SLIM STIPEND INCREASE?
In addition to maintaining the current size of GSAS, the letter guarantees that graduate students will receive a 3 percent increase to their current stipends.
Facing a tighter budget last spring, the graduate unit of FAS enrolled 10 percent fewer students than in previous years, according to GSAS Dean Allan M. Brandt.
But Brandt said that the increase in stipends will help reassure current and prospective students about the financial state of the graduate school. “The rise in stipends will...make Harvard very competitive in our efforts to recruit the most talented students,” Brandt wrote in an e-mail to the Crimson.
An economics graduate student who asked to remain anonymous said that a 3 percent increase in his stipend would translate into an extra $600. He said that the additional support will help with groceries, but he was less confident in its ability to draw new students.
“Six-hundred bucks wouldn’t convince anyone to go to Harvard,” he said.
—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Elyssa A.L. Spitzer can be reached at spitzer@fas.harvard.edu.