Working conditions for U.S. grad students are basically something out of a Dickens novel (I’m from a humanities background, but this seems universal). I recently finished an M.A. and have been considering getting a PhD someday. Even if I got past the bad job prospects and necessary sacrifices, I absolutely cannot get a PhD right now — even though I would love to — as I am too poor, and I can’t (well, shouldn’t) take out more loans. And I don’t have family money or anything.
I’m not asking whether I should go to grad school despite everything. Rather I’m curious what folks think about the aggregate effects of grad student poverty/wealth stratification in academia writ large.
I mean, I know academia has always been a story of haves vs. have-nots, but my god. Just saw a program characterize its $20,000 stipend as “competitive.” have PhD stipends always been so low? I know it’s not the same as a salary and is a sort of apprenticeship pay rate, and maybe I’m naiive, but it kinda seems like a… crisis? Worse than ever? Are all PhD programs just slated to be full of trust fund kids? What are the long term impacts?
And has this always been such a hurdle? Not to call anyone out, but in your experience, are a lot of academics just… from rich backgrounds?
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20k stipend is not competitve when I looked at phd program just for funsies however times have changed and PIs and schools are getting less money and are adjusting for a 100% funding deficit.
20k is lower than anything I’ve seen, even from friends in the humanities. 30-40k was more typical.
But also yeah a bunch of people are just rich. Lots of people whose parents pay part of their rent or similar. Though also lots of people who have spouses in normal white collar jobs.
>Working conditions for U.S. grad students are basically something out of a Dickens novel
Tangent to the discussion, but during my PhD, I was working at the microscope late one night, listening to the David Copperfield audiobook. He described becoming a legal apprentice. He had to save up money to pay the firm for the privilege, then work insane hours for no money for years before he could qualify for the position.
My reaction went from “ha ha, what an insanely unjust system” to “hey, wait a sec…” very quickly.
“Tell me you haven’t read any Dickens novels without telling me you haven’t read any Dickens novels.”
And yes, people who stay in school for twenty years for a degree that generally doesn’t have an economic advantage, normally grew up not worried about how to pay the bills.
20k seems unusually low. They weren’t that low when I was in grad school 10 years ago.
I’m also looking at PhD programs and most I’ve seen are around 40k, and I’m looking at psychology or neuropsychology. That said, 40k in Michigan goes way further than 40k in CA or Jersey.
There are just far too many people who want to work in Academia than jobs, and rightfully so. The value provided by most “researchers” is abmysal and they essentially want to get paid to do something that is their “passion”. Supply and demand.
My university just raised ours to $20k for non STEM.
In my experience, most PhDs are from educated-professional backgrounds. Not extraordinarily wealthy necessarily, but parents who are doctors, lawyers, in finance, etc. Most people I knew in grad school weren’t getting regular direct financial help from their families, but had advantages like paid off cars bought with help from (or entirely by) parents, no student loans from undergrad, etc. From my perspective, it seemed like the biggest “lifestyle” differences were between the PhD students who had a spouse earning a salary vs those who were going it alone.
Mine is 19k, only works bc my spouse has a well-paying job and I am managing to work very part-time in addition to the PhD program. No way I would have done it without being married.
One thing I’m not seeing mentioned is tuition credit. That’s part of the compensation for a grad student, and probably in the $20k -$30k range. It’s basically just an expense that you’re undertaking, and so you just don’t see that money in the first place.
So while yes, the stipends are generally low, in many places embarrassingly low and/or unlivable, but the stipend dollar amount doesn’t fully reflect what grad students are getting.
When I was a grad student, about a couple decades ago, the stipend was $20-25k/yr (grew each year in that range), I had a $3k signing bonus (not sure who all got that), and the total compensation package was about $100k. The total compensation package included insurance, transportation, tuition, etc.
And that’s just it. You aren’t getting paid just your stipend, you’re being paid a whole compensation package. if they paid you the whole $100k, and then charged you tuition and so forth, you would be much worse off because you would be paying for them with after-tax income.
As for raising the ceiling on your package, you need to convince the NSF and so forth to offer more for grants they haven’t kept up and they are what pays for students.
Just don’t do your PhD in the US?
My 1980 PhD stipend of $4500/year, works out to $17,555 in today’s dollars. So no, this is nothing new.
So roughly 2100$ per month after taxes????
Some programs a) have higher wages (even before recent unionization pushes — knew people making 35k two decades ago) and b) have policies that state all grad students, regardless of field, must meet the same salary benchmark. For example, Brown recently settled for 48k for all grad students. My program pays us ~50k, which is more than enough if you don’t have kids or expensive habits. I save like ~1k a month.
