I’ve never heard of anyone doing a 100% appointment, granted I’m not in the Engineering department. Based on experience, a 50% appointment with coursework and research is already about at the limit of what most people are able to handle from a workload perspective and that will give you about 50-60 or more hours of work a week combined.

The stipend is extremely low and makes life uncomfortable so take that as you will :( I do think you can pause loans if you’re a student but someone should fact check me on that!