Living in College Park

Most students live off-campus in an apartment or a house, typically with other roommates (usually to save money, though it is sometimes possible to live by yourself). Incoming students usually find housing via Slack, email list advertisement from current physics students looking to fill rooms, Facebook, Craigslist, and the Off-Campus Housing Database. 

Some things to consider when choosing housing are

• Cost: What is the monthly rent plus utilities? Typical rent around UMD runs $600-$900/month (with roommates), but living in DC is more expensive, at $1000-$1500/month. 

• Amenities: Does it have an in-unit washer/drier? A dishwasher? Will you have to share a bathroom?

• Size: How many people will you be living with (it is typical to live with 1-4 other roommates)? Do you have enough room for your living style? 

• Culture: What are the other people in the house like? Are they students (graduate or undergraduate) or working adults? Do they mostly keep to themselves or like to hang out? 

• Location: Is there a grocery store nearby? How will you get to campus (is it on a bus line/bike path)?

There are many places to furnish your house. Terrapin Trader offers cheap goods that have been "retired" by the university. Craiglist, Facebook Marketplace, and neighborhood listservs are also great options to find free and cheap items that would otherwise go to a landfill. For new items, there is an IKEA just north of campus. 

Besides walking, there are tons of different ways of getting to campus from most of the neighborhoods near the University. 

• Bike Path: Many students find it convenient to bike to campus and use the rather extensive bike path. [More info to come]. Students can purchase used bikes on Craigslist, from graduating students, and at stores such as College Park Bikes or Proteus (College Park Bikes carries many different kinds of new and used bikes, but Proteus mostly only carries higher-end pieces that will likely be overkill for commuting). 

• Car: Parking permits can be purchased through UMD's Department of Transportation Services (DOTS) website. There are three kinds of permits available to students: 

  • Commuter: For students who live off campus and would like to park on campus during the day. These permits have restrictions that prohibit parking 3 am - 5 am Monday through Friday. 

  • Resident: For students who live on campus. Students with these permits can park 24/7. Unfortunately, these permits are not available for students living in Graduate Hills & Gardens.

  • Overnight Storage: For students who live off campus and would like to park on campus at any time. These permits are similar to the Commuter permit, but do not have any time restrictions.

Parking registration for the academic year opens in July and permits are first-come-first-serve so it's recommended you register as soon as possible. An annual permit is the most cost effective option, however permits can also be purchased for a single semester. If you're being paid through the university, you can either pay for your permit all at once or have the cost deducted from your pay check over 20 pay periods .

The university uses a digital permit system based on your license plate.

• Bus: There are two major bus services to campus.

  • The Shuttle-UM buses (run by UMD): The most convenient because they're free with a UMD ID. Recently they added a number of maps on this page so you can see whether any buses stop near you, including a number of farther-flung local commuter routes; see this link for schedules. The longer routes run about once an hour typically from 7 AM to 9 PM with some gaps, while the shorter routes (like the 104 to and from the College Park metro station) run every 10-15 minutes. Be sure to check the Transit app to track UMD buses. Many of these buses don't run on the weekends.

  • The DC area buses (run by WMATA): C2, C8, and F6 lines run in front of Regents Drive Garage, the stop right across from PSC/Atlantic and just northwest of Toll. The C2 runs every ~15 minutes from Greenbelt all the way to Wheaton; the C8 runs every ~20 minutes from North Bethesda to College Park metro station; and the F6 runs every ~1 hour from Fort Totten metro station to New Carrollton metro station. Fares are $2 per ride, which you can pay with cash or a SmarTrip card (enabling the Auto Reload feature is recommended). You can use the Transit app to see arrival times as well as check the WMATA website. They run independent of UMD holidays, including running in the summer, but have their own holiday schedules where some buses will run on reduced service. Some buses don't run on the weekends, but most do with slightly reduced service.

• Metro: Those choosing to live in DC (and who do not want to drive/pay for parking) will likely have to metro in. One will have to take the yellow/green line to the College Park metro station and then either walk (~30 min), bike (~15 min), or take the UMD bus (the 104 goes right across from the PSC/Atlantic building and takes ~10 min) in. 

