phd stipend database

CSStipendRankings: PhD Stipend Rankings

CSStipendRankings is a stipend-based ranking of top-paying computer science departments in US. We may implement support for other countries and you are welcomed to contribute! For a real academic ranking, please refer to CSRankings . For reviewing individual PhD advisors, please refer to PI Review .

• Stipend is the minimal amount of pre-tax allowance graciously granted by the institution to its PhD students. Currently, we support displaying (1) the stipend received by the majority of students , (2) the minimal guaranteed stipend , and (3) the stipend that students receive during the semester only . Note that some departments do not have guaranteed summer funding , and we are currently working to collect such data. For now, this data is not complete.
• Fees are annual non-reimbursible tariffs (including health insurance) reclaimed by said institution. See why health insurance is included in here. If the institution charges a CPT fee or summer enrollment fee for international students, they should also be counted here. In short, this should be the maximum possible fee that the institution charges.
• Living cost is calculated based on the MIT Living Wage Calculator for the institution's city. See why we use this calculator and its limitations in here .
• summer-gtd , indicating summer funding is guaranteed in this department.
• varies , indicating the amount of funding varies from advisor to advisor in this department.
• no-guarantee , indicating this department does not guarantee any funding at all (at least for a subset of its enrolled PhD students, where a PhD student is defined as a graduate student who is required to conduct research under an advisor to graduate and get a degree). Anyone who can prove this is welcomed and encouraged to submit an issue, and we will add this label immediately. See the reason here .
• cpt-fee , indicating international students in this department need to pay a fee for their CPT applications.
• striking , indicating this department is currently under a strike.
• , indicating the stipend is verified for the semesters, but not for the summer. This icon also serves as a hyperlink to the document used for verification, if the document is uploaded to a publicly accessible location, such as GitHub issues.
• , indicating we have a survey for this department. If you are a PhD student at this department, please click the icon to fill it.

To raise issues/comments : We believe issues and comments should be discussed and resolved publicly on GitHub for transparency. If you believe any data is inaccurate or have additional comments, please open an issue or a pull request . The maintainers will not respond to private messages sent to their personal or university accounts regarding this website.

* We have noticed discrepancies in the data reported for this university or department, and we suspect that it may not be entirely accurate. If you have access to more reliable information, we would appreciate it if you could share it with us.

This ranking is part informational and part satire, designed to democratize information on how PhD students in computer science and related areas are paid for their labor – inadequately , in most cases.

Most of the frontend code of this website is from CSRankings , and we intentionally used the same template. The code of this website can be found at https://github.com/CSStipendRankings/CSStipendRankings , and the data presented can be found as a CSV file here .

Contributing: Everyone is welcomed to submit patches or report the stipend via pull requests . Also, feel free to submit issues on GitHub . We encourage submitting datapoints through issues due to its ability to facilitate public discussion. Additionally, it provides the advantage of creating a hyperlink on the checkmark that directs to the corresponding issue. In most cases, we will respond to a submitted issue within a few days.

Frequent-Asked Questions: Please see FAQs here .

Disclaimer: CSStipendRankings is designed to highlight stipend situations across various institutions, based on user-submitted information. We try our best to verify their accuracy, but we cannot guarantee they are correct or up-to-date. Ultimately, while we hope you find this information useful, this should not be used as the primary basis for grad school decisions . We advocate users to do their own research before making life decisions.

THIS SOFTWARE AND INFORMATION IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

CSStipendRankings is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License . The frontend (i.e., CSS and HTML) of this website is based on code licensed from CSRankings, a work at https://github.com/emeryberger/CSrankings . The copyright of CSRankings is owned by Emery Berger . The copyright of the non-CSRankings part of CSStipendRankings is owned by its contributors .

English PhD Stipends in the United States: Statistical Report

By Eric Weiskott

This report presents the results of research into stipends for PhD candidates in English conducted between summer 2021 and spring 2022. The report surveys the top 135 universities in the U.S. News and World Report 2022 “Best National University Ranking,” plus the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Of these universities, 80 offer a PhD in English and guarantee full funding for five or more years. Graduate administrators at three universities declined to grant permission to have current or historical stipend amounts published, citing legal concerns (appendix A). The remaining 77 institutions form the data set. Stipend amounts are expressed in absolute dollars (table 1), in cost-of-living-adjusted dollars (table 2), relative to endowment size for universities with institutional endowments of $3.5 billion or less (figure 1), and broken down by type of university (public or private) (tables 3a–3b) and by region (tables 4a–4d).

The stipend data were gathered by consulting program websites and, if no URL is cited, by canvassing departmental faculty and staff members responsible for administering English PhD programs, often holding the title “Director of Graduate Studies” (DGS). 1 In some cases, the standard stipend must be expressed as a dollar range rather than a fixed amount, for reasons specified in the notes.

All figures given in this report are gross pay, reflecting neither tax withholding schemes nor any mandatory student fees. All figures are rounded to the nearest dollar. All figures reflect the base or standard stipend offer, not including supplemental funding offered on a competitive basis at the department, college, or university level. All figures represent twelve-month pay, regardless of whether the program distinguishes between academic-year stipend and any summer stipend, provided both are guaranteed. While every effort was made to procure academic year 2021–22 or 2022–23 figures, in a few cases this was not possible. A limitation of the data therefore is that they mix current and recent stipend amounts. For some programs, the standard stipend increases or decreases during the course of the degree. Where the changes in pay occur in specific years, they are accordingly factored into the numbers given in the report, which represent a five-year average in these instances. However, where the changes depend on the unpredictable completion of program requirements, or reflect differential pay based on past degrees earned or not earned at the time of matriculation, I express the standard stipend as a range. Because programs with a stipend range are ranked and averaged according to the average of the low and high ends of the range, the report may slightly overstate or understate the total value of the stipend over the length of the degree depending how candidates tend to move through those programs, or depending on the academic background of the candidates who matriculate into them.

Cost-of-living comparisons were made using Nerdwallet ’s cost-of-living calculator (“Cost”), checked against the standardized cost-of-living rating on BestPlaces (“2022 Cost”).  Nerdwallet ’s calculator has the advantage of splitting up geography into medium-sized benchmark areas, often roughly corresponding to a commutable radius around a town or city, as opposed to the jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction comparisons of BestPlaces and other cost-of-living calculators, which would be more pertinent to real estate purchases. However, use of the Nerdwallet tool entails limitations, occasionally acute. Some university campuses are located closer to available Nerdwallet benchmarks than others. Certain rural and suburban campuses are located in jurisdictions with somewhat higher or lower cost of living than the closest available Nerdwallet benchmark, often a city. These limitations were corrected for in the more severe cases and to the extent possible by averaging multiple benchmarks selected for geographic proximity and comparable cost of living (as given on BestPlaces ) to the location of the campus, as noted in each case in table 2. The possibility of PhD candidates’ commuting to campus from a distance greater than the radius of a Nerdwallet benchmark, not to mention the possibility of their living farther afield when teaching remotely in the COVID-19 pandemic or dissertating, further complicates a direct benchmark-to-benchmark cost-of-living conversion.

It was particularly difficult to determine the cost of living for one campus, Rutgers University, New Brunswick. This is because Rutgers is within commuting distance of New York, the highest cost-of-living metropolitan area in the United States, coupled with the fact that the Nerdwallet benchmark to which the city of New Brunswick belongs, “Middlesex-Monmouth,” covers two New Jersey counties that include many towns as distant from New Brunswick to the south and west as Brooklyn and Manhattan are to the north and east. That is, New Brunswick is inadvantageously situated in its Nerdwallet benchmark for the purposes of stating an average cost of living that captures patterns of commuting to and from campus. Commutes from south and west of campus are included, while commutes from north and east are excluded. In the Midwest and West, where Nerdwallet tends to have fewer benchmark areas, suburban and smaller urban campuses within commuting distance of a large city often are benchmarked to that city—for example, the University of Colorado, Boulder, to the Denver benchmark and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, to the Detroit benchmark. It would therefore seem to be inconsistent to omit to factor New York into the cost-of-living-adjusted value of a stipend paid by Rutgers University, New Brunswick, particularly as the difference between the cost of living in New York and New Brunswick is so much greater than the difference between the cost of living in Detroit and Ann Arbor, or between Denver and Boulder. My solution, to average the average of the Nerdwallet results for Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens together with the results for Middlesex-Monmouth, is an admittedly provisional one that risks overstating the cost of living of pursuing a PhD in English at Rutgers, which, after all, is not located in Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Queens. In a private communication, the DGS reports that a little over one quarter of current Rutgers English graduate candidates reside in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, or adjacent Jersey City, NJ. I consider this proportion large enough to confirm my initial expectation that the very high cost of living in New York should factor into an estimate of the cost of living associated with a Rutgers English PhD in some way. I have not systematically polled DGSs about where candidates live. If nothing else, I hope the difficult case of Rutgers illuminates the limitations of representing cost of living with a single standardized number in an age of urban agglomeration, rapid transport, and a prevailing tolerance for work commutes of up to one hour or so.

