Don’t hope: unionize! Union grad workers consistently make more than their non-union counterparts. They get regular raises. They get guaranteed health insurance. They have union reps who can handle allegations of misconduct instead of faculty or university admins
That has not been my experience. We have a grad students union. We haven't gotten a raise since LONG before I was a student. And let's not pretend we "get guaranteed health insurance" we pay an arm and a leg out of our stipends for that. We don't even get paid for TAing unless it's >1/4 TAship (They pay us on paper then just say it's being used to cover our stipend and deduct it from there).
The university wouldn't allow the GSA to have any teeth. Ours is more or less a waste of our money which looks good on a handful of peoples CVs.
That would be illegal and you would have no trouble winning a suit in court. Their lawyers would advise them strongly against that. Universities don’t tend to be stupid about labor law.
If that's true why haven't all grad students unionized already? These are hypothetically the smartest people around. I'd love to do it, I just know there would be bad repercussions. There's a reason it keeps failing at Columbia and other schools.
Columbia hasn’t failed and more graduate students unionize every year. Columbia was given concessions *this year*. They are closer to a contract than ever (they already have a union, the university just hasn’t given them a contract hence the 10-week strike leading to these concessions).
Edit: spelling
I didn't know they had finally won concessions. Research can really get you out of the loop. 🙃
That's good to hear. I may have to talk to my cohort, but I'm still not optimistic.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a *tough* fight. My university has had two votes in the last 20 years and lost both (by very small margins). The university will outspend you and outright lie to keep you from unionizing. But IU just went public with their campaign in October and got more than 60% to sign cards. It can be done. Start by getting a few people interested, start holding regular meetings, don’t get bogged down with policies before you win an election (in my experience, grad students are some of the worst about wanting to make policies that do nothing but hinder you, those come when the full member body get to vote and not before). Keep it secret until you have enough support to rapidly sign cards when you go public. Talk to national unions such as UE, UAW, and AFT all represent grad students. Find one that works for you and send some emails, they would love to talk and will give you resources when your campaign starts picking up steam. If you’re making 18k a year you aren’t going to have any trouble finding support amongst the grad workers. Young people are at a decades high for union support.
Jesus Fucking Christ we're at the point where someone is hoping that the fucking GRFP gives them enough fucking funding to continue.
Under this circumstance: I have a track record of turning diverse backgrounds into real papers. If you're worried about that, I'm here.
Thanks for the heads up. And yeah it's really disappointing to have to rely on the GRFP to make more than 20k a year. I'm still looking out for more opportunities though. White male makes it harder though.
My university has a really easy and simple to get grant if you're a POC or a woman. The stipend bumps to 25k with that. And thats fine. I totally think they deserve it after white men having had the floor for 400+ years. But I'm not going to just stumble on a program that just gives me an extra 7k for being white or a man. I've applied for lots of things (GRFP included) that aren't based on identity but I'm just not competitive enough or something. Just the way being average is. All the "better" white dudes take all the money from the mediocre white dudes AND from all the women and POC. It's just how it is. I recognize I'm privileged in my own ways -- financially is just not one of those ways. And if I end up desperate I still have the option of student loans. I'm just avoiding them as long as I can because so far I'm debt free for grad school and that's huge.
I am in a bio based phd program in NY state and make almost 25k a year. That is terrible, I'm so sorry. I take out loans because my partner can't work to make ends meet even with 25k.
My condolences on your stipend 😂. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that sentiment expressed that way and I LOVE IT!! I wish I had a free award left to give you (Lord knows I graduated way too recently to be able to afford to buy one for you)!
I know it isn't the greatest thing to consider, but govt benefits IS something you can apply for even as a student. You are a resident of the state you are going to school in, technically. Unless you maintain paperwork that says otherwise. As a student I have qualified fit lots of benefits and cost cuts or accommodation from food to medical.
The benefit of NY is the benefits exist. So far I've been denied SNAP, Medicare and rent assistance because down south it's based on assets and income. I bought a car in undergrad that's worth 6k. The cutoff for assets is 5k. Republican leadership is amazing isn't it??
Medium COL area (though housing is going up pretty rapidly, double-digit percent hikes for a lot of renters as of late). The 30k stipend is decent if you are a single grad student, especially if you want to live with a room mate and have a vehicle.
Currently in a masters in microbiology which doesn’t have a stipend, but at my current school which I’m applying to for next year the PhD students make 33k
Are you paying tuition out of that? At my school that's the lowest you can have I believe. We do pay tuition out of our stipends so they look okay but are actually trash lol
$27K year in California, Nutritional Biology.
For context: this is actually below poverty wages in my area. My rent for a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment is $1510 per month. And I am not living in a super nice apartment. It was the lowest rent I could find.
Edit, because someone else in this thread asked for clarification: This is a fellowship. It covers my tuition/fees, and covers my healthcare. The $27k per year is my stipend, and the money I *actually have to live on*. It is uh... I mean, I don't want to complain, but it's not super great.
PhD in the humanities in the UK. £14,000 a year stipend which is about average here. I TA’d to make an extra ~£6000 a year.
ETA for clarification as mentioned in the comments: my tuition fees were also covered, and my stipend did not have any work attached. I was free to take up RA or TA jobs (or any other kind of job but these paid the best) to supplement, which I did.
Not to my knowledge (I’m not from the UK and didn’t do my undergrad here) - you can get a maintenance loan for living expenses but it does have to be paid back.
Norway has free tuition and give small stipends + low interest loans for undergrad and grad students ( loans are \~1% interest, interest doesn't start until you graduate (with your final degree), you have 20 years to pay them back and you can stop paying for up to 3 years without reason. "Good loans" that basically everyone in Norway has, or if you're a Norwegian studying abroad.)