Websites: Where to Go If You Want To See...

• Pay stubs: https://phr.umd.edu/phrtimeentrymenu/menu

• Your student fees or student account: https://billpay.umd.edu/

• Insurance benefits: see your insurance card, or for the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) see https://health.umd.edu/insurance-billing/SHIP

• Insurance rates: https://health.umd.edu/insurance-billing/SHIP for the Student Health Insurance Plan, or https://uhr.umd.edu/benefits/ for private insurers

• Mandatory fees: the "Graduate Student Fees" section of https://billpay.umd.edu/GraduateTuition 

• State of Maryland tax rates: Maryland Comptroller's office maintains https://www.marylandtaxes.gov/individual/income/tax-info/tax-rates.php 

• Federal tax rates: honest advice is to draw a pentagram on the floor, summon a demon spawn, and have it Google something like "federal tax brackets irs" and look at the results

Contacts: Where to Go If You Have Questions About...

• Your salary or payroll: Physics Payroll Coordinator Dannielle Watkins, dwatkin2@umd.edu or (301) 405-6182

• Your student account and fees: Student Financial Services at billtalk@umd.edu or (301) 314-9000

We wish we could easily and clearly tell you what you will be paid. But hopefully one of the sentences below applies to you. The following is pre-tax. If you take away about a quarter of the salaries below you'll have a half-decent idea of your take-home pay.

First-years

Most first-year students will get paid $36,526 for the year. This will usually come in the form of a 9.5-month academic year appointment of $25,002 plus a summer appointment of $6,524, together with a $5,000 Dean's Fellowship that comes all at once at the beginning of the year. A few first-years who have RAs may be put on a 12-month appointment at $31,526, but other RAs will have the structure above, dependent on arrangements with your research advisor. Half-TA/half-RA appointments will also be on the academic-year/summer salary structure, not a 12-month appointment.

From year to year, Dean's Fellowship funds vary, so students who come in later may not have Dean's Fellowship funds offered to them. 

At least one grad student we know of was admitted later (off the waitlist), asked the department for more money while still deciding, and was given a Dean's Fellowship they were not initially offered. So definitely ask!!

After your first year, for salary purposes you're either a pre-candidate or a candidate.

Pre-candidates

After your first year, you no longer have the Dean's Fellowship. If you have an RA, they will make up the difference, but a TA-ship will not make up the difference. 

• Pre-candidate TA: 9.5-month academic year appointment at $25,002 plus summer appointment at $6,524 = $31,526.

• Pre-candidate RA: Usually 12-month appointment at $36,526.

This means you get paid less if you're still TAing in your second year. The department sees this as an incentive to start research sooner and make progress toward your degree... that is certainly a way of looking at it.

Candidates

Once you've achieved candidacy, you will be paid $37,471. If you're an RA this will usually be a 12-month appointment with this amount. If you TA you will still get paid this amount, but split into a 9.5-month appointment of $29,030 and a summer appointment of $8,441. Note that this is significantly more money per paycheck in the summer. Half-TA/half-RA appointments will also be on the academic-year/summer salary structure, not a 12-month appointment.

Fellowships

All of the above is true if you don't have an external fellowship. If you do have an external fellowship, how much and how often you get paid is determined entirely by the arrangement between the awarding organization and UMD. For instance:

• NSF GRF: You get paid through your Student Account, not payroll, once a month. Look out for emails from the NSF Coordinating Officer, who as of 2022 was Patricia Woodwell (paw@umd.edu).

  • Many first-years still get the Dean's Fellowship on top of the NSF, so if you win the NSF as an undergrad senior, you may get paid up to $39,000 in your first year.

  • At UMD, half-TA appointments are allowed under the NSF, and you'll get paid for this service on top of the $34,000 stipend. Contact the Coordinating Officer for more information. For half-RAs, as of 2024 we know at least one person who has had a half-RA on top of their NSF GRF, which was set up by the Grad Chair. This seems to be the policy of the Graduate School, not just the Physics department. 

• DOE fellowship: You get paid directly from the DOE, not payroll or your Student Account, once a month.