Endowment figures (figure 1) were drawn from the fiscal year 2020 statistical report on North American university endowments published by the National Association of College and University Business Officers ( U.S. and Canadian Institutions ).

This stipend report is not a substitute for a holistic assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of an individual PhD program and is not intended to guide prospective PhD applicants toward or away from any given program. The report does not take account of such significant variables as relative strength of the program in the applicant’s area of specialty; any competitive fellowships and stipends available; exam requirements burden; teaching and service expectations; cultural life and nearby off-campus intellectual institutions; the number of years of full funding guaranteed past five, if any; or record of placing graduates into full-time academic employment. The report isolates the stipend as one important factor among several shaping the experience, opportunity cost, and financial, intellectual, and professional benefit of pursuing graduate study in English. Graduate candidates are workers as well as students, and the stipend is their salary. It is hoped that by understanding these data, program administrators, graduate administrators, department chairs, current PhDs, and prospective PhD applicants can form an evidence-based impression of what the English PhD pays around the country and in divergent institutional and regional settings.

For completeness, appendixes list the universities among the 135 that either offer the PhD in English but do not guarantee full funding for five or more years (appendix B) or do not offer the PhD in English (appendix C). Note

1 I thank Anna Chang for assistance gathering updated stipend amounts at a late stage of the project.

Works Cited

“Best National University Rankings.” U.S. News and World Report , 2022, www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities .

“Cost of Living Calculator.” Nerdwallet , 2022, www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator .

“2022 Cost of Living Calculator.” BestPlaces , 2022, www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/ .

U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Endowment Market Value and Change in Endowment Market Value from FY19 to FY20 . National Association of College and University Business Officers , 2021, www.nacubo.org/-/media/Documents/Research/2020-NTSE-Public-Tables–Endowment-Market-Values–FINAL-FEBRUARY-19-2021.ashx.

Table 1. English PhD Standard Stipend Nationwide Comparison

Table 1 Average: $25,006

Table 1 Median: $25,000   

Table 1 Notes

1 The figure reflects a stipend of $30,800 for the first year and $36,570 thereafter, averaged over five years.

2 gfs.stanford.edu/salary/salary22/tal_all.pdf . I obtained this figure by tripling the standard arts and sciences per-quarter rate to reflect Stanford University’s three-quarter, nine-month academic year.

3 The figure reflects an academic-year stipend of $27,605 ($3,067 per month), plus a summer stipend that is the average of the 2020–21 summer stipend of $5,300 ($1,767 per month) and three months of the 2021–22 academic-year rate—namely, $7,251 ($2,417 per month). Brown University is phasing in a summer stipend to match the academic-year stipend over the next year.

4 www.tgs.northwestern.edu/funding/index.html .

5 gsas.yale.edu/resources-students/finances-fellowships/stipend-payments#:~:text=students%20receive%20a%20semi%2Dmonthly,2022%20academic%20year%20is%20%2433%2C600 .

6 The figure reflects an academic-year stipend of $28,654, plus a summer stipend of $6,037 for the first four years, averaged over five years.

7 today.duke.edu/2019/04/duke-makes-12-month-funding-commitment-phd-students#:~:text=students%20in%20their%20guaranteed%20funding,54%20programs%20across%20the%20university .

8 english.rutgers.edu/images/5_10_2021_-_Fall_2022_grad_website_updated_des_of_funding_for_prospectives.pdf . The figure reflects an academic-year stipend of $25,000 for the first year and $29,426 thereafter, plus a summer stipend of $5,000 the first summer and $2,500 each of the next two summers, averaged over five years.

9 The figure is anticipated for 2022–23 following an admissions pause in 2021–22.

10 The low figure is a teaching assistant offer; the high figure is a university fellowship. While funding in excess of the rate for teaching assistants is competitive, it is also de facto guaranteed: for 2021–22, all eight offers of admission exceeded the rate for teaching assistants.

11 policy.wisc.edu/library/UW-1238 . The figure reflects a stipend of $25,000 with $1,000 in summer funding in year 3 and $4,500 in summer funding in years 4-5, averaged over five years.

12 The figures reflect a stipend range of $18,240–$25,000 for the first year and $23,835 thereafter, averaged over five years.

13 The figure reflects a stipend of $25,166 for the first year, $24,166 for the second through fourth years, and $19,000 for the fifth year, averaged over five years.

14 grad.ucdavis.edu/sites/default/files/upload/files/facstaff/salary_21-22_october_2021.pdf . I obtained this figure by halving the standard teaching assistant annual rate to reflect the rule that PhD candidates at the University of California, Davis, may work no more than half time.

15 Lehigh University guarantees full funding for five years for candidates classified as full-time. This includes all candidates except a few who are nontraditional students and bring an outside salary or other outside funding to the degree.

16 miamioh.edu/cas/academics/departments/english/admission/graduate-admission/graduate-funding/teaching-positions/index.html .

17 The figures reflect an academic-year stipend of $17,100, plus a summer stipend range of $2,500–$5,000.

18 The figures reflect a stipend of $23,688 for the first year and a range of $19,480–$20,250 thereafter, averaged over five years.

19 hr.uic.edu/hr-staff-managers/compensation/minima-for-graduate-appointments/ .

20 The University of Utah guarantees full funding for five years for those entering with a BA but four years for those entering with an MA.

21 Among the doctoral degrees offered by the English department at Purdue University, West Lafayette, the one in question is the PhD in literature, theory, and cultural studies.

22 The University of Florida guarantees full funding for six years for those entering with a BA but four years for those entering with an MA.

23 These figures reflect the range between FTE .40 at level I (BA holder, precandidacy) and FTE .49 at level II (MA holder, advanced to candidacy). See https://graduatestudies.uoregon.edu/funding/ge/salary-benefits for a schedule of salaries.

Table 2. English PhD Standard Stipend Nationwide Comparison, Adjusted for Cost of Living (Expressed in Boston-Area Dollars)

Table 2 Average: $33,060

Table 2 Median: $31,718

Table 2 Notes

1 I used the benchmark for Philadelphia, which, although geographically distant from State College / University Park, has a more comparable cost of living than other benchmarks for Pennsylvania.

2 For programs located in New York City—in this listing, Columbia University; New York University; Graduate Center, City University of New York; and Fordham University—I averaged the results for Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens.

3 I averaged the results for Austin and Houston.

4 I averaged the New York City triborough average with the results for Middlesex-Monmouth, NJ. This reflects Rutgers’s liminal geographic location: it is much closer to New York City, without being in the city, than any other campus on this list, and a substantial minority of Rutgers PhD candidates commute to campus from the city.

5 I averaged the results for San Francisco and Oakland.

6 I averaged the results for Bakersfield and San Diego. While Los Angeles is closer geographically, it has a much higher cost of living than Riverside and is just outside of convenient commuting range.

7 I averaged the results for Boston and Pittsfield.

8 I averaged the results for Queens and Albany, a better approximation of the cost of living on eastern Long Island than averaging the cost of living in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens.

9 I averaged the results for Los Angeles and San Francisco.

10 I averaged the results for Washington, DC, and Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, MD.

Table 3a. English PhD Standard Stipend Nationwide Comparison: Private Universities

Table 3a Average: $28,653

Table 3a Median: $28,967

Table 3b. English PhD Standard Stipend Nationwide Comparison: Public Universities

Table 3b Average: $22,230

Table 3b Median: $21,500

Table 4a. English PhD Standard Stipend Comparison: West and Southwest

Table 4a Average: $25,661

Table 4a Median: $25,500

Table 4b. English PhD Standard Stipend Comparison: Midwest

Table 4b Average: $23,234

Table 4b Median: $21,966

Table 4c. English PhD Standard Stipend Comparison: Northeast

Table 4c Average: $26,741

Table 4c Median: $26,235

Table 4d. English PhD Standard Stipend Comparison: South

Table 4d Average: $22,438

Table 4d Median: $20,881

Appendix A. English PhD Programs Declining to Have Stipend Data Published

Appendix b. english phd programs not guaranteeing full funding for five or more years.

Appendix B Notes

1 The department will “attempt to fully fund all students admitted to the PhD program for five years” ( english.columbian.gwu.edu/graduate-admissions-aid#phd ).

2 Guarantees full funding for four years.

3 “All admitted students receive a multi-year funding package” ( www.humanities.uci.edu/english/graduate/index.php ).

4 Guarantees full funding for four years.

Appendix C. Universities Not Offering the PhD in English

Appendix C Notes

* Offers a terminal MA in English.

1 Offers a terminal MA in literature, culture, and technology.

2 Offers a terminal MA in English literature and publishing.

3 Offers a PhD in rhetoric and professional communication.

4 Offers a PhD in communication, rhetoric, and digital media.

5 Offers a PhD in communication and rhetoric.

6 Offers a PhD in literature. The University of California, Davis, and the University of Kansas also offer a PhD in literature, yet, unlike the University of California, San Diego, or the University of California, Santa Cruz, the Davis and Kansas degrees are housed in English departments and retain an explicitly anglophone focus.