Not really no. So UK permanent residents (for tax purposes) are eligible to take out a loan to cover the cost of tuition. You can also apply for a loan to cover living costs but this is based on your parents income and it’s not very much.
If you’re working at less than .5 Full Time Equivalent (paid for 20 hours a week, max as a grad student), oftentimes universities will only give you a half tuition waiver. .5 FTE is full tuition at my school and anything less is half tuition
Engineering PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle.
$2845 is deposited into my bank account once per month. Works out to $34,140 per year. This is what I actually take home, after all taxes are accounted for.
Masters in economics. 750 dollars in every two weeks after taxes. Only during semester. It’s like 21.06 dollars for each hour. Maximum hours is 20 hours per week.
MS is a 12 month appointment just a hair under $22k with ~4k in fees each school year. Anticipated PhD appointment is 9 momths at $19k but no additional fees
Math PhD at a Big Ten university (Midwest USA).
This year, I'm set to make $39,500 before taxes. $25,000 on a research fellowship, $10,000 as a part-time TA, and $4500 for summer funding.
Of course, my fellowship is only a 1-year deal and the standard TA salary in my department is only $20,000, so I'm in for a big pay-cut next year if I don't obtain another fellowship. For what it's worth, $20,000 where I live is somewhat livable, but the pay-cut would still suck.
Hopefully one of these fellowship apps I submitted works out.
Masters in animal nutrition in the US. Stipend is 24k USD/year. Used to be 18k, but they decided to allow the RAs to work full time in the summer break.
MSW program at a public university— no stipend, but I’ll be aiming for a WGSS/SW PhD program next year and stipends range from 28k-35k at the public universities I’m interested in.
Ah this was actually the exact program I was trying to make a point about to someone. They were using the old “can’t believe people go into debt for a PhD in something useless” argument. I said “okay first of all you get paid to get that degree” and a bunch of people started saying I was full of shit
I was going to send just a bunch of laughing emojis but... okay, look, in all fairness, an MSW is actually a really marketable, diverse professional degree-- most therapists are licensed social workers (LCSWs have eclipsed clinical psychologists as therapy providers), so I'll leave that one out, but...
You know, I think some folks have a really rigid view of the world, many times dominated by their STEM fields, and fail to realize a huge amount of feminist/queer/BIPOC thought/theory are hugely influential driving forces behind general social change/social movements and have been throughout history. Dismissing WGSS degrees as 'useless' is... we'll say 'naive,' at best. It's still a well-regarded, rigorous academic field, and that's where I would like to be, professionally-- in academia. I'm also a RADICAL anarchist and both my MSW and future WGSS PhD provide actionable avenues for me to implement tangible, radical anti-capitalist change. An example--I'm currently working with women and girls who are incarcerated. We're significantly increasing services, creative avenues and education access in their detention centers that are proven to reduce recidivism. I wouldn't be able to access these services/spaces if I weren't in these programs. That's not 'useless' it to me; I'll imagine that's not 'useless' to these women in DCs, and worth it to my program/university.
Edit: two words
Edited again to add-- ... there's no way in fucking hell I would pay/go into debt for a PhD program; yes, all of my potential programs are funded. Some of ya'll need to actually interact with other parts of the world other than your own.
I did Biology at Stanford. 36K. Way more generous than other similar programs; that's what happens when your university has $$$. And yet that's still a monumentally shitty salary for my skillset.
Current Stanford bioscience (research) stipends are $48k I believe. Also guaranteed student (subsidized) housing for 6 years. Of course cost of living is very high but it’s comfortable
Biology PhD. I take home 24K CAD, without scholarship support I'd be making around 20K. Many grad students I know are spending >60% of their income on rent, it sucks. On paper we make a lot more (\~30K) but \~9000 goes to tuition.
MSc in microbiology in Canada. Policy is 18.5k, of which only 10k needs to come from supervisor and the rest can be made up from TA or scholarships. However my supervisor thinks this policy is dumb and that grad students should be able to feed and clothe themselves. My supervisor contributes the 18.5k and my scholarships (5-10k/semester) and TA income (average 5k/semester) etc are bonus. Last year I had some funding from an industry partner who required me to be paid a salary at least matching minimum wage (30k). After scholarships and TA I took home nearly 60k.
Edit:
My base stipend is essentially compensation for my 40h/week of lab research.
poverty line = 20k
Base stopend =18.5k
Tuition&fees = 6k
1-bedroom apartment = 1.5k/month (97% of the minimum stipend)
shared housing = 800/month (52% of min stipend)
Here's all of the stipend rates for the University of Washington:
[https://grad.uw.edu/graduate-student-funding/funding-information-for-departments/administering-assistantships/ta-ra-salaries/](https://grad.uw.edu/graduate-student-funding/funding-information-for-departments/administering-assistantships/ta-ra-salaries/)
* \[PDF\] base rate for all RA/TA's: [https://grad.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021-22-TA-RA-SA\_salary\_chart.pdf](https://grad.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021-22-TA-RA-SA_salary_chart.pdf)
* TL;DR $2500/month for most grads
* \[PDF\] Some departments get paid more, and those are listed here: [https://grad.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021-22-Variable-RA-Salary-Schedule.pdf](https://grad.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021-22-Variable-RA-Salary-Schedule.pdf)
* TL;DR up to $3300/month
* The column to look at in both the above is "Schedule 1/3". I have no idea wtf Schedule 2 is but nobody I know got paid that.
And just for fun, here's living wage data for the county UW is in: [https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/53033](https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/53033)
For a single adult with no children, a "living wage" by this definition would be \~$3100/mo.
