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As a PhD student, I was paid about a third of what I was paid at the first job I landed as a PhD, except for one year when I got a sweet scholarship and I made
by klyrs 2y ago
As a PhD student, I was paid about a third of what I was paid at the first job I landed as a PhD, except for one year when I got a sweet scholarship and I made two thirds. Yes, they were adult jobs, but I don't describe them as such because those TA/RA/sessional positions have Mickey mouse wages.
- impossiblefork 2y agoI think that remains reasonable. However, it's still necessary to have doing a PhD be seen as a real job and to set things up so that PhD students are paid a wage they can live on. This kind of 'I can't afford thing, even though I'm doing world-leading research'-thing isn't reasonable, and since we treat it as a job in Europe, one where you get a lower wage than in industry, but still one that pays a wage you can live on, shows that it's probably feasible to do the same in the US.
- klyrs 2y agoI agree, it's feasible to do this but the article, and the experience I relay, is the truth on the ground in the US and Canada today. In STEM, it's totally possible to pay one's way through grad school without taking on extreme debt -- but it requires continual employment and strict frugality.