7 Offers a PhD in rhetoric and writing.

*Campus-specific endowment information is not available in the National Association of College and University Business Officers report.

Eric Weiskott is professor of English at Boston College, where he directs the English PhD program. His most recent book is  Meter and Modernity in English Verse, 1350–1650  (U of Pennsylvania P, 2021).

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your e-mail address will not be published. Required fields are marked * .

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

Are you sure?

MIT Graduate Student Cost of Living Analysis

—Read the  2023 GSC Cost of Living Memo —

At any university, setting graduate compensation requires attention to four principles:

• Adequacy : Does student income cover the minimum costs of working and studying?
• Consistency : Is students’ purchasing power at least as high as past years?
• Equity : Is support adequate for students with unavoidably higher expenses and fewer outside resources?
• Competitiveness : Will the school’s financial offer be attractive to an admitted graduate student?

MIT graduate students, in large majority, are compensated for research and teaching with stipends. At MIT, there has been broad agreement that student stipend rates should meet these principles. The “business case” is strong: the real cost of research must cover the basic living costs of MIT’s student research producers. Stipends must attract talented students with alternatives in other graduate programs. MIT’s longstanding mission to “afford instruction to all those prepared to benefit from its teachings” can only be met when graduate students can afford to live where they work.

Agreement on these principles has produced a collaborative approach to stipend-setting between students and administrators. Since 2003, GSC has worked with MIT administrators and faculty to measure costs of living and recommend annual stipend increases and other policies that meet these goals. Until this year, a committee of students—advised by faculty and staff—developed a model and presented its findings to MIT’s leadership annually. MIT administrators have met or exceeded the GSC’s stipend recommendation nearly every year.

The GSC is proud that its stipend framework has established a broad and competitive stipend floor for our colleagues. The approach draws on the MIT traditions of collaboratively modeling problems and making evidence-based decisions.

With the formation of the MIT Graduate Student Union in 2022, union leadership is now the exclusive representative on income and benefits related to graduate employment. Discussing and negotiating graduate student benefits with MIT administrators is now the sole responsibility of the union. However, the GSC cost-of-living analysis can offer a transparent, baseline estimate of changes in graduate living standards.

How We Model MIT’s Graduate Student Cost of Living

The GSC has built three tools to assesses whether stipends adequately cover costs and remain consistent over time:

• A triennial  Graduate   Student Cost of Living survey (CoL survey) , which asks MIT graduate students to share recurring and nonrecurring expenses. The MIT Office of Institutional Research administers this survey.
• An  MIT Graduate Student Cost of Living index (CoL index) , which estimates cost of living changes in years between surveys. Because broad inflation indices describe an average urban U.S. household whose expenses are unlike that of a typical student, this index reweights item-specific local price indices against students’ surveyed expenses.
• An  MIT Graduate Student Living Wage model , which uses the CoL survey, the CoL index, campus service costs, and tax simulation to establish a bundle of minimum costs to attend MIT. The model also shows added costs incurred by families and international students. This approach borrows features from other expenditure-based living wage models.

These tools let us estimate how well stipends cover expenses and by how much stipends must grow to  maintain or improve student purchasing power.

In addition to tracking year-over-year changes, GSC analysis also pinpoints drivers of financial hardship for differently-situated students. For example, the systematic hardships and income constraints faced by student families are MIT’s universal  grants for students with children . Similarly, the GSC’s past advocacy for relocation grants and international student support is driven by the higher observed minimum expenditures for international students.

About the MIT Cost of Living Index

In 2012, the GSC introduced a “Cost of Living at MIT” model, which uses BLS Consumer Price Indices to make adjustments to the expenditures reported in our student surveys. By weighting annual local inflation indices by reported spending, the index estimates students’ annual inflation exposure.

The model primarily uses item-level U.S. Consumer Price Indices for the Boston metro area. Since 2021, we have also tracked the  Zillow Observed Rent Index  (ZORI) to capture changes in housing rents, although our model continues to use local CPI for rent as our measure of the off-campus market. [1]

Differences from the average U.S. consumer has usually meant that MIT student inflation exceeds  the U.S. CPI-U index. Student spending on local transportation and healthcare is lower than that of a typical U.S. consumer, but students spend more on other categories. For example, past surveys show students allocating 45–56% of their spending to housing, a much higher fraction than a typical Boston resident. MIT graduate students are thus heavily exposed to conditions in the local housing market.

About the MIT Graduate Student Living Cost Model

Expenditure-based living wage models (like the well-known  MIT Living Wage Calculator ) estimate the income required to cover a household’s required local spending. Because student compensation is not set by students’ performance or outside earning power, an expenditure-based living cost analysis is a reasonable guideline to setting student wage floors. The costs of funding a graduate student, at the minimum, should correspond to a students’ minimum living costs.

Although structurally similar, the GSC model yields a living cost estimate that is more conservative than other living wage models like the  MIT Living Wage Calculator ,  EPI Family Budget Calculator,  or  United Way’s ALICE  calculator. This is because expenditure-based living wage models impose living standards that are not typical of MIT students, like sole occupancy of a one-bedroom apartment, car-based commuting, and meals exclusively cooked at home. Our model is instead calibrated to MIT students’ prevailing living conditions.

The Graduate Living Wage model is built from three major inputs. First, it includes inflation-adjusted expenses in the CoL survey, like off-campus housing rent and food costs. [2]  These items include costs that living wage models omit, like annual travel to see family and a modest allocation for entertainment. The model also amortizes unavoidable costs of attending MIT, like moving and purchasing a computer.

Second, the model includes changes in the “direct” costs that students pay, including:

• Uncovered medical insurance premiums (e.g. dental insurance, spousal insurance)
• Student life fees
• On-campus rent, weighted by the fraction of on-campus students

Third, it simulates state and federal income taxes based on prevailing stipend levels, inclusive of adjustments to income.

Interpretive Limitations

Like other living wage models, the GSC model cannot answer the question of whether students’ reported costs create living conditions that are normatively “adequate.”  However, the GSC triennial survey does show financial distress and dissavings are strongly correlated to student funding levels. MIT students in unfunded programs and partial appointments report significantly higher levels of distress.

Covering students’ reported expenses should not be seen as a guarantor of student financial security. Like other living wage models, a wage based on representative expenditures does not provide emergency savings or an allowance for debt service. Similarly, we cannot measure how students’ budget constraint sets other life choices. For example, if student income constraints factor into a household’s decision to postpone childbirth, that is not something the model captures.

Finally, modeling a “median student” omits higher unavoidable costs that some students must pay. Students with dependents have more costly and limited housing options, on top of which they must pay for family insurance, food,  childcare. Similarly, must pay higher moving, travel, immigration, and tax costs. [3]  Many international spouses also face work restrictions that require the household to live by a single source of income. Like stipend income, these household-level cost disadvantages are a strong correlate of financial distress.

To address these unaccounted-for factors, we recommend that universities:

• Allow departments to pay rates above a university-wide stipend floor
• Establish a stipend floor that exceeds student living costs by at least 10%
• Provide child grants and international student support that cover systematically higher costs, particularly for student households facing visa-related work restrictions
• Implement hardship programs that cover idiosyncratic and unpredictable expenses

The GSC’s living wage model is easily adapted at other U.S. schools. We have found that providing this analysis creates broader and better graduate support, rather than subsidizing research production by underfunding graduate students. Our annual updates also reveal the component drivers of graduate students’ cost of living, and thus identify university investments most likely to lead to improved financial security and lower graduate student costs.

Data Limitations

Changes in the relative price of goods change what consumers buy. Under uneven inflation, consumers shift spending to lower-inflation goods. For example, costlier flights may cause more spending on local travel. Between surveys, the model cannot adjust for shifts in students’ consumption basket, so it proceeds from a fixed baseline expense.

The GSC inflation model is calibrated to track survey-to-survey changes in student spending with the least error. However, certain items in the survey may not measure a constant living standard. This is particularly problematic for off-campus rent: if students move to lower-quality housing options between surveys, reported rents do not capture these losses. By contrast, on-campus rent inflation reflects a nearly-constant living standard, since rents are measured for a constant set of units.

Peer Competitiveness

The GSC collects information on stipend rates from graduate schools to which MIT students are most frequently cross-admitted. This data helps determine whether MIT offer letters are attractive when compared against other graduate school offers. [4]  

In addition to the nominal offers reflected in admit letters, the GSC tests whether MIT stipends offer purchasing parity, i.e. adjusting for regional differences in consumer prices. The adjustment is based on  metropolitan-level regional price parities  from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. [5]  

Finally, the GSC has historically tracked the “fringe benefits” offered by other graduate programs and grants for students who face unique financial constraints. This helps MIT gauge competitiveness across all forms of financial support made available to graduate students.

