this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2024
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Considering that you're probably making something like $1,500/mo in some place where rent is $3,000/mo I'd say take every discount you can get.
I briefly looked into doing a doctorate. The economics of it turned me away right quick.
There's a reason we have to import so many of our PhD candidates. It's because it's a raw fucking deal. Even in areas where pay is high for researchers, it's still a borderline pointless gauntlet of humiliation to prove abilities you could have just gained on the job anyway.
Stuart Ashen has a Ph.D.
boop-beep boop-beep beep-boop Hello!
Living in the USA, my experience looking into this was similar. However, there are some doctoral programs in europe that are free even for international students, which is actually quite tempting.
Applying won't hurt, you never know.
Yeah true, maybe one day!
I hope no reputable school is doing that badly these days but point taken
My take-home was $1700-2100/mo after taxes and fees depending on whether I was teaching that semester (teaching paid less). We were paid just above minimum wage (at the time $15.50/h, CA MW = $15/h) on the basis of 8 h/day, 5 days/wk, 52 wks/y (lmao). Rent split 4 ways was ~~$1500~~ ~$1200 per person, and that was the lowest of anyone I knew. UC Berkeley PhD 2022.
Edit: Checked my admission letter, turns out it was actually $15.50/h. Also got decent health insurance, at least until UCPath fucked it up. Livin' the high life.
Congrats on successfully defeating your thesis!
When I was working on mine I was making $1800 and rent was only ~$720 for a 2 bed. I think that included pet rent too.
The mental toll however...(Hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance claims later, probably more)
It included the what now?
Yeah so you have to pay an extra monthly "rent" PER PET (not to mention the extra deposits! Yes plural)
I was looking at a place the other day. 2 bedroom apartment in a shitty area. I didn't take notes on all the costs but this is what I have:
Application Fee: $50 per applicant
Rent: ~~$1450~~ $2115
Security Deposit: ~~$1450~~ $2115
Nonrefundable Pet Deposit per pet: $300
Pet Deposit per pet: $200
Pet Rent per pet: $25
No utilities included
Edit: misremembered the rent by a lot
Absolutely wild.
Its not uncommon for apartment complexes to charge another small monthly fee to have a pet (usually specifically a cat or dog) in the unit. I'm also paying a pet rent and its like $20-30 where I live. Is it BS? Definitely.
Wild.
Unfortunately this is still the case in all the universities I know, especially in fine arts and humanity, many of the positions are even unfunded. Many students need to sublease their living room or live in a single bedroom in a house, with shared kitchen and bathroom.
I think many less-well-funded students literally cannot afford a studio or 1B, because the rent will be higher than their salary. Even for CS, math, and bio, the rent of a 1B will still be very close to their stipend.
For reference, I work in the department with the highest pay in my entire school, and my school is an extremely well-funded Tier 1 ~ Tier 2 school in the U.S. I make less than 2k8 after tax, and 1B at the outskirt of my city (40 mins walk to university) cost around 2k2 per month. Of course, an rat-free apartment will cost much more.
Even for these extremely well-funded departments in extremely well-funded schools, almost all of the PhD students are still paid under the living wage. See https://csstipendrankings.org/ .
To summarize: of the 60 schools listed,only 1/3 are paying their CS PhD students a living wage. Schools not paying a living wage include Havard, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, UChicago, and many more.
This is why you see so many grad worker strike in recent years.
also why the bulk of those students in those subjects come almost exclusively from wealthy families....
I went to a state university and I was paid about $1,000 a month as a graduate student researcher, while living in a $1,700 a month dorm.
yeah i was in grad school 10 years ago. I made about $1000/mo, and my rent was about 900. After food and other necessities, I was losing about 300-400 a month.
If i was in school today, I'm confident I'd be making 1200/mo and my rent would be about $2000.