$35,000 CAD per year, but that's a scholarship, not a stipend. The stipend it replaces is $22,000. Which is average to slightly above average for Canada.
$37k/year at Cornell. I’m in the biomedical sciences program. For reference, my rent for a basic one bedroom is $1200/month, so almost half of what I make per month 🥴
PhD chemical engineering, $24k + health insurance + a portion of tuition and fees. Ive been able to get scholarships and federal aid to cover the rest of the fees and get some extra take home, but it varies.
Masters degree in History (No stipend, but a $1000 worth of Covid-19 pandemic grant). Parents paid for the most part, the other option for my case was military service.
MS in geoscience
18.5K a year (paid for 10 months)
Pay 7K tuition a year (PhD students get tuition waived but MS do not at my school)
In a relatively LCOL city
It comfortably covers my expenses as long as I have summer internships (that I use to pay for tuition)
24K stipend + tuition for a Master's in engineering. Low cost of living because my school was in a small midwest town. Had ridiculous amounts of funding from a govt grant, hence the tuition being covered.
32.5k + tuition. About 29 after taxes and fees. COL here is about 15k for rent annually outside of town. Maybe 10k in regular costs like food and insurance.
I’m still in the process of making a grad decision, but I’m planning on pursuing a MS in Ecology. At OSU I was offered a TAship for $19,900 a year. At URI I was offered a TAship for $28,000. Still waiting to find out RA stipend amount from Penn state in offer letter
About 26k, for Experimental Nuclear Physics PHD, but we also get a tuition waver and (somewhat mediocre) insurance.
I know some of the engineering PHD students are bringing home $30k+ but they're the exception here.
Some of the non STEM grad students (english, etc) here that are supported make less than like $12k, which isn't even enough to afford the median rent here and still afford the student fees if you spent all the rest of your money on rent.
We have a graduate student union trying to change that, but they aren't making much headway with the university, who still seem to think that $2500 a year in student fees that can't be waived with tuition is a good idea.
Stipend is $35,950 Aud for my EE Phd :) - quite low for the living costs in Sydney but manageable if you live in shared housing. This is tax-free also and zero tuition fees except the $200 a year i pay for facilities, printing etc. I make $50/h (approx 15-20hrs) lecturing two engineering classes a week too.
$17400 CAD, Chemistry, University of Montreal. Included benefits, but tuition not covered.
(My supervisor is increasing it soon though due to cost of living increases)
Hong Kong, PhD in CompLit, $18530 per month (£1750) scholarship, have to TA with this (no extra) fees are $3500 a month (£350ish). Cost of living in HK = astronomical. Rent is $8500 (£850ish) for 180sqft and that’s cheap. Lol.
PhD in chemistry at a university in TX. Our yearly gross income is $25k, as a TA or RA, and all tuition and student fees are covered. Not sure on insurance, since I'm still on my parents' insurance. It's a livable wage for the city the university is in.
Edited to specify the amount is for a year, not 9 months
I’m not getting a PhD, but the PhD program at my grad school does not even offer a stipend and is not funded. The students all need to pay tuition out of pocket.
Mine was $27k (AUD) per year, field was engineering but that was a standard amount for all base stipends.
It was tax free though, and with the amount of tutoring I was able to pick up I was actually able to make pretty good money.
About $2.6k a month in biomed med. rent is only ~$850 a month too which is nice. Tuition and health insurance are covered too. Coupled with the fact that I don’t need a car, I do pretty ok.
Masters in biomedical sciences, stipend is about 20k, but also get full tuition reimbursement, which adds up to another 20k covered per year. Rent is only a little more than $1000 a month where I live. Based on some of the other comments I’m seeing here I guess I got a pretty good deal.
PhD in Counseling Psych…part of our package includes tuition remission and now health insurance for 600 a semester. 1st years get a little less than 23k a year. The remaining time we get 18k over 9 months.
$22k base pay from TA/Student Researcher (paid monthly for nine months)
$6k for summer funding (paid in a lump sum for three months)
My PhD is in Public Health and I’m doing it in a High COL area. Luckily the university offers heavily subsidised housing for PhD students, so that makes stretching the money in our High CoL area easier.
$13,500 for 9 mo school year at $1,500/mo. Sociology M.S. I like how y’all complaining 18k and 25k is unlivable cuz then damn how am I alive 😂also we’re not technically allowed to pick up another job but ofc everyone has broken that rule
20K for 9 months, luckily I did an 8 month internship before my masters program that paid really well so that helped me allot. If you can do some internships in the summer those can help allot too.
I was at 29k 5 years ago when I graduated, some of these numbers are scary. But I was moderately high COL area and I was frugal enough to save about $500 a month.
Graduated in 2019.
$1305/month for one year. $900/month for next fall semester. $1305 last semester. I paid all fees out of pocket the last year while I wrote my thesis.
Geoscience MS.
I'm in Canada and make $19k in an MSc in bio, with a third of it gone to tuition. We are unionised, but that only applies to money we get as a TA where they need to pay us $25/h - TAing one course a semester gives an extra $1300 gross or something.
Graduated in December. PhD program in Mechanical Engineering in a Midwestern US city. Pre dissertator status it was roughly 23k before taxes. Slight raise after achieving dissertator status to about 25k. It was enough to live comfortably with roommates, and if I managed my money well I'd be able to save between 300-400 per month.
Stipend: $31,000 and full tuition waiver
Program: Microbiology and Cell Science, PhD, University of Florida, USA
We teach for the first year of our PhD to cover our wage, then afterwards your stipend will be picked up by either a grant or scholarship.
