Another PhD question....

[keweenawlove]

Reading about how long some of you spent on your PhD got me thinking... Were you funded the whole time or did you have to pay? I'm lucky to be on a 5 year grant that pays my tuition, stipend, and benefits. It’s not great pay but with DH working full time, we do ok. I think it would be a lot harder decide to gut it out if I wasn’t making anything.

[NachoProblem]

I'm finishing my 5th year and I have about another year to go. I have guaranteed funding for 7 full years but I seriously hope it doesn't take that long.

[drloretta]

I had a stipend, and tuition and basic healthcare were covered. My stipend was a whopping $9-12K/year. I got so tired of being poor.

[Deleted]

I am funded. I would have been out of here otherwise.

[missmis99]

I had no funding. I took out loans for it all. My last year I was a GA which paid for my tuition, but since I quit my job I needed the loans still to live off of.

[lanyac]

Tuition was paid, and I get an additional stipend of $25k a year.

[80sjunkie]

Tuition, stipend, and benefits (though not initially) for 5 years.

[5thofjuly]

Tuition, health insurance, and around $18k/year for part time TAing or RAing was guaranteed for 7 years. We weren't guaranteed summer funding, but all of us who were progressing normally in the program got it every year.

[honeybee]

Tuition, benefits, 21K stipend.... Guaranteed 4 years of TAing... I've used 1 year and had a grant funded RA another.

[cahabalily]

redbellpeppers said:

I am funded. I would have been out of here otherwise.

This exactly. It's crazy to pay for a PhD when so many excellent programs will fund...

[Deleted]

May 22, 2012 17:19:57 GMT -5 cahabalily said:

redbellpeppers said:

I am funded. I would have been out of here otherwise.

This exactly. It's crazy to pay for a PhD when so many excellent programs will fund...

Not everyone in my program has been so fortunate. My adviser is very well-funded, but NIH/NSF grants are hard to come by these days. But I haven't heard of anyone paying tuition; the stipend is just paid via a teaching assistantship if their adviser can't afford to pay them a research assistantship.