Universities often track the stated reasons cross-admitted graduate students go to other schools, including whether financial offers were better elsewhere. While these surveys provide the stated import students place on gaps in financial offers, this detailed analysis plainly shows the magnitude of differences in graduate student compensation. Graduate students can benefit by reporting and comparing their wage levels through programs like the  PhD Stipends  database.

Stipend Recommendation Reports

This page offers an archive of our annual reports since 2002. Readers interested in our approach should contact the chairs of the MIT GSC Housing and Community Affairs Committee ( [email protected] ).

Other Cost of Living reports

Contributors to Stipend Recommendations

2022: Nick Allen, Vaishnavi Ramaswamy, Sebastian Sandoval Olascoaga, Denise Tellbach, Vincent Yu

2021: Nick Allen, Vaishnavi Ramaswamy, Sebastian Sandoval Olascoaga, Denise Tellbach, Vincent Yu

2020: Mohammad Islam, Alex Joerger, Gabrielle Robbins, Madeleine Sutherland, Jerry Ng, Nick Allen

2019: Mohammad Islam, Nicholas Triantafillou

2018: Nicholas Triantafillou, Malvika Verma, Sarah Shapiro

2017: Angie Crews, George Chao

2016: Boris Braverman, Andrea Dubin

2015: Marzyeh Ghassemi, Andrea Dubin, Caleb Waugh

2014: Marzyeh Ghassemi, Andrea Dubin, Caleb Waugh

2013: Randi Cabezas, Nathaniel Schafheimer, Idan Blank, Sven Schlumberger

2012: Maokai Lin, Brian Spatocco, Randi Cabezas, Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi, Ellan Spero

2011: Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi, Brian Spatocco, Randi Cabezas, Victor Wang

2010: Wendy Lam, Matthew Walker

2009: Unknown

2008: Unknown

2003: Barun Singh

Other student contributors: Ayelet Boasson, Cristie Charles, Michael Folkert, Yohai Kaspi, Trevor McKee, Alexander Mitsos, Andréa Schmidt, Kendra Vant, Oren Zuckerman

[1]  The Consumer Price Index for housing rent is created by surveying current renters, both movers and non-movers. CPI-Rent is known to lag market changes because rents change more for movers. By contrast, ZORI measures changes in same-unit asking rents, measuring rents when leases turn over.  Adams et al. (2022)  explain correspondence between these indices in detail.

[2]  Reported student spending could exceed survival costs. We validate reported spending against federal measures like HUD Fair Market Rents and USDA household food plans.

[3]  One example: most international students cannot take the standard deduction on federal income taxes, which represents a $1,400 tax increase for a typical international student.

[4]  If a university has no minimum stipend, we compare MIT stipends to the degree program with which MIT most frequently competes.

[5]  Several commercially-available indices offer the same comparisons, but they are calibrated for the expenses of high-wage earners and not well suited to students.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• CAREER FEATURE
• 23 May 2022

PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

• Chris Woolston 0

Chris Woolston is a freelance writer in Billings, Montana.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Salaries for PhD students in the biological sciences fall well below the basic cost of living at almost every institution and department in the United States, according to data collected by two PhD students.

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 51 print issues and online access

185,98 € per year

only 3,65 € per issue

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 605 , 775-777 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01392-w

Related Articles

• Institutions

How scientists are making the most of Reddit

Career Feature 01 APR 24

Overcoming low vision to prove my abilities under pressure

Career Q&A 28 MAR 24

How a spreadsheet helped me to land my dream job

Career Column 28 MAR 24

Larger or longer grants unlikely to push senior scientists towards high-risk, high-reward work

Nature Index 25 MAR 24

A fresh start for the African Academy of Sciences

Editorial 19 MAR 24

Numbers highlight US dominance in clinical research

Nature Index 13 MAR 24

Senior Scientist, Research

Be part of something altogether life-changing!  Working at Cytiva means being at the forefront of providing new solutions to transform human heal...

Vancouver, British Columbia (CA)

Postdoctoral positions in the integrative structural biology of cancer and immunity

Postdoctoral positions in the integrative structural biology study of signaling complexes important in cancer and the immune system

Farmington, Connecticut (US)

University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC)

Faculty Positions & Postdocs at Institute of Physics (IOP), Chinese Academy of Sciences

IOP is the leading research institute in China in condensed matter physics and related fields. Through the steadfast efforts of generations of scie...

Beijing, China

Institute of Physics (IOP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

Postdoctoral Scholar - PHAST Alzheimer

Memphis, Tennessee

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC)

Postdoctoral Associate- Neurodevelopmental Disease

Houston, Texas (US)

Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Want to Get your Dissertation Accepted?

Discover how we've helped doctoral students complete their dissertations and advance their academic careers!

Join 200+ Graduated Students

Get Your Dissertation Accepted On Your Next Submission

Get customized coaching for:.

• Crafting your proposal,
• Collecting and analyzing your data, or
• Preparing your defense.

Trapped in dissertation revisions?

Phd stipends: all your questions answered, published by steve tippins on june 26, 2022 june 26, 2022.

Last Updated on: 2nd February 2024, 03:04 am

What are PhD stipends? When you enter a PhD program, you can also get financial support in the form of tuition reduction, free tuition, and PhD stipends. That means compensation for work you’ll do, such as teaching or being a research assistant. Typically, traditional, face-to-face universities and PhD programs—as opposed to online programs from non-traditional schools—will compensate you for being a PhD student.

Do All PhD Students Get a Stipend?

Not all PhD students get stipends. However, most students in traditional programs do get stipends because these are full-time programs that require full-time attention, if not more.

It’s very difficult to keep a job of any kind and be in a full-time doctoral program. In order to have students at an institution, the institution has to make up for the income students lose by not working. PhD students are valuable labor for institutions because it costs less to pay them to teach classes and do research support than someone who has already earned a PhD .

What Is a Good Stipend for a PhD Student?

The average phd stipend.

The average annual stipend in the United States ranges between about $23,000 and $33,000 per year. You’re not going to get rich as a PhD student on one of these stipends, but you can survive.

The Highest PhD Stipend

The highest PhD stipends that most students can get are around $30,000 to $33,000. Interestingly, stipends vary by discipline. The higher stipends tend to be in disciplines where it’s harder to find doctoral students or easier to find PhD jobs.  

Education or musicology will have a stipend below $20,000 on average, and there aren’t a lot of jobs for graduates in these disciplines. However, if you were to look at something like biomedical engineering, the stipend would probably be around $33,000.

There is a factor of supply and demand that goes into stipends, and these are averages across the US. They also vary slightly by institution.

Is a PhD Stipend Enough to Live On?

When you evaluate whether a PhD stipend statement is enough to live on, first think about where you’re going to school. Would $24,000 allow you to survive on your own in New York City? It would be really difficult to find someplace to rent under $2,000 a month. If you don’t have a strong desire to eat, maybe you could get by on something like that. 

On the other hand, if you are somewhere like Little Rock, Arkansas, where rent might be $600 a month, then you have $1,400 left for other things like food. It might be possible there. Many doctoral students share apartments and have roommates to make it easier to survive financially.

Can I Work While Doing a PhD?

You may be able to work a little bit while doing a PhD, though it’s very hard to have time to do much else besides focus on your degree. Some people come from previous jobs and can continue consulting. Some faculty members run consulting businesses and employ students to do more work than the stipend has them assigned to do. Just be aware that if you start making outside work a priority, eventually your stipends will go away.

Is a PhD Stipend Taxable?

We aren’t qualified to give tax advice, but in most cases stipends are considered taxable income to the doctoral student.

How Can PhD Students Earn Money Besides Their Stipend?

There are ways doctoral students can earn money outside of their PhD student stipend . Some doctoral students tutor students on the side. It used to be you could sell textbooks back to the manufacturer, but that’s become increasingly rare now that most textbooks are going electronic.

There are other opportunities like consulting based on previous contacts or working along with other faculty members to help them in their projects. 

In many cases, there are grants that you might receive in addition to your stipend. Apply for grants such as dissertation-writing grants or grants aligned with your demographic background or area of interest. Check with your institution’s financial aid office and with professional associations for grants.

How Often Is a PhD Stipend Paid?

PhD stipends are paid based on your university’s compensation schedule. If your university pays every two weeks, you’ll be paid every two weeks. If it pays once or twice a month, you’ll be paid once or twice a month.

Do PhD Stipends Increase Each Year?

Don’t count on a PhD stipend increasing every year. Universities have vast bureaucracies, and doctoral students are usually low on the pole of influence. If you get a stipend, assume that it will stay at that level. 

Be sure to also check the maximum duration of a PhD stipend. Some institutions have limits, so be aware if the limit is less than the average time it takes someone to complete a PhD.

Final Thoughts

A PhD stipend is a great thing. It allows you to keep living, albeit barely, while digging deep into your preferred area of interest. In most cases and locations, it’s high enough to subsist but low enough that you don’t want to hang around at that level for a long time.