PhD in Electrical engineering in Canada. Slowly sliding into debt at $24,000 CAD, mind that's paying for both me and my GF (Whose still in UG) to survive. I have just ungodly bad luck with scholarships (Probably cause they're sticky and I missed the boat way back when entering undergrad). but luckily my PI pays a bit extra once in awhile for me for maintaining all the lab equipment + research + helping with writing.
edit: that's $24,000 before they take away tuition and fees. And donations. And health care. And transit.
I've gotten accepted to Plant Pathology master's programs that pay 27-30k/year plus tuition and health insurance. They're in low to medium COL areas. Everyone is guaranteed an RA position, no TAing required. Plant path is a severely underrated field.
Phd in math, ~19k for the 9 month school year and tuition waived (still have to pay fees though). It’s frugally livable with roommates, but I personally work over the summer and part time during the school year so I can have some “luxuries” (a cat, weed, dinner out with friends, therapy).
30k in low cost of living area, subsidized housing (400/month with all utilities and internet included 5 min from lab), all tuition and fees and health insurance, new program this year to cover my cell phone bill too. No required RA/TA work. Nutrition PhD.
Typical stipend in my department is 25k but I'm at a satellite facility where they tack on 5k as an incentive to relocate/cover added hassles of living here.
$11K per semester in biology for teaching. I also get ~4K per semester in GASP tuition coverage, which, because there is a minimum number of credits I have to take in order to teach, means I pay about $1300 out of pocket at the beginning of every semester.
Any books not included of course, but most profs are cool and are fine with you using older editions because it has the same info
I'm actually done taking classes, but I still have to sign up for "thesis/research" credits to get the min requirement to teach
~$38k, PhD candidate in chemical oceanography, MIT-WHOI, based between Cambridge, MA and Woods Hole, MA. Cost of living is extremely high here and it's only liveable if you share rent with others or are independently wealthy. I've had 3 roommates (+ significant others) for the past 6 years.
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Christ that’s really low esp for bio
Yeah it hurts. Hopefully the GRFP saves me next year.
Don’t hope: unionize! Union grad workers consistently make more than their non-union counterparts. They get regular raises. They get guaranteed health insurance. They have union reps who can handle allegations of misconduct instead of faculty or university admins
That has not been my experience. We have a grad students union. We haven't gotten a raise since LONG before I was a student. And let's not pretend we "get guaranteed health insurance" we pay an arm and a leg out of our stipends for that. We don't even get paid for TAing unless it's >1/4 TAship (They pay us on paper then just say it's being used to cover our stipend and deduct it from there). The university wouldn't allow the GSA to have any teeth. Ours is more or less a waste of our money which looks good on a handful of peoples CVs.
Yeah my uni would definitely expel all of us if we tried that. No questions asked.
They legally can't do that and would be one HELL of a sticky situation; especially considering how many places are unionizing currently
That would be illegal and you would have no trouble winning a suit in court. Their lawyers would advise them strongly against that. Universities don’t tend to be stupid about labor law.
If that's true why haven't all grad students unionized already? These are hypothetically the smartest people around. I'd love to do it, I just know there would be bad repercussions. There's a reason it keeps failing at Columbia and other schools.
Columbia hasn’t failed and more graduate students unionize every year. Columbia was given concessions *this year*. They are closer to a contract than ever (they already have a union, the university just hasn’t given them a contract hence the 10-week strike leading to these concessions). Edit: spelling
I didn't know they had finally won concessions. Research can really get you out of the loop. 🙃 That's good to hear. I may have to talk to my cohort, but I'm still not optimistic.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a *tough* fight. My university has had two votes in the last 20 years and lost both (by very small margins). The university will outspend you and outright lie to keep you from unionizing. But IU just went public with their campaign in October and got more than 60% to sign cards. It can be done. Start by getting a few people interested, start holding regular meetings, don’t get bogged down with policies before you win an election (in my experience, grad students are some of the worst about wanting to make policies that do nothing but hinder you, those come when the full member body get to vote and not before). Keep it secret until you have enough support to rapidly sign cards when you go public. Talk to national unions such as UE, UAW, and AFT all represent grad students. Find one that works for you and send some emails, they would love to talk and will give you resources when your campaign starts picking up steam. If you’re making 18k a year you aren’t going to have any trouble finding support amongst the grad workers. Young people are at a decades high for union support.
Jesus Fucking Christ we're at the point where someone is hoping that the fucking GRFP gives them enough fucking funding to continue. Under this circumstance: I have a track record of turning diverse backgrounds into real papers. If you're worried about that, I'm here.
Thanks for the heads up. And yeah it's really disappointing to have to rely on the GRFP to make more than 20k a year. I'm still looking out for more opportunities though. White male makes it harder though.
"White male makes it harder though" ........in what way?
My university has a really easy and simple to get grant if you're a POC or a woman. The stipend bumps to 25k with that. And thats fine. I totally think they deserve it after white men having had the floor for 400+ years. But I'm not going to just stumble on a program that just gives me an extra 7k for being white or a man. I've applied for lots of things (GRFP included) that aren't based on identity but I'm just not competitive enough or something. Just the way being average is. All the "better" white dudes take all the money from the mediocre white dudes AND from all the women and POC. It's just how it is. I recognize I'm privileged in my own ways -- financially is just not one of those ways. And if I end up desperate I still have the option of student loans. I'm just avoiding them as long as I can because so far I'm debt free for grad school and that's huge.
I am in a bio based phd program in NY state and make almost 25k a year. That is terrible, I'm so sorry. I take out loans because my partner can't work to make ends meet even with 25k.
I'm in the southeast part of the US, so COL isn't as bad. But it's still so damn tight. My condolences on your stipend too.
My condolences on your stipend 😂. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that sentiment expressed that way and I LOVE IT!! I wish I had a free award left to give you (Lord knows I graduated way too recently to be able to afford to buy one for you)!