Even though grad student appointments in physics almost always include tuition remission, there will still be some mandatory fees you have to pay each semester.  The "Graduate Student Fees" section of this page describes what these fees are (note: most grad students are in 1-8 credits, so they'll be paying the smaller of the totals in this table). These fees will appear as a lump sum "Mandatory Fees" charge in your student account. It's typically a few hundred dollars, due near the beginning each semester. In 2022 it was $312.50, for example.

All grad students are required to have at least some health insurance. This is a UMD Graduate School requirement and a broader legal one.

The American healthcare system is... challenging. One resource we have found to be a helpful introduction is this YouTube video from Brian David Gilbert.

What Should I Pick?

You have a few broad types of choices for health insurance as a grad student: 

1. Enrolling in the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP);

2. Enrolling in health benefits through the State of Maryland, which gives you a few different options, such as Kaiser, BlueCross BlueShield, and UnitedHealthcare (usually not available to students on external fellowships);

3. Remaining as a dependent on your parents' insurance plan until you turn 26 (if you're a domestic student);

4. Obtaining open marketplace insurance through the Affordable Care Act, though there may be some significant downsides (check out healthcare.gov, specifically this page for more information on this option).

You may wish to talk to older grad students about which insurance to pick.

When Can I Enroll?

All insurance plans have specific time periods each year which are the only times you can enroll or change your coverage (outside of limited "qualifying events").

For the Student Health Insurance Plan, the enrollment periods are listed on this page, and is typically a 1-2 month period in August and September.

For private insurers, the University of Maryland System has an open enrollment period which is the only period for the entire year that you can enroll in these plans or make changes to your coverage. This period is typically about a month long in October-November. See this page for rates and details on the enrollment period dates each year.

Be aware that there are special Qualifying Life Events, or QLEs, that may allow you to enroll outside of standard times. See here for some basic examples. One notable case is if you are a dependent on your parents' insurance, turning 26 is typically a QLE that allows you to enroll in your own policy (though make sure to check on your specific case well before you turn 26 so that you do not lose your coverage!). 

Tips for Fellowship Recipients

If you're on an external fellowship and not being paid by UMD, you may qualify to be reimbursed for the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP). Talk to the coordinating officer for your fellowship about the details of this. If you need to fill out a SHIP Waiver (to be reimbursed), find it at the link above.

Disclaimer: Tax laws for graduate students can be ambiguous and difficult. The following comes from the different experiences of graduate students and plenty of searching online, but it should all be confirmed with your tax preparer and not taken as legal tax advice from anybody. In other words, we can't tell you what to do, but we can tell you that it would be a very good idea to talk to other grad students or a tax prep service.

UMD has a partnership with TerpTax to provide free tax services to UMD grad students. Check out their website and also consider booking an appointment with them.

Please also note that taxes are even sketchier for non-US citizens than listed here.

How Much Should I Expect To Pay?

Definitely can't answer that question legally. However, you can try to search for information on your tax bracket and the corresponding tax rates.

• For the state and local taxes, the State of Maryland makes it easy: the Comptroller maintains this page

• For the federal taxes, honest advice is to take a hallucinogenic drug and then ask the purple elephants you see to Google something like "federal tax rates irs" and tell you the results (... obviously, don't do drugs, kids, stay in school, but yeah, the IRS sucks)

Filing Tax Returns

Free web software like TurboTax and H&R Block can help you file your tax return by giving you (usually) simple questions to answer and filling in the information for you, then filing both your state and federal tax returns for you. 

For filing the return, you may want some subset of the following forms:

• W-2, which will have your income and tax data. Your W-2 will come early in the year in the mail, but you can also retrieve it electronically from Maryland's Paryoll Online Service Center. (This takes some time to access as they manually set up your account for you and you need your W-number... so plan accordingly.)

• 1098-T, which will have your tuition remission and any grants and fellowships (including the Dean's Fellowship). You can find this form from Student Accounts here.

• 1099-B, 1099-DIV, 1099-INT, 1099-R, for the income from any investment accounts including IRAs. These come from the company with which you hold the account, like your bank, Fidelity, etc. often at the end of January.

