Comments on “The Financial Dilemma of Students Pursuing an Atmospheric Science Graduate Degree in the United States”

To adjust income to reflect these cost-of-living disparities, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) publishes regional price parities (RPPs), a metric of the differences in price levels across states and metropolitan areas for a given year, expressed as a percentage of the overall national price level. [...]using M&IE instead of following the established practice of using RPP to account for cost of living in a location can lead to inaccurate reports of the cost of living and mislead prospective students away from unique educational opportunities at Tier 1 research universities like UHM. Importantly, faculty at UHM and other universities have the option to offer more than the stipend stated in the paper for exceptional prospective students, in addition to scholarships and other financial aid options available. [...]we encourage students to communicate with faculty and departments directly to receive up-to-date accurate information before making the important decision of choosing their graduate school.