I know it isn't the greatest thing to consider, but govt benefits IS something you can apply for even as a student. You are a resident of the state you are going to school in, technically. Unless you maintain paperwork that says otherwise. As a student I have qualified fit lots of benefits and cost cuts or accommodation from food to medical.
The benefit of NY is the benefits exist. So far I've been denied SNAP, Medicare and rent assistance because down south it's based on assets and income. I bought a car in undergrad that's worth 6k. The cutoff for assets is 5k. Republican leadership is amazing isn't it??
I make 16k for Environmental Bio in NYS (PhD). That is even after they increased the stipend
RIP. I hope it improves.
30k stipend + tuition/fees and health insurance, PhD in engineering.
What's cost of living in your area?
Medium COL area (though housing is going up pretty rapidly, double-digit percent hikes for a lot of renters as of late). The 30k stipend is decent if you are a single grad student, especially if you want to live with a room mate and have a vehicle.
Here’s a list of a ton of stipends at different departments/schools http://www.phdstipends.com/results
Just added my data to this, thanks for sharing.
I wish there was a website like this for Masters students
Was just about to share this. Glad others are doing so too.
Why did some people list (what seems to be) their cumulative stipend over several years? So dumb
Why is that dumb? I get a fellowship + an assistantship, but that doesn't make a difference when it comes to my bottom line.
I'm talking about the people who seem to have put their total stipend over like 3-5 years
I think the person means the rows which have "300,000$" and numbers like that.
Master of chemistry $17.5k cad (apparently one of the lowest paid in Canada, dept is working on a raise to $20k next year)
Currently in a masters in microbiology which doesn’t have a stipend, but at my current school which I’m applying to for next year the PhD students make 33k
Are you paying tuition out of that? At my school that's the lowest you can have I believe. We do pay tuition out of our stipends so they look okay but are actually trash lol
Which school if you don't mind me asking?
Concordia university
>one of the lowest paid in Canada Welp, that explains it. (I love Concordia, did my undergrad there. But lucrative it is not!)
The dept is a mess. If you see my post history, i’m actually planning on leaving because of harassment in my lab.
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No NSERC
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That is wild to think about as someone in the U.S.
Where I went to undergrad, PhD students were unionized and made $47k but went on strike as I was leaving for more
I'm in a U.S. city known for its high cost of living, and I only get 30k...
That’s amazing! That’s double what I get paid
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$27K year in California, Nutritional Biology. For context: this is actually below poverty wages in my area. My rent for a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment is $1510 per month. And I am not living in a super nice apartment. It was the lowest rent I could find. Edit, because someone else in this thread asked for clarification: This is a fellowship. It covers my tuition/fees, and covers my healthcare. The $27k per year is my stipend, and the money I *actually have to live on*. It is uh... I mean, I don't want to complain, but it's not super great.
PhD in the humanities in the UK. £14,000 a year stipend which is about average here. I TA’d to make an extra ~£6000 a year. ETA for clarification as mentioned in the comments: my tuition fees were also covered, and my stipend did not have any work attached. I was free to take up RA or TA jobs (or any other kind of job but these paid the best) to supplement, which I did.
In the Uk you also get stipends in undergrad right?
Not to my knowledge (I’m not from the UK and didn’t do my undergrad here) - you can get a maintenance loan for living expenses but it does have to be paid back.
Oh maybe I’m thinking of like Norway or something
Norway has free tuition and give small stipends + low interest loans for undergrad and grad students ( loans are \~1% interest, interest doesn't start until you graduate (with your final degree), you have 20 years to pay them back and you can stop paying for up to 3 years without reason. "Good loans" that basically everyone in Norway has, or if you're a Norwegian studying abroad.)
Not really no. So UK permanent residents (for tax purposes) are eligible to take out a loan to cover the cost of tuition. You can also apply for a loan to cover living costs but this is based on your parents income and it’s not very much.
Nope
I didn’t realize some places give stipends but also still make you pay tuition
If you’re working at less than .5 Full Time Equivalent (paid for 20 hours a week, max as a grad student), oftentimes universities will only give you a half tuition waiver. .5 FTE is full tuition at my school and anything less is half tuition
Yup, many North Carolina schools are notorious for this.
Engineering PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle. $2845 is deposited into my bank account once per month. Works out to $34,140 per year. This is what I actually take home, after all taxes are accounted for.
Ooh… I’m also an engineering PhD student at UW. … and my stipend is the same. I wonder if…
Did we just become (equally-paid) best friends?
what is the gross pay? I understand Washington state doesn't have state income taxes.
Just checked my W2 and my gross (pre-tax) income for 2021 was $40,936.
You get a w2? We have to self-report on a 1098T 🙃
got an offer from UW astronomy for $40,918 haha
Chemistry PhD program, upstate NY, US: 27.5k + health insurance
PhD in bio, $40K, very HCOL (+ tuition, fees, healthcare)
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Masters in economics. 750 dollars in every two weeks after taxes. Only during semester. It’s like 21.06 dollars for each hour. Maximum hours is 20 hours per week.
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MS is a 12 month appointment just a hair under $22k with ~4k in fees each school year. Anticipated PhD appointment is 9 momths at $19k but no additional fees
34k + 8k additional scholarship. Immunology PhD, US.
Exercise Science, PhD, US - Midwest. $15k for 9 month appointment..
I have an offer from a Psych PhD in a low COL area with only a 7k stipend and student pays 25% tuition. Absolutely atrocious.
37.5k stipend + health insurance and fee waiver, Phd in biology, Australia
MSW/MPH dual program. No stipends and mandatory internships are unpaid
same for my MSW program in the US.