Steve Tippins

Steve Tippins, PhD, has thrived in academia for over thirty years. He continues to love teaching in addition to coaching recent PhD graduates as well as students writing their dissertations. Learn more about his dissertation coaching and career coaching services. Book a Free Consultation with Steve Tippins

Related Posts

A Professor’s Top 3 Pieces of Advice for Ph.D. Students

When it comes to getting a Ph.D., there is no one-size-fits-all approach to ensuring success in graduate school. Every student must find their own path to navigating the most rigorous academic experience that most people Read more…

PhD Graduates: A Guide to Life After Your Degree

What do PhD students do after they graduate? What should they do? And what are the unexpected challenges and limitations they encounter? The first thing a PhD graduate should do is rest and gather their Read more…

Average Age of a PhD Student: When Is It Too Late?

In 2020, the average age of a graduate from a PhD program in the United States was 33. However, 6% of the graduates were over 45.  When people ask what the average age of a Read more…

Make This Your Last Round of Dissertation Revision.

Learn How to Get Your Dissertation Accepted .

Discover the 5-Step Process in this Free Webinar .

Almost there!

Please verify your email address by clicking the link in the email message we just sent to your address.

If you don't see the message within the next five minutes, be sure to check your spam folder :).

Hack Your Dissertation

5-Day Mini Course: How to Finish Faster With Less Stress

Interested in more helpful tips about improving your dissertation experience? Join our 5-day mini course by email!

Graduate School

Graduate student stipend information.

• Financing & Support
• Ph.D. Funding

The Graduate School offers incoming doctoral and MFA students financial packages intended to support excellence in graduate education and to enable students to devote themselves full time to their research and scholarship.

All recommendations for graduate student funding are made at the program level. Eligibility and awards are determined annually and are always conditional on students making satisfactory progress toward their degrees. Students with questions or concerns regarding Brown funding — including eligibility, awards, or renewals — should discuss them with the program’s Director of Graduate Study.

Brown's funded degree programs are residential programs that require full-time dedication in order to reach the goals of superior scholarship envisioned for all students. The Graduate School recognizes that training opportunities outside of regular appointments can play an important role in preparing graduate students for their careers and, for supported graduate students in good standing, the Graduate Council is supportive of such additional, paid training opportunities, as long as they do not exceed 12 hours per week. Additional details can be found on the Activities Outside of Stipended Appointments webpage and in the  Graduate School Handbook .

Stipend Information

2023-2024 stipend amounts.

FY24 Doctoral Base Stipends (July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024)

2024-2025 Stipend Amounts

FY25 Doctoral Base Stipends (July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025)

2025-2026 Stipend Amounts

FY26 Doctoral Base Stipends (July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2026)

Where to Find Stipend Information

Students receive an appointment letter through  Self Service Banner  (SSB) each term (fall, spring, and summer). You can find your appointment letters in  SSB  by logging in with your Brown username and password, then clicking on the 'Student' tab and selecting ‘Graduate Student Appointment Details’ at the bottom of the list. The appointment letter provides: 

• The appointment type and a general description of duties 
• The start and end dates of the appointment 
• The department in which the appointment is assigned 
• The total stipend amount for the term 
• Whether the appointment in the bargaining unit or not and union-related steps to take prior to the appointment starting

Calculating Monthly Amount

All stipended graduate students will receive their regular stipend payment at the end of each month (see the Student Employee FAQ section on the Controller’s Office  General Information/FAQ webpage ). Your Appointment Letter provides the total amount you will receive for that term and from that you can determine approximately how much you will receive at the end of each month (please note this is a pre-tax amount).

Fall and Spring Terms

The fall and spring funding periods are both 4.5 months in length. Fall runs September 1 - January 15 and spring runs January 16 - May 31 (these dates are detailed in your Appointment Letter). To determine how much you will receive each month, divide the stipend amount from your Appointment Letter by 4.5 months. 

Example:  Your Fall 2023 Appointment Letter shows a stipend amount of $16,421.63.  $16,421.63/ 4.5 months = $3,649.25 per month, pre-tax.

Summer Term

The summer term runs June 1 - August 31 and straddles two fiscal years. Students receiving a summer stipend will receive one month of stipend payment (June) at the rate of the fiscal year that is ending and two months of stipend payment (July and August) at the rate of the fiscal year that is starting. This means that the payment amount in June may be different from the amounts in July and August (though it will generally be the same as the amount from the previous July and August).

Example:  Your Summer 2024 Appointment Letter shows a stipend amount of $11,976.91. The 2023-2024 monthly stipend rate is $3,808.25 and you will receive that amount, pre tax, in June 2024 (the portion of the summer in the 2023-2024 fiscal year). The 2024-2025 monthly stipend rate is $4,084.33 and you will receive that amount, pre tax, in both July and August 2024 (the portion of the summer in the 2024-2025 fiscal year).

Effects of Appointment Type

A general overview and description of duties for student appointments can be found in the  Graduate School Handbook . Appointment types not only affect the type of work a student is performing during a term, but may also affect how the student’s stipend is taxed and will determine whether or not they are in the bargaining unit. For example, students appointed to fellowships do not generally have taxes taken out of their payments and are not in the bargaining unit, while students on assistantship appointments such as RA, TA, or Proctor, do have taxes withheld at the time of payment and are in the bargaining unit (and so must pay the GLO Membership Fee or the GLO Fair Share Fee). See the Tax Information and Graduate Student Union Information webpages for more information.

Steps Required to Receive Payments

All students must complete the I-9 process in order to receive payment from Brown. Students will be required to complete this process upon matriculating as well as anytime they return to active student status after taking a leave of absence. 

The I-9 process includes:

• Submitting the I-9 Form and completing all onboarding tasks in Workday (instructions can be found on the  I-9 Forms webpage ) 
• Visiting the HR Service Center, in person, (Page-Robinson Hall, Room 213) to present original, unexpired documentation for the I-9 Form. Please refer to the  List of Acceptable Documents  for guidance on the types of documents required. 

Sprintax Calculus

All international students are required to enter data pertaining to immigration and tax status in Sprintax Calculus each calendar year and if they extend their stay at Brown University. Students are also required to notify their department and [email protected] each time they leave the U.S. with their location and possible return date, and then again when they re-enter the country, regardless of the length of time they were away. Current information is required to ensure that correct taxes are applied. More information is available on the Controller’s Office Foreign National Payments and Taxation webpage. Note that the university previously used FNIS for this process, but has recently transitioned to Sprintax Calculus.

Effects of Student Location

A student’s location during the term (whether they are on campus or off campus in another state or country) plays a role in how the student’s payment is processed by Brown and may affect the taxes withheld. Students should let their program administrator know when they will be away from campus and international students should notify their department and [email protected] each time they leave the U.S. with their location and possible return date, and then again when they re-enter the country, regardless of the length of time they were away. To ensure that student payments are in compliance with all relevant tax laws, students may get questions about their current location and travel dates from their program administrator, the Graduate School, or the Controller’s Office. 

Receiving Stipend as Check or Direct Deposit

Information about how to sign up for direct deposit is found on the Controller’s Office  General Information/FAQ webpage . Note that students who sign up for direct deposit may still receive one more payment as a check if the direct deposit setup process is not fully completed prior to payments being disbursed. 

• Internal Funding & Appointments
• Tax Information
• Fellowships
• Student Payroll Procedures
• Graduate School Handbook
• Graduate Student Union Collective Bargaining Agreement  and current  stipend agreement
• Onboarding and I-9 process: HR Service Center,  [email protected]
• Tax related questions: Controller’s Office,  [email protected]
• Sprintax Calculus or tax related questions for international students: Controller’s Office,  [email protected]
• Visa questions or travel issues: OISSS,  [email protected]

PhysStipendRankings: PhD Stipend Rankings

PhysStipendRankings is a stipend-based ranking of top-paying Physics departments in US. We may implement support for other countries and you are welcomed to contribute! For a real academic ranking, please refer to U.S.News , etc.

• Stipend is the annual, 12-month, pre-tax allowance graciously granted by the institution. Note that some departments do not have guaranteed summer funding , and we are currently working to collect such data. Departments with summer funding guarentee are tagged with a summer label. For now, the list is not complete.
• Fees are annual non-reimbursible tariffs (including health insurance) reclaimed by said institution.
• Living cost is calculated based on the MIT Living Wage Calculator for the institution's city.

We have received a lot of comments that the living cost calculated by the MIT Living Cost Calculator does not really reflect the real living cost in multiple areas. We are considering alternative metrics and data sources. If you are aware of something we can use, please feel free to submit issues or pull requests on GitHub.

This ranking is part informational and part satire, designed to democratize information on how PhD students in physics and related areas are paid for their labor – inadequately , in most cases.

Most of the frontend code of this website is from CSRankings , and we intentionally used the same template. The code of this website can be found at https://github.com/PhysStipendRankings/PhysStipendRankings , and the data presented can be found as a CSV file here .

Contributing: Everyone is welcomed to submit patches or report the stipend via pull requests . Another option to submit valuable datapoints is through this Google Form . Also, feel free to submit issues on GitHub .