Even with more livable stipends, in my experience, yes: these programs tend to select for people from families that are either economically and/or socially rich. Lots of professors’ kids, lots of parents who can afford to subsidize their kids’ lives every month (I know someone whose parents pay for all their expenses, including rent and eating out and vacations). To start, not everyone knows that PhDs can be funded, much less that many PhDs are well-funded, and it’s more likely you won’t know this if you aren’t in the right social strata. And even if you knew, there’s a pretty big opportunity cost to doing a PhD. This goes doubly so for people in fields where they can get very cushy jobs with bachelor degrees.
Of course, not everyone is from a rich background–I’ve met quite a few first geners (some just PhD, some both PhD and undergrad) who are confused when people complain that our stipend is low.
I can’t tell for sure, I earned more for my PhD stipend when I was in school then 20k, and that was pre-covid and things were much cheaper then. It wasn’t by much though.
Industry will definitely pay much more, but I earnestly think life was somewhat comfortable back then with stipend. Admittedly, the money goes further in different places. 20k in San Francisco is not the same as 20k in Houston. Ya don’t really hear people talking about cost of living in a place when talking about where they want to go to grad school though, but it’s a subset of “how do schools treat their grad students”.
Rent was (much) less than a grand a month back then.
I’m pretty sure all of us as grad students were all still basically somewhat broke back then too. I don’t really know any classmate of mine (nor do I think I know anyone) that was filthy rich. I think people paid off their student loans then instead of took more (at least to my knowledge).
Only one other grad student there was in my class year that was married before starting the PhD program. I can’t immediately answer how that would change the financial burden though.
From who I still keep up with currently that I went to grad school with, I don’t think anyone is drowning in debt.
It’s terrible, and in the US it is going to get worse. Unionizing has helped some places (grad students salaries in the UC system are a lot better after their recent strike).
As a professor now, I get paid more, but after postdoc-ing abroad for nearly a decade I have very little savings (I have negligible pensions in four currencies though!). I need to save really aggressively if I ever want to retire. I know the pay stratification looks bad, but if professors took more of a pay cut, then the career wouldn’t be sustainable.
The real issue is the absurdly high salaries of school administrators. They’re just stealing from the whole system.
To play devil’s advocate, it’s not a Dickens novel, it’s actually better then undergrad or law school or medical school where you are expected to take on thousands of dollars of student debts.
I was an engineering major. I’m not rich and had 0 financial support from my parents for grad school. 20K is low, but it depends on the cost of living in the area-5 years ago at Purdue I only got 22K stipend, but my rent was only $600 a month. 10 years ago at Cornell I made 32K but my rent was $1200 a month.
Purdue my take home pay was about $1600 a month after insurance, taxes, SS, ect.
~$600 to rent
~$200 to utilities/internet/insurance
~$400 on food/toiletries
~$200 misc/entertainment/ect.
As a single person, my expenses were fairly low and I was able to come out ahead a couple hundred dollars a month. However, I did not own a car, and took the bus, walked, or biked. I worked about 40 hours a week on average, some weeks closer to 60 hours and some weeks 20 hours depending on the workload and what needed to be done. You could also reduce rent by having roommates (I prefer living alone). Extra money I had I put into an IRA to save for retirement or invested in the stock market and make a bit from that. The biggest opportunity cost of grad school is not having 401k contributions. However, you can open an IRA or find other ways to invest your money. I was also able to defer my federal loans being in grad school.
I think the NSF sets stipend guidelines nationally so check that.
Remember that you are also getting tuition reimbursed, access to the library, software, databases, speakers, events ect, there are a lot of advantages being around people who think critically, are intellectually curious, and you have the time to study an area you are passionate about. Many places will reimburse you for conference travel too and memberships for professional organizations.
I found grad school immensely rewarding.
Another (potential) benefit of grad school is the ability to set your work schedule, and not have a boss breathing down your neck or be chained to a cubicle.
20K is low though so make a budget now and think if that’s reasonable or not. If you can’t do it, then don’t go to grad school then. Only go if you are passionate about studying a certain research area and pushing the boundaries of knowledge.
I recently finished my PhD (in Canada). The starting stipend was ~$24k and we had to pay tuition out of pocket ~$7k. Completely insane. Of course I did TA work and had awards that probably brought my total compensation up to something like ~$40k per year. If you’re competitive for national awards based the combination of your research potential and the compatibility of your research work with the strategic priorities of public and private funding agencies then it’s livable. It seems like the minimum school-provided stipends are just there to keep you on life support while you seek external funding. I think it kind of makes sense. If you never get any good external funding are you really going to have a post-PhD academic career? I think probably not, so if you’re planning to only have the minimum stipend for the duration of your PhD then maybe you shouldn’t be doing a PhD anyways. Of course if people want to take out loans or use their family money to fund their academic studies, more power to them (or so the schools say).
