4 ms·

I think hardhead might have just been referring to keeping a "full time job" which is impossible in many of the STEM PhD programs in the US. A lab-mate of mine

by quanics 14y ago

I think hardhead might have just been referring to keeping a "full time job" which is impossible in many of the STEM PhD programs in the US. A lab-mate of mine has a child, and I know a few others in my program that have children as well. Almost all STEM PhD programs offer stipends for TAs and/or RAs, so you might get on the order of 20K/year to be a student. That being said, there are no shortage of people claiming the grad student -> postdoc -> nontenured prof. -> tenured prof. route is hostile to those wanting a family.

hardhead 14y ago
Quanics is correct. I would never recommend paying your own way at a graduate program--go where you are funded. A graduate stipend will net to about $20k/year (there are some amazing fellowships that will fund $50k+ but they are very, very competitive). In a "real job" you'll often be making much more than $20k, as I was when I was a higher ed IT professional (and could have qualified for free tuition as an institutional employee). PhD programs are rated by several factors including graduation rate and time to completion. It is obvious to me now that the people who are choosing the students to fill the very limited number of graduate student seats in any given year will choose those who are committing to work full time on graduating. Many people do complain about academia being hostile to family life (see http://100rsns.blogspot.com/2010/09/15-marriage-and-family-usually-wait.html http://100rsns.blogspot.com/2010/09/15-marriage-and-family-u... for a particularly negative view). However, many of my colleagues had children during graduate school. They took time off classes but then used their "down time" (e.g. child napping) to focus on writing and came out ahead. I got married immediately before entering grad school and had my first child as I was writing my dissertation. The timing worked really well for me. I was lucky that my wife could support me through graduate school (on top of my stipend).

by quanics 14y ago

hardhead 14y ago

Quanics is correct. I would never recommend paying your own way at a graduate program--go where you are funded. A graduate stipend will net to about $20k/year (there are some amazing fellowships that will fund $50k+ but they are very, very competitive). In a "real job" you'll often be making much more than $20k, as I was when I was a higher ed IT professional (and could have qualified for free tuition as an institutional employee). PhD programs are rated by several factors including graduation rate and time to completion. It is obvious to me now that the people who are choosing the students to fill the very limited number of graduate student seats in any given year will choose those who are committing to work full time on graduating. Many people do complain about academia being hostile to family life (see http://100rsns.blogspot.com/2010/09/15-marriage-and-family-usually-wait.html http://100rsns.blogspot.com/2010/09/15-marriage-and-family-u... for a particularly negative view). However, many of my colleagues had children during graduate school. They took time off classes but then used their "down time" (e.g. child napping) to focus on writing and came out ahead. I got married immediately before entering grad school and had my first child as I was writing my dissertation. The timing worked really well for me. I was lucky that my wife could support me through graduate school (on top of my stipend).