• Gathering data for summer funding guarantees. We plan to incorporate a feature that allows users to exclude non-guaranteed funds when calculating the stipends.
• Highlighting universities that offer 100% appointments during the summer, e.g. UW, instead of the typical 50% appointments.
• Adding a verification system for stipends, where we can confirm the details of the stipend with an offer letter or paystub record, and displaying a checkmark in the "Stipend" column to indicate that the stipend is verified.
• Add alternative sources of living cost. In the future, users should have the ability to choose between different sources of living cost while ranking.
• Data is often unavailable for the precise district in which the university is located. In such cases, we use data for the county or wider metro area. This often skews the estimate lower. For instance, UC San Diego is located in La Jolla, one of the most expensive districts in the US, but we resort to using figures for the wider San Diego county. Same goes for Princeton vs. Mercer County, etc.
• The Calculator states that the estimates are what is required "to cover the costs of their family's basic needs where they live". However, how much one needs to sustain onself is subjective, and users have reported that they can live on much less.

PhysStipendRankings is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License . The frontend (i.e., CSS and HTML) of this website is based on CSRankings, a work at https://github.com/emeryberger/CSrankings . The copyright of CSRankings is owned by Emery Berger . The copyright of the non-CSRankings part of PhysStipendRankings is owned by its contributors .

• Guidelines and Deadlines
• Fee Waivers
• Required Scores
• Non-Degree Visiting Students Requirements
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Hardship Requests
• Joint and Dual Degrees
• Master’s
• International Students
• Campus Tours
• Publications
• Recruitment Calendar
• Student Life
• Summer Programs

Funding Packages

The University of Chicago offers most doctoral students competitive funding packages, which cover tuition and student health insurance, as well as a stipend for living expenses and research support. In most PhD programs, these awards are available for the duration of a student’s program. Programs which are exceptions articulate their policies clearly on their own web sites. Because the cost of living in Chicago is notably lower than in many other major cities, our stipends allow for a comfortable lifestyle. For more information about specific funding for your degree program, please refer to the financial aid information for the programs you intend to apply to.

In addition to the funding packages offered by the University, a wealth of additional opportunities are available, including prestigious fellowships which support language study, travel, or dissertation research; and on- and off-campus positions such as internships which allow students to explore other career paths.

Fellowships

UChicago students are among the leading recipients of competitive external funding – in fact, our graduate students have received more Fulbright–Hays dissertation awards than those from any other institution. Most divisions and schools, as well as many individual programs and departments, maintain lists of fellowships and other funding sources relevant to students in their fields. In addition to these tailored resources, UChicagoGRAD provides information on a wide range of fellowship opportunities and support throughout the fellowship process.

Academic & Career Development

UChicagoGRAD supports graduate and professional students by providing information and advice on funding opportunities and student resources. Explore instructional videos, sample essays, and informational databases. We also offer one-on-one counseling and assistance with applying for various fellowships.

Fellowship Database

The University maintains a  Fellowships Database , a robust listing of fellowships, including opportunities for students in specific fields, international students, and students of color.

Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA)

In addition to the list of fellowships available for students of color and underrepresented minorities available  here , there are other resources available as well.  The Office of Multicultural Student Affairs  (OMSA) supports the academic success of students of color at the University of Chicago and works to build an inclusive campus community. OMSA offers  grants and funding , as well as  career and professional resources .

Student Employment

During their time at UChicago, students can find a variety of employment opportunities that support and complement their education without interfering with their studies. On- and off-campus internships such as the Higher Education Interns program offer students an opportunity to explore options and gain skills, and several services help connect students to these positions or directly employ students.

Student Jobs Database

The  University of Chicago Student Employment site  requires a UChicago CNet ID to access fully, lists a wide range of jobs for current students, including teaching and assistantship opportunities.

Marketplace by the Chicago Maroon

The  Maroon , a university-specific site is similar to Craig’s List, has postings for jobs in addition to a wide array of other offerings.

Neighborhood Schools Program (NSP)

The  Neighborhood Schools Program  employs work-study and some non-work-study students in area schools and community organizations as teaching assistants and tutors, technology assistants, and more.

University Community Service Center (UCSC)

The  University Community Service Center  facilitates off-campus work-study jobs with Chicago area nonprofit organizations focusing on research, community outreach, communications, direct service with children, and more.

University of Chicago Medicine Employment

University of chicago medicine’s employment database  is full- and part-time administrative and clerical positions at the on-campus medical center., chicago center for teaching (cct).

The  Chicago Center for Teaching  offers workshops, seminars, and consultation to hone your teaching skills, as well as employing current graduate students, and may have information on local institutions seeking instructors.

Employment Information for International Students

The  Office of International Affairs  (OIA) maintains information on the forms and requirements for international students with F-1 or J-1 status who seek employment in the United States.

Loan Programs

Loan programs augment any other aid students have received from the University and from outside funding sources. Find details of all loan programs and application instructions on the Graduate Financial Aid website . . In order to apply for student loans through the University, you will need your University ID (“CNet ID”), and to complete the FAFSA after January 1.

Educational Benefits for Military Affiliates

The University of Chicago welcomes veterans and other military-affiliated students to our community. The University’s Office for Military-Affiliated Communities (OMAC)  helps military-affiliated individuals obtain educational benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense, and provides a range of other services as well.

Specialist advisers in the  Office of the Registrar  and the Office for Military-Affiliated Communities assist individuals who need enrollment certification or other documentation. We encourage military-affiliated prospective students to consult with OMAC by contacting them at [email protected] .

The Yellow Ribbon Program: This program provides funding for post-9/11 servicemen and women to attend the University, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Yellow Ribbon applicants must be admitted and have confirmed their intent to enroll into an academic program before submitting a Yellow Ribbon application to the University of Chicago, and acceptance in the program is on a first-come, first-serve basis, although most programs do not limit the number of participants.

Tuition, Fees, and Ph.D. Stipends

NOTE: All numbers below require annual approval by the Board of Trustees

Last updated March 18,2024

PDF version

View full cost to attend . 

  * - Projected rates for tuition, fees, and stipends are tentative and subject to change.

** - For longer term projections, the tuition remission rate can be assumed to increase 0.7% per year.

*** - Teaching assistant and grader rates are established by the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.

• Introduction
• Academic Requirements
• Conduct and Safety

This section provides information about the requirements and policies associated with financial support. Financial support is the shared responsibility of Harvard Griffin GSAS, the academic program, and the student. Your financial aid officer can help you navigate the many options available.

• Fellowships
• Financial Obligations
• External Awards
• FAS Humanities and Social Sciences Support
• Parental Accommodation and Financial Support (PAFS)
• The GSAS Professional Development Fund for PhD Students
• Tuition and Health Fee Grants
• Hardship Funding
• Paying Your Student Account
• Regulations Regarding Employment
• Non-Resident Students
• Registration

PhD student funding packages may include stipends for living expenses, as indicated in their Notice of Financial Support. Questions regarding the disbursement schedule for stipends should be directed to the student’s assigned  financial aid officer .

Please note that Harvard stipends cannot be disbursed unless the student has formally accepted the award and completed all required forms in the Admissions Portal (incoming students) or the Student Aid Portal (continuing students).

Stipends are disbursed to students on or around the first day of each month. For those students enrolled in the University’s  direct deposit  program, stipend disbursements are deposited into the designated bank account. Those without an active direct deposit agreement in place will receive stipend disbursements via paper checks, which are sent to the mailing address of record in the  my.harvard student information system. It is essential that students keep the contact information in my.harvard current at all times.

Stipends are subject to US federal income tax. US citizens and permanent residents should note that their stipends are not subject to income tax withholding, so it may be necessary to make estimated tax payments over the course of the year. For more information about taxes, see the  Student Financial Services  website. 

There are restrictions on holding teaching appointments while receiving stipend support. Please refer to the teaching policies for more information.

Explore Events

Highest PhD Stipend In USA: Best Universities with Highest Paid PhD Stipends

If you are here, chances are you are exploring universities that offer the highest PhD stipends in the USA. Well, you are at the right place.

This article delves into institutions that not only prioritise research and education but also ensure their students are well-supported financially. 

From Stanford’s impressive stipends to the competitive packages at Princeton, we uncover the top universities where PhD candidates can focus on their studies without the burden of financial constraints, setting a benchmark for academic excellence and support.

Highest PhD Stipend In USA

Which universities offer the highest phd stipend in usa.

Stipends can help easy the journey of many PhD students, and here are the highest paying PhD stipends in the USA:

Stanford: At Stanford University, PhD students are at the top, with a whopping $45,850 stipend, the highest PhD stipend, making it a dream for many. This hefty sum covers not just tuition but also living expenses, a critical factor in places with a high cost of living.

Princeton: Princeton University isn’t far behind, offering its graduate students between $47,880 to $50,400 . The university sweetens the deal with a full fellowship stipend paid in August for new students, setting a high bar for PhD stipends in the United States.