Man, I remember when as a Canadian grad student, I envied the American ones for their higher stipends.
In an R1 social science PhD program, my stipend was 17k back in 2012
I get $20, 239. My supervisor discreetly buys me a $20 thing from the menu in our meetings. I’m grateful for that, sometimes it’s the only thing I’ll get to eat all day!
I made very little on my grad school income. I was a bit older and teaching part time online. Secured a second school while in grad school to be able to have a legit income. It was rare; my classmates very much suffered.
It’s a US viewpoint that grad school is an extension of undergrad (where you pay for education). This allows programs to pay a low stipend with many thinking students are lucky to receive any money at all. I’m a PI in STEM and view grad students as key members of the scientific workforce that should be paid more. Unfortunately my university will only allow us to pay $38k a year.
I got ~20k
Stipend pay has been low for forever so there is a lot of wealthier backgrounds since you have to be willing to throw earnings in your early career out the window. 20K is a bit low from my experience but you do need to consider the cost of living in that area. A school in Cleveland or Pittsburgh does not need to pay as much as say New York or Boston. That being said, it is worth considering that the school/department in question might be straight up lying about where they stand in terms of pay and the quality of their program. I know of several departments that do. It could also be that they provide for better health care or include guarantied funding which other places do not. Ask pointed questions and if the department does not want to answer them it is probably not a department you want to join. You can also ask the current graduate students as they are less likely to lie.
There are a lot of games faculty and often the universities as a whole like to play when it comes to graduate student pay because they know they can get away with it or simply do not think graduates are worth the cost of using. Ignoring the value of labor angle (as that is a whole can of worms) it is worth recognizing that ethical behavior in academia is often little better than that of industry if not worse. Protect yourself and your time if you do decide to join a program.
Getting a PhD in chemistry, starting in 1989. I got $12k/ and student fees was $2k. So my net of $10k is about $25k today. Chemistry was one of the highest paying stipends at my school.
I was offered (and accepted) $20,000 for four years in 2012, and that was tight living (in a LCOL area) even back then (fifth year was something like $13,000 with competitive fellowships on top). I picked up extra classes in the summer too.
I made it work by getting an additional fellowship from the Canadian government (SSHRC), which added another $80,000 over 4 years. I was also awarded internal fellowships in my fifth and sixth years. I paid the bills in my seventh year by adjuncting full time and making sure I only took classes at schools with adjunct unions, which allowed me to earn around $40,000 (I worked part time at a few places in the city). I was living in NYC by then, so cost of living was much higher, but my wife was done with law school and making a decent salary, so we were fairly comfortable living in an outer borough.
There were some well-off folks in my program who got help from their families, but I got the impression a bunch of others took out loans to cover the gap between the stipend and the cost of living (probably not a great idea, but oh well). I was the odd duck in the group since I was international and had neither access to loans nor wealthy parents.
The people I know who are from out of state pursuing their PhD seem to be from solidly middle class or upper middle class families. Vast majority were OOS students attending private colleges prior to graduate work who then went on to two to three years of research before matriculating to their doctorate program.
It’s bad. Giving up that earnings potential for 6-9 years during some prime working years (e.g., you’re young and can really hustle, don’t have family), racking up the debt etc — this can be worth it, but only if you are ABSOLUTELY SURE that a Ph.D. is EXACTLY what you want to do, and that you are willing for it to consume a large part of your life. Academia is INCREDIBLY competitive. I cannot stress enough how difficult it is to get a job, even if you are top 5% smart. In my own program, which was the #1 ranked program in my field, people sometimes struggled to get jobs, and it was sometimes absolutely bizarre who did and didn’t get a job and who did and didn’t get a good job.
I am guessing that in opportunity costs I lost something like $350,000 in income and racked up $75,000 in student loans because my program was in a high COL area and I had absolutely no help and my health prevented me from working too much to earn extra income in addition to my teaching assistant and research assistant responsibilities.
(my stipend was 19-22k/year depending on the year – and this was 15 years ago)
as for rich backgrounds, out of 21 people in my cohort, 14 were rich, 4 upper middle, 3working class
My program recently got a raise to about $38k/yr. Not great by any means, especially if you have dependents, but workable if you don’t have significant expenses and/or are sharing the load with a partner/roommates
Stipends at ivies/ peers are 45k+ a year
About 40% of French doctoral researchers are recruited as “public law contractual doctoral researchers” and the income is fixed by law : currently 2200 €/month before taxes (so 26,4k€ annually) but that includes paying (so no extra costs) in public welfare and such.
Many other funding schemes are indexed on that figure too.
20k$ seems very low considering you have a gazillion things to pay.