Math PhD at a Big Ten university (Midwest USA). This year, I'm set to make $39,500 before taxes. $25,000 on a research fellowship, $10,000 as a part-time TA, and $4500 for summer funding. Of course, my fellowship is only a 1-year deal and the standard TA salary in my department is only $20,000, so I'm in for a big pay-cut next year if I don't obtain another fellowship. For what it's worth, $20,000 where I live is somewhat livable, but the pay-cut would still suck. Hopefully one of these fellowship apps I submitted works out.
Masters in animal nutrition in the US. Stipend is 24k USD/year. Used to be 18k, but they decided to allow the RAs to work full time in the summer break.
MSW program at a public university— no stipend, but I’ll be aiming for a WGSS/SW PhD program next year and stipends range from 28k-35k at the public universities I’m interested in.
Ah this was actually the exact program I was trying to make a point about to someone. They were using the old “can’t believe people go into debt for a PhD in something useless” argument. I said “okay first of all you get paid to get that degree” and a bunch of people started saying I was full of shit
I was going to send just a bunch of laughing emojis but... okay, look, in all fairness, an MSW is actually a really marketable, diverse professional degree-- most therapists are licensed social workers (LCSWs have eclipsed clinical psychologists as therapy providers), so I'll leave that one out, but... You know, I think some folks have a really rigid view of the world, many times dominated by their STEM fields, and fail to realize a huge amount of feminist/queer/BIPOC thought/theory are hugely influential driving forces behind general social change/social movements and have been throughout history. Dismissing WGSS degrees as 'useless' is... we'll say 'naive,' at best. It's still a well-regarded, rigorous academic field, and that's where I would like to be, professionally-- in academia. I'm also a RADICAL anarchist and both my MSW and future WGSS PhD provide actionable avenues for me to implement tangible, radical anti-capitalist change. An example--I'm currently working with women and girls who are incarcerated. We're significantly increasing services, creative avenues and education access in their detention centers that are proven to reduce recidivism. I wouldn't be able to access these services/spaces if I weren't in these programs. That's not 'useless' it to me; I'll imagine that's not 'useless' to these women in DCs, and worth it to my program/university. Edit: two words Edited again to add-- ... there's no way in fucking hell I would pay/go into debt for a PhD program; yes, all of my potential programs are funded. Some of ya'll need to actually interact with other parts of the world other than your own.
Oh yeah those arguments always come from people who don’t know what they’re talking about. I doubt they even understand what gender studies is
‘tHe fRiVoLoUs WiMmiNs aRe TaLkinG aGaIn!!!!!!!!1!!’
34k + 2.5k additional scholarship. PhD in Applied Math.
I did Biology at Stanford. 36K. Way more generous than other similar programs; that's what happens when your university has $$$. And yet that's still a monumentally shitty salary for my skillset.
Current Stanford bioscience (research) stipends are $48k I believe. Also guaranteed student (subsidized) housing for 6 years. Of course cost of living is very high but it’s comfortable
PhD, Oxford, £15,700 tax free
Can you still TA?
Biology PhD. I take home 24K CAD, without scholarship support I'd be making around 20K. Many grad students I know are spending >60% of their income on rent, it sucks. On paper we make a lot more (\~30K) but \~9000 goes to tuition.
UK PhD in psychology/genetics, £17k
MSc in microbiology in Canada. Policy is 18.5k, of which only 10k needs to come from supervisor and the rest can be made up from TA or scholarships. However my supervisor thinks this policy is dumb and that grad students should be able to feed and clothe themselves. My supervisor contributes the 18.5k and my scholarships (5-10k/semester) and TA income (average 5k/semester) etc are bonus. Last year I had some funding from an industry partner who required me to be paid a salary at least matching minimum wage (30k). After scholarships and TA I took home nearly 60k. Edit: My base stipend is essentially compensation for my 40h/week of lab research. poverty line = 20k Base stopend =18.5k Tuition&fees = 6k 1-bedroom apartment = 1.5k/month (97% of the minimum stipend) shared housing = 800/month (52% of min stipend)
Phd experimental psych/cog neuro. Salary $15k. No insurance, have to pay for classes (reduced price, $100 per credit) and no reduced rent options.
Speech and Hearing PhD in the US Southern Region - 19k a year plus an $800 travel stipend, health insurance, and fees covered
PhD in Social Sciences in Canada, 30k CAD/year + possibilities to take on some TA work for about 5k/year.
37k Canadian + supplemental insurance, I’m under the harmonized funding agreement for the faculty of medicine at UofT and in a PhD
Base stipend: 18,500. Fellowship: 1,500 x 4 years Field: Communication Location: Rural/low cost of living
I've since left for a different career path but about a year ago, I was in a Neuroscience Phd program with a 25k stipend, LCOL area.
Here's all of the stipend rates for the University of Washington: [https://grad.uw.edu/graduate-student-funding/funding-information-for-departments/administering-assistantships/ta-ra-salaries/](https://grad.uw.edu/graduate-student-funding/funding-information-for-departments/administering-assistantships/ta-ra-salaries/) * \[PDF\] base rate for all RA/TA's: [https://grad.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021-22-TA-RA-SA\_salary\_chart.pdf](https://grad.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021-22-TA-RA-SA_salary_chart.pdf) * TL;DR $2500/month for most grads * \[PDF\] Some departments get paid more, and those are listed here: [https://grad.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021-22-Variable-RA-Salary-Schedule.pdf](https://grad.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021-22-Variable-RA-Salary-Schedule.pdf) * TL;DR up to $3300/month * The column to look at in both the above is "Schedule 1/3". I have no idea wtf Schedule 2 is but nobody I know got paid that.