South Carolina: The University of South Carolina offers a different kind of allure with a minimum stipend of $34,000. This amount, boosted by a “Provost Fellowship Top Off,” brings the total to at least $36,000. For students pursuing a PhD, this financial aid is significant, especially when considering the cost of living in South Carolina compared to more expensive states.

Rice: Rice University present compelling options with their departmental stipends and fellowship packages. Rice offers up to $40,000 a year.

Houston:  University of Houston provides a substantial $31,000, coupled with a Graduate Tuition Fellowship, enhancing the value of the stipend further.

Ohio: Ohio University stands out for its generosity, surpassing many with diverse assistantships that include a full tuition waiver and a stipend, showcasing the range of stipends available to PhD students in the United States.

Boston: Boston University guarantees a package that includes a stipend, tuition scholarship, and health insurance credit, adjusting the stipend amount based on the program and academic year.

Cornell: CornellUniversity demonstrates its commitment to graduate education with an 8% increase in graduate assistantship and fellowship stipends, ensuring students receive competitive financial support.

These universities not only offer some of the highest PhD stipends but also ensure that the stipends do justice to the living costs, making them the best universities for prospective PhD candidates to consider.

Are These Stipends Enough To Pay For Cost Of Living?

Generally stipends are offered to assist PhD students manage their living costs, while being able to focus on their study and research work.

But here’s the catch. Even the highest PhD stipend may not stretch as far as you’d hope in cities where the cost of living is sky-high.

Rent, groceries, and other living expenses can quickly eat into your stipend, making financial management a crucial skill for PhD students.

The story changes a bit when you look at universities in areas with a lower cost of living. The University of South Carolina, for instance, offers a minimum stipend of $34,000, which goes further in a less expensive city.

For many PhD students, the stipend is just part of the financial puzzle. Teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and external fellowships can supplement your income, but these come with their own commitments and pressures.

And remember, that stipend isn’t just for living expenses. It often needs to cover:

• student fees,
• health insurance,
• and sometimes even a portion of your tuition.

So, are PhD stipends enough? It really depends on where you’re studying and how you manage your finances. While some students find their stipends sufficient, others juggle additional jobs or seek external funding to make ends meet.

It’s a delicate balance, one that prospective PhD candidates should consider carefully before diving into their doctoral studies.

Can International Students Get PhD Stipends In The US?

For international students dreaming of a PhD in the US, the question of funding is crucial. You might wonder, “Can I get a stipend too?”

The good news is, yes, international students are often eligible for PhD stipends just like their US counterparts.

In fact, universities like Stanford and Princeton offer substantial stipends, with amounts that aim to cover living expenses and sometimes more.

These stipends are part of fellowship packages, which means they’re not tied to teaching or research assistantships, offering more freedom for your studies.

But here’s something you might not know. The value of the stipend can greatly depend on your department and research area. Some departments offer higher stipends based on the availability of funds and the nature of the research.

Also, the cost of living can vary widely across the US, so a stipend that is generous in one city might be just enough to get by in another.

International PhD candidates often worry about additional costs like:

• health insurance
• tuition fees, and
• travelling homw.

Many US universities cover these expenses as part of the stipend package, easing the financial burden on students.

So, if you’re an international student looking to pursue a PhD in the US, rest assured that stipends are within reach. But, it’s wise to research and understand the stipend amount, what it covers, and how it stacks up against the living costs in your chosen city.

Can PhD Students Get Stipends Outside Of USA?

When you look beyond the US for PhD programs, you’ll find some attractive stipends that make the academic journey more viable.

For example, Norway and Denmark shine with stipends around $55,000, setting a high standard for supporting PhD candidates.

This level of financial aid is not just about covering tuition but ensuring that living expenses don’t become a burden. It’s a model that some of the best universities around the globe are starting to follow.

In countries like these, the stipend for PhD students does more than just cover the basics. It respects the fact that these students are often at the highest level of education, having possibly completed a master’s or bachelor’s degree.

The value of the stipend reflects the cost of living, allowing students to focus on their research interests without the constant worry of financial strain.

PhD programs in such regions offer more than just a high PhD stipend; they offer a living wage ratio that many find hard to match.

This approach not only attracts international students but also sets a precedent for how PhD stipends should be structured.

It’s about recognising the contribution of doctoral students and ensuring they can pursue their academic and research goals without undue hardship.

This insider detail reveals a stark contrast to places where stipends do not cover living costs, highlighting a progressive stance on supporting postgraduate students.

Highest-Paying Stipend For PhD Students

Universities offering the highest PhD stipends in the USA demonstrate a commitment to fostering academic excellence by alleviating financial pressures on their students.

 These institutions stand out not just for their academic prowess but for their dedication to supporting PhD candidates through substantial stipends.

As prospective students navigate their options, these universities emerge as beacons of opportunity, ensuring that financial aid goes hand-in-hand with world-class education and research opportunities, shaping the next generation of scholars.

Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.

Thank you for visiting Academia Insider.

We are here to help you navigate Academia as painlessly as possible. We are supported by our readers and by visiting you are helping us earn a small amount through ads and affiliate revenue - Thank you!

2024 © Academia Insider

Prospective Students

Why choose yale graduate school.

Graduate school is the place to

• examine life's most challenging questions
• develop as a scholar
• produce new knowledge at the cutting edge of your discipline
• join a lively, welcoming, and diverse intellectual community
• prepare for a successful career within academia or beyond

At Yale's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), you will transition from being your professors' student to becoming their colleague. If this prospect excites you, please consider applying to Yale. Few places in the world can serve as a better incubator for your continued learning, growth, and potential as a scholar, independent researcher, and leader.

The Graduate School confers MS, MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees in departments and programs across the university. We are distinct from Yale's 13 professional schools , which have their own programs, policies, admissions, and degree requirements. There are also joint degree programs that involve both GSAS and one of the professional schools.

For more information, please see the GSAS Viewbook .

Full Tuition Fellowship & Stipend for PhD Students

Many prospective students are surprised to find that all PhD students at Yale are fully funded. They receive the following financial award, typically for a minimum of five years:

• a fellowship that covers the full cost of tuition ($48,300 for 2023-2024)
• a 12-month stipend (minimum of $40,530 for 2023-2024)
• free comprehensive health insurance, including hospitalization coverage and specialty care, for students, their legal spouse, and their children
• a family support subsidy for graduate students with children under the age of 18

Many PhD students are eligible for funding in their sixth year from GSAS or from their adviser's research grants, as well as supplementary financial support, such as travel grants and conference funding. Additionally, a Dean's Emergency Fund is available to help doctoral students with eligible, unanticipated emergency expenses.

We do not charge many of the fees common to other schools (e.g., technology fee, library fee, gym fee, student activities fee). In some cases, even the Continuing Registration Fee for advanced PhD students is covered by the Graduate School.

As a result, PhD students at Yale receive more than $500,000 on average in tuition fellowships, stipends, and health care benefits over the course of their enrollment. You can typically complete your degree without incurring debt. We make this investment because we consider it our responsibility and privilege to educate the very best students in the world, ensuring that you have ample opportunity to complete your degree and become a leader in your field.

Most students pursuing Master's degrees do not receive financial support from the Graduate School and are responsible for paying tuition, but some programs offer limited funding. Please check with the program that interests you for more information.

A Home for Your Research

A successful graduate education involves finding a program that matches your interests and faculty advisers who will help you flourish. This means that you need to do some serious investigation before you apply.

To evaluate if Yale is right for you:

• explore all the departmental and program websites that interest you,
• learn about the faculty affiliated with each program and read their research,
• visit campus and talk to current students of the department or program to get a sense of the culture and climate or explore Yale extensively online, and
• contact alumni to learn about their experience at Yale and the careers they are pursuing.

At Yale, you will find world-class faculty members, strongly committed to both teaching and research, who will mentor and advise you. You will find a place that celebrates collaboration within and across disciplines and encourages broad intellectual exploration without boundaries.

Career Prospects and Job Placement

It may be helpful to begin the process of considering graduate school by keeping the end in mind. How does a graduate degree align with your career goals?

A PhD degree is the traditional prerequisite for a faculty position at colleges and universities around the world, but that is far from the only career path. Our alumni work in many other sectors as well, including business, government, law, intellectual and cultural institutions, and more.

Consider the career trajectory of recent graduates in your discipline. What types of jobs do they have now? How long did it take them to find those positions? Are they employed in academia or in other sectors? You can find this information through:

• your program or department of interest, including its website, faculty, staff, and students;
• Yale's centralized database of Program Statistics, which includes an overview of employment for recent graduates in each program; and
• the Office of Career Strategy (OCS) , which specializes in supporting Yale students who want to pursue non-academic career paths.

New Haven: A Great Small City

Our campus is right in the center of one of America's most vibrant small cities: New Haven, Connecticut. It's a wonderful community, rich in history, art, theater, live music, and great restaurants.

