Individual NRSA, NSF, and Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellowships. All graduate students in the laboratory will be expected to apply for these awards as part of their training in grantsmanship. The amounts of the various awards vary. For example, the established NIH NRSA stipend has a $3,000 allowance for a predoctoral award. My policy in the past for NRSA postdoctoal Awardees has been to expect one-half of the allowance to be used for laboratory expenses. This is justified in that the actual cost of the trainee’s research far exceeds that amount and so the remainder is borne by my research grants. That leaves $1,500 to be used for insurance and whatever else the investigator wished. NIH NRSA predoctoral fellows have total control of the $3,000 allowance which c