Tips for Fellowship Recipients

Some large external fellowships (notably the NSF GRF and the DOE) don't automatically take taxes out when they pay you. So:

• When tax return time comes, your fellowship income is often included on your 1098-T.

• You might have to pay estimated taxes quarterly (every 3 months) both to the federal government and to the State of Maryland. The deadlines are usually around January 15th, April 15th, July 15th, and October 15th; check both the federal and state deadlines. Pay the federal ones here and the state ones here. Keep the receipts for claiming on your tax returns later. If you don't pay on time, you'll get charged a late fee when you go to file your tax returns. 

• Your income might not be "earned income," so you legally might not be able to contribute to IRAs, for example.

There are three airports in the DMV area that most students will use.

• Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA): Accessible from College Park metro, directly via yellow line or indirectly via green → blue lines. It typically takes about 45 minutes once you get onto the train. Good for American Airlines, some Frontier and Southwest cheaper flights. 

• Baltimore-Washington International (BWI): A bit less accessible than DCA, but you can take the UMD 126 bus or the WMATA F6 bus to get to New Carrollton station, then take a MARC train up to near BWI, and finally take a frequent shuttle to BWI itself. The whole trip takes about 1 hr - 1 hr 15 min. BWI is a Southwest hub, but offers many other options. 

• Dulles International Airport (IAD): Hardest to access. Possible via public transportation, but takes ~90 minutes. Best option for most international travel.

See this helpful page from UMD on how to access each of these airports (and much more). The information is under the "Local Airports" section. 

There are a number of grocery stores in the area where students can do their shopping.

• Lidl: On the cheaper side and right near campus. Has most standard items, but not many "exciting" vegetables, sauces, canned goods, etc.

• Whole Foods: Just past the southern end of campus in the Riverdale Park shopping mall. Typically a bit more expensive, but has some higher end ingredients that are harder to find elsewhere.

• Mom's Organic: Also upscale but with more gluten free, vegan, vegetarian items. 

• Trader Joe's: On the southern end of campus. Mid-tier in terms of price, but with a lot of seasonal goods and "Trader Joe's brand" items. 

• Giant: Standard large grocery store. A few locations around campus, but not as walkable. 

• Safeway: On Adelphi. Also a more standard large grocery store. 

• Costco: A few miles north of campus on Route 1. Great for buying in bulk for cheap. Also has some home goods and other equipment. You have to have a membership to shop there, but you can think about whether the cost of the membership ($60 a year) is worth the savings by buying in bulk, especially if you live in a house with several others who might share the membership cost with you.

There are a lot of options for fast casual (Chipotle, Cava, Blaze, etc.), but there are also a number of sit-down, local restaurants that are worth checking out!

• Shagga Cafe: Ethiopian food south of campus on Route 1 in Hyattsville

•  The Jerk Pit: Jamaican food north of campus on Route 1.

• Jumbo Jumbo Cafe: Taiwanese food and bubble tea on the west side of campus.

• Northwest Chinese: Chinese food (specializing in hand-cut noodles and Rou Jia Mo)

• Board and Brew: A standard. On the east side of campus along Route 1. Offers board games to play while you eat (typically $5/person/meal, but some deals). 

• Taquería Habanero: Another classic, just across from campus along Route 1. They have exotic taco fillings (octopus, grasshopper, goat) for the more adventurous. We asked why it's only "99% authentic" Mexican food and they said it's because they're not in Mexico.

Of course, one can also go into D.C. to eat. There are too many great options to list here, but check with current students to hear their favorite places!

The University of Maryland has a campus pantry with food available for free for students and staff (grad students are usually both!).  The pantry is located on the ground floor of the South Campus Dining building, 7093 Preinkert Drive, Campus Drive, College Park, MD 20742. It is open 9-5 M-F.

It is also possible to take the 127 UMD shuttle to the College Park Community Food Bank which distributes food for free every Saturday at 9:30 am and is located at College Park Church of the Nazarene, 9704 Rhode Island Ave, College Park, MD‎. Note, the pantry is located at the church but is not affiliated with the organization.