Graduate assistantship stipends are probably an OK measure. At my school, funded psychology students get around $9000 or $10000 during the academic year, and ha

Graduate assistantship stipends are probably an OK measure. At my school, funded psychology students get around $9000 or $10000 during the academic year, and have to work as a TA each semester (grading or teaching lab sessions). Genetics students earn $20000 and simply work in their PI's lab. This is for students funded through the graduate school -- PIs can also hire grad students and postdocs with money from their own grants, in addition to those already-funded students who join their labs. In either case, the graduate school waives tuition for anyone on an assistantship. Plus, science students have relatively good options in industry after graduation, and as far as I can tell, more postdoc positions available. There are also programs like this for science students: http://www.sciencemasters.com/ http://www.sciencemasters.com/