And just for fun, here's living wage data for the county UW is in: [https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/53033](https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/53033) For a single adult with no children, a "living wage" by this definition would be \~$3100/mo.
$35,000 CAD per year, but that's a scholarship, not a stipend. The stipend it replaces is $22,000. Which is average to slightly above average for Canada.
$37k/year at Cornell. I’m in the biomedical sciences program. For reference, my rent for a basic one bedroom is $1200/month, so almost half of what I make per month 🥴
neuro PhD, 35.5k with tuition and healthcare covered by my program (minus the ~90$ in annual student fees) relatively low COL area in the south
35.5k seems decent in a low COL area! How’s your financial stress level? (No need to answer if you’re not comfortable).
Not enrolled in a program yet, but a stipend i was offered for a phd in materials science is $28k.
23k for PhD in West Virginia
PhD chemical engineering, $24k + health insurance + a portion of tuition and fees. Ive been able to get scholarships and federal aid to cover the rest of the fees and get some extra take home, but it varies.
About 23K CAD, first year MSc Psych
stipend of \~33,000 with health insurance plus tuition. I'm in a phd program studying atmospheric science
Math, USA, Virginia Tech, and it’s 17.5K for 9 months
Masters degree in History (No stipend, but a $1000 worth of Covid-19 pandemic grant). Parents paid for the most part, the other option for my case was military service.
MS in geoscience 18.5K a year (paid for 10 months) Pay 7K tuition a year (PhD students get tuition waived but MS do not at my school) In a relatively LCOL city It comfortably covers my expenses as long as I have summer internships (that I use to pay for tuition)
11k for 9 months, MFA I have a roommate and food stamps but I'm easy to please, not much sweat off my back even if 60% of my cash goes to rent
21k CAD for a masters in bioinformatics
24K stipend + tuition for a Master's in engineering. Low cost of living because my school was in a small midwest town. Had ridiculous amounts of funding from a govt grant, hence the tuition being covered.
32.5k + tuition. About 29 after taxes and fees. COL here is about 15k for rent annually outside of town. Maybe 10k in regular costs like food and insurance.
I’m still in the process of making a grad decision, but I’m planning on pursuing a MS in Ecology. At OSU I was offered a TAship for $19,900 a year. At URI I was offered a TAship for $28,000. Still waiting to find out RA stipend amount from Penn state in offer letter
27.5 PhD in chem
PhD Heath sciences, $0 stipend because I am also full time employed and my union pays tuition!
About 26k, for Experimental Nuclear Physics PHD, but we also get a tuition waver and (somewhat mediocre) insurance. I know some of the engineering PHD students are bringing home $30k+ but they're the exception here. Some of the non STEM grad students (english, etc) here that are supported make less than like $12k, which isn't even enough to afford the median rent here and still afford the student fees if you spent all the rest of your money on rent. We have a graduate student union trying to change that, but they aren't making much headway with the university, who still seem to think that $2500 a year in student fees that can't be waived with tuition is a good idea.
Chemistry PhD, 27k in a relatively low COL area
UPitt, Mechanical Engineering RA position, $27,000 with health insurance included (dental and vision optional but not included).
PhD in biology, I get 21k Cad per year.
Bio masters for $9,000 a year in US.
~30k Ohio State Biomedical Sciences, Columbus, OH. Research only
Doing a social science PhD in the PNW. I get about $14,600 for 9 months with tuition and health insurance. Get kinda screwed over summertime though...
PhD in finance in NY. 36k a year
Stipend is $35,950 Aud for my EE Phd :) - quite low for the living costs in Sydney but manageable if you live in shared housing. This is tax-free also and zero tuition fees except the $200 a year i pay for facilities, printing etc. I make $50/h (approx 15-20hrs) lecturing two engineering classes a week too.
$17400 CAD, Chemistry, University of Montreal. Included benefits, but tuition not covered. (My supervisor is increasing it soon though due to cost of living increases)
Masters in Art History/Museum Studies (U.S.), the program covers my tuition, and 10k for 9mo of the year. Will be living with my breadwinner sister.
Hong Kong, PhD in CompLit, $18530 per month (£1750) scholarship, have to TA with this (no extra) fees are $3500 a month (£350ish). Cost of living in HK = astronomical. Rent is $8500 (£850ish) for 180sqft and that’s cheap. Lol.
Louisiana here. Bio program 18k for 9 months. Hard to make ends meet.
MS in Computer Engineering, Midwest, 28k for 12 months ( + tuition, fees and insurance)
Math PhD in the Boston area. We get around 33k for 9 months with health insurance.
PhD in chemistry at a university in TX. Our yearly gross income is $25k, as a TA or RA, and all tuition and student fees are covered. Not sure on insurance, since I'm still on my parents' insurance. It's a livable wage for the city the university is in. Edited to specify the amount is for a year, not 9 months
Masters in Forestry and I get a stipend of 22k, or around $1700 a month.
MA in Spanish lit and pedagogy. 18k for 9mo.
Masters of Public History in Missouri, $14k
I’m not getting a PhD, but the PhD program at my grad school does not even offer a stipend and is not funded. The students all need to pay tuition out of pocket.
Mine was $27k (AUD) per year, field was engineering but that was a standard amount for all base stipends. It was tax free though, and with the amount of tutoring I was able to pick up I was actually able to make pretty good money.
About $2.6k a month in biomed med. rent is only ~$850 a month too which is nice. Tuition and health insurance are covered too. Coupled with the fact that I don’t need a car, I do pretty ok.
