December 2, 2008
Graduate Students' Pay and Benefits Vary Widely, Survey Shows
When it comes to the financial packages that graduate students receive to pursue their degrees, the devil is in the details.
A Chronicle survey, conducted this summer and fall, of the pay and benefits of teaching and research assistants at more than 100 research institutions reveals a dizzying array of variables that students must compare.
Some institutions cover 100 percent of graduate students’ tuition, while others waive only a portion. It is possible to get health insurance paid in full — 42 percent of the institutions that responded to the survey do just that — but coverage for family members is harder to come by.
Then there’s location: Just how far will a $19,000 stipend go in Los Angeles, anyway? When it comes to paying rent, buying food, and otherwise making ends meet, stipends do matter.
“A large part of my decision was based on how I would be able to afford to live,” says Verity Mathis, a Ph.D. student in evolutionary biology at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. Her stipend for 12 months as a teaching assistant is a little more than $20,000. Ms. Mathis, 30, pays $500 a month in rent for a two-bedroom house. Louisiana State pays the bulk of her $500 annual health-insurance premium. Student fees, about $800 or so each semester, are among the expenses that she must cover. “I stretch my money out with student loans,” Ms. Mathis says.
The data collected by The Chronicle, though not comprehensive, provide a snapshot of what graduate students are earning in six fields this academic year. Comparisons among stipends are difficult because every institution has its own way of handling a financial package. Still, it is safe to say that while graduate students are hardly living the high life, some of them (science students) are less poor than others (English, history, and sociology students).
For instance, biology departments reported an average research-assistant stipend of $18,200 for an appointment that typically lasts a full 12 months. Students in English, however, got an average teaching-assistant stipend of $13,387 for an academic year.
By Audrey Williams June | Posted on Tuesday December 2, 2008 | PermalinkComments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Previous: Congratulations on Your Promotion, But . . .
Next: U. Missouri Football Coach Gets a Big Pay Hike
I steam when I think of my son, a master’s candidate at CU Denver, who has to fork over over $2000 per year for health insurance, gets no tuition benefits, and a paltry $3000 per semester for teaching- in addition to paying monthly rent and other living expenses on 100% loans. I steam because just up the road in Boulder the CU grad students get larger stipends and tuition benefits. Where is the fairness in this?
— J. Yockel Dec 3, 09:38 AM #
I am a current graduate student in a Counselor Education Program for Higher Education and hold graduate assistantship at a small university in the University of Wisconsin system. I am just blown over by the stipends and benefits other graduate assistants get at other schools. In my current position, I am a full-time academic advisor, and I am making $700 per month. With health insurance at a very low, state rate, no tuition break or meals. I know that I’m not going into a field where pay is going to be high, and at least I love what I’m doing. I’m just thankful to have the opportunity to go to grad school and get practical work experiences.
— M. Dec 4, 02:05 PM #