We encourage you to visit and experience for yourself all that New Haven has to offer. You can browse the Artspace Gallery or City Wide Open Studios; see a show, movie, or concert downtown; shop at major stores and local boutiques; enjoy over 400 cafés and restaurants; experience nature while hiking in East Rock Park or biking along the Farmington Trail; and so much more. Both New York and Boston are easily accessible from New Haven by train and car.

If you can't visit, here are some resources that showcase what our city has to offer:

• New York Times, " 52 Places to Go in 2023: New Haven, CT ," January 12, 2023
• New York Times, “ New Haven, Conn.: More Than Just Academics and Mozzarella, ” June 1, 2022
• Washington Post, “ New Haven: A long-weekend destination with lots to do, and you can leave the car at home, ” March 15, 2019.
• Hartford Courant, “ Study: New Haven, Danbury among America’s 50 best small cities, ” June 5, 2019.
• Between Two Rocks, “ 5 Reasons Why New Haven is the Greatest City in America, ” April 5, 2018.
• The Middletown Press, “ Pelli's 50 year collaborator recalls a humble giant ,” on why this architecture giant chose New Haven as home base for his office. July 23, 2019.
• Info New Haven

Furthermore, you will have easy access to Yale's extraordinary libraries, museums, and 13 professional schools, all of which are located right in New Haven. The School of Medicine, the Divinity School, the School of Architecture, the Law School, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Yale Center for British Art, and more – with their collections, labs, and faculty – are within walking distance of Yale's central campus, making it easy to find resources and partner with collaborators.

The Next Step: Admissions and Getting In

Identifying a program that aligns well with your intellectual and professional interests is the first step in the admissions process. The faculty members who will review your application need to know if your aspirations align with their program, so be sure to explain and document why you belong at Yale.

We hope that you will find a place here.  As former Yale historian George Pierson wrote, “Yale is at once a tradition, a company of scholars, a society of friends.” It is among the best places in the world to study, explore, conduct research, gain skills, and grow into the person you aspire to be.

To get started, please review application requirements at PhD/Master's Application Process , where you will find a link to the application.

8 best PhDs that offer the highest stipends

The best PhDs not only open the gates to knowledge but also offer some of the most generous stipends to help you achieve your dream. These stipends are not just numbers; they are the lifeboat allowing you to dive headfirst into your studies without worrying about the financial tides. 

Think of the great minds that have treaded the PhD path before you – Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King Jr. The secret to their success wasn’t just their brilliance; it was the support they received during their PhD journeys. 

A stipend can be the catalyst for greatness, allowing you to focus on your research, collaborate with brilliant minds, and turn your academic dreams into reality. 

The best PhDs give you more than just a qualification. It acts as a catalyst to greatness.

Types of PhD stipends

When it comes to stipends, there are two main types: financial and non-financial. Financial stipends are a helping hand for students, given without needing any specific work in return.

They appear as financial assistance on your statement at the end of the year.

On the flip side, there are stipends given in exchange for the work you put in at the university. These aren’t considered financial aid; instead, they’re like salaries 

You might be wondering if your stipend is subject to taxation. Well, it depends on the type. If it’s a financial stipend, it’s generally not taxable. It’s like a gift to help you out.

However, if your stipend is in exchange for your university efforts, like work or research, it’s considered income and is subject to taxation.

The best PhDs have great stipends — which you should treat as a package. Source: AFP

PhD stipends: It’s a package

Your PhD stipend is made up of several important components to support you through your academic journey.

The living stipend is the main part, covering your accommodation, food, transportation and other daily needs.

It’s the primary source of financial support, and how much you get can vary based on factors like location, school, major and cost of living. 

The tuition waiver or fellowship is a significant perk considering the often hefty costs of a PhD education, especially in fields like Chemistry or other STEM subjects.

Health insurance is another crucial part of the package, ensuring you have access to affordable medical care to keep you healthy and productive. 

Then there’s the research grant or funding, providing extra money for things like textbooks, research materials, and conference fees.

As you delve into your academic journey, you might also find yourself as a teaching assistant (TA) or research assistant (RA), gaining work experience and building valuable professional connections.

So, your PhD stipend isn’t just about the financial support – it’s a comprehensive package designed to nurture and propel you forward in your academic pursuits.

The most powerful people in the world listen to those with the best PhDs. In this photo, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US First Lady Jill Biden listen to Anchal Sharma, a PhD candidate at the Indian Institute of Technology. Source: AFP

PhD stipends: More than just financial aid  

It’s important to treat your PhD stipend as something more than just scholarship money or salary.

Consider investing in specialised training courses or workshops relevant to your field.

Use your stipend to enrol in programmes that deepen your expertise and introduce you to the latest trends.

Think of it as adding layers to your professional skillset, making you a sought-after expert in your field.

Another useful way to make good use of your PhD stipend is by attending conferences and networking events.

Allocate registration fees, travel and accommodation funds to immerse yourself in a sea of knowledge and connections.

Conferences are like treasure troves of insights, letting you learn from industry leaders and exchange ideas with peers.

Networking at these events can open doors to collaborations, job opportunities and a broader understanding of your field.

Your stipend is a golden ticket, allowing you to actively participate in your professional community and stay updated on cutting-edge developments. 

Salary vs stipend

Your salary is like a regular paycheck you get for your job – it’s consistent, predictable and typically based on the hours you work or the tasks you complete.

It’s your stable income, like a steady river flowing into your bank account.

On the other hand, a stipend is more like a fund for a specific purpose, usually tied to education, research or training.

It’s not your regular 9-to-5 wage. It’s an allowance to support you in certain activities, such as pursuing a degree, researching, or attending professional development opportunities.

While a salary is your everyday bread and butter, a stipend is more like the extra toppings – there for a specific reason and not necessarily a routine.

So, who gets to hop on the stipend train? Usually, it’s candidates who are engaged in specific activities that need a bit of financial backing.

Students diving into research, interns honing their skills, or anyone pursuing specialised training are likely candidates.

Stipends often aim to support learning, growth or projects rather than being your everyday paycheck. It’s like a boost for those dedicating their time and effort to something beyond their regular work.

So, if you’re on a mission to deepen your knowledge, contribute to research or enhance your skills in a particular field, chances are you could receive a stipend.

When it comes to PhD programmes, the pay and stipends can vary . Generally, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) PhD programmes offer higher stipends than other fields.

For example, in the US, institutions like MIT and Stanford are known for generous stipends for STEM candidates. These stipends often cover tuition, living expenses and even healthcare. 

The best PhDs can help you develop valuable transferrable skills which are valuble in the working world. Source: ETX

1. Stanford University

Stanford University is renowned for having the best PhD programmes in the world. This is mainly due to the fact that it offers one of the highest stipends globally, securing its position as a top-tier institution for doctoral candidates. 

In the 2020/2021 academic year, PhD students at Stanford University received a stipend or teaching assistantship of US$45,850 , marking it the world’s highest-paid PhD stipend.

Newly admitted PhD candidates automatically qualify for financial assistance for up to five years, provided they maintain a good academic record and meet the stipend requirements.

This support of fellowship salary, research or teaching assistantship showcases the university’s dedication to offering one of the most competitive PhD stipends.

Stipends are distributed shortly after students meet the minimum enrolment requirements, and any obligatory expenses, such as university housing rent, are deducted before the stipend is issued. 

Earning a PhD can be costly both in terms of time and money, and it may take several years to complete a successful doctoral programme. Source: ETX

2. Princeton University

Embarking on a PhD at Princeton University promises academic excellence — and positions you among recipients of one of the highest-paid stipends in the US. 

In February, The Daily Princetonian reported that the Princeton Graduate Students United (PGSU) has announced that the university will raise some graduate student stipends by US$5,000 in the 2023/24 academic year.

This made the annual stipend rate for this academic year b etween US$47,880 and US$50,400 .  

If you’re a new incoming graduate student, you’ll be paid your first fellowship stipend in full for the month of August .

The best PhDs can help students build relationships with professionals in their field, learn about job opportunities and gain insight into industry trends and best practices. Source: ETX

3. University Of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina is a top institution with one of the best PhD programmes, offering some of the highest stipends to its students. 

From 2022, the university’s minimum total stipend has been US$34,000.

This makes the minimum monthly rate of at least US$3,778 for programmes that operate on a nine-month schedule and US$2,834 for those on a 12-month schedule.

There’s a “Provost Fellowship Top Off” valued at US$2,000, bringing a student’s stipend to at least US$36,000.

The university’s commitment extends to various scholarships, including the IRIX/David L. Coffen Fellowship and the Jerome D. Odom Fellowship, both in the field of chemistry.

The highest-qualified candidates are considered for Presidential Fellowships.

4. Rice University 

Rice University stands out by offering departmental stipends for qualified PhD candidates — amounting up to US$40,000 per year .

Candidates earn this by working as a research/teaching assistant for an assigned faculty member while maintaining full-time student status and continue making satisfactory progress toward their PhD.

The best PhDs will help you learn about yourself, about others and about the world around you. Source: AFP

5. University of Houston

With an annual stipend