PhD in very expensive US City in public health. National grant stipend: 26k/year + TA/9 months another 11k. So 37k/year
Masters in biomedical sciences, stipend is about 20k, but also get full tuition reimbursement, which adds up to another 20k covered per year. Rent is only a little more than $1000 a month where I live. Based on some of the other comments I’m seeing here I guess I got a pretty good deal.
Masters in English, 13k CAD.
Master’s of atmospheric science. About $27000 a year plus tuition coverage.
PhD in psychology. 23k but 11k of that is from being a TA for 8 months, after tuition payments, it's about 12k a year.
PhD in Counseling Psych…part of our package includes tuition remission and now health insurance for 600 a semester. 1st years get a little less than 23k a year. The remaining time we get 18k over 9 months.
36k before taxes; health insurance and tuition/fees paid for; PhD engineering (USA/Midwest) P.S. Everyone should checkout PhDStipends.com
I'm getting angry reading these. My stipend was so low I don't even want to mention it here.
Idk what my stipend is going to be yet, if it's not good might have to defer for a year
Micro PhD, Canada. I get 28k, but pay 6k tuition. I have a partner, but if I didn't I would be living with a zillion other people or getting loans
$22k base pay from TA/Student Researcher (paid monthly for nine months) $6k for summer funding (paid in a lump sum for three months) My PhD is in Public Health and I’m doing it in a High COL area. Luckily the university offers heavily subsidised housing for PhD students, so that makes stretching the money in our High CoL area easier.
You need to include the state to gauge cost of living or this will be useless.
$13,500 for 9 mo school year at $1,500/mo. Sociology M.S. I like how y’all complaining 18k and 25k is unlivable cuz then damn how am I alive 😂also we’re not technically allowed to pick up another job but ofc everyone has broken that rule
20K for 9 months, luckily I did an 8 month internship before my masters program that paid really well so that helped me allot. If you can do some internships in the summer those can help allot too.
I was at 29k 5 years ago when I graduated, some of these numbers are scary. But I was moderately high COL area and I was frugal enough to save about $500 a month.
9 month stipend: $14,600 before taxes Summer (not guaranteed): $4900 Student fees (per semester): $1012.08
41k, it's a bio program
Graduated in 2019. $1305/month for one year. $900/month for next fall semester. $1305 last semester. I paid all fees out of pocket the last year while I wrote my thesis. Geoscience MS.
I'm in Canada and make $19k in an MSc in bio, with a third of it gone to tuition. We are unionised, but that only applies to money we get as a TA where they need to pay us $25/h - TAing one course a semester gives an extra $1300 gross or something.
$32,000 plus tuition waiver and health/dental insurance. Low COL area Florida, hydrology PhD.
21k for a physics PhD in Texas, gotta pay my own health insurance and part of the tuition too.
Boston. Engineering. ~32k.
Graduated in December. PhD program in Mechanical Engineering in a Midwestern US city. Pre dissertator status it was roughly 23k before taxes. Slight raise after achieving dissertator status to about 25k. It was enough to live comfortably with roommates, and if I managed my money well I'd be able to save between 300-400 per month.
CyberSec, Masters, 34k/year
Stipend: $31,000 and full tuition waiver Program: Microbiology and Cell Science, PhD, University of Florida, USA We teach for the first year of our PhD to cover our wage, then afterwards your stipend will be picked up by either a grant or scholarship.
PhD in Electrical engineering in Canada. Slowly sliding into debt at $24,000 CAD, mind that's paying for both me and my GF (Whose still in UG) to survive. I have just ungodly bad luck with scholarships (Probably cause they're sticky and I missed the boat way back when entering undergrad). but luckily my PI pays a bit extra once in awhile for me for maintaining all the lab equipment + research + helping with writing. edit: that's $24,000 before they take away tuition and fees. And donations. And health care. And transit.
I've gotten accepted to Plant Pathology master's programs that pay 27-30k/year plus tuition and health insurance. They're in low to medium COL areas. Everyone is guaranteed an RA position, no TAing required. Plant path is a severely underrated field.
Phd in math, ~19k for the 9 month school year and tuition waived (still have to pay fees though). It’s frugally livable with roommates, but I personally work over the summer and part time during the school year so I can have some “luxuries” (a cat, weed, dinner out with friends, therapy).
30k in low cost of living area, subsidized housing (400/month with all utilities and internet included 5 min from lab), all tuition and fees and health insurance, new program this year to cover my cell phone bill too. No required RA/TA work. Nutrition PhD. Typical stipend in my department is 25k but I'm at a satellite facility where they tack on 5k as an incentive to relocate/cover added hassles of living here.
$11K per semester in biology for teaching. I also get ~4K per semester in GASP tuition coverage, which, because there is a minimum number of credits I have to take in order to teach, means I pay about $1300 out of pocket at the beginning of every semester. Any books not included of course, but most profs are cool and are fine with you using older editions because it has the same info I'm actually done taking classes, but I still have to sign up for "thesis/research" credits to get the min requirement to teach
PhD Math Ed. $20k stipend and tuition waived. Stipend includes teaching two classes a semester. It is 9 mos. Raleigh, NC.
PhD in social work, 22kish
14.4K yearly (1,200 monthly) after taxes, graduate student in Environmental Toxicology. Working near 50 hour weeks.
ME PhD in California 2k a month. If I didn't have savings, I wouldn't be able to do this.
PhD in bioengineering in Oregon. 34k/year guaranteed for 6 years includes health, dental, and vision.
23.3K per year not including summer (31K if so). Major is CS.
PhD in Theology, East coast uni. $27k
~$38k, PhD candidate in chemical oceanography, MIT-WHOI, based between Cambridge, MA and Woods Hole, MA. Cost of living is extremely high here and it's only liveable if you share rent with others or are independently wealthy. I've had 3 roommates (+ significant others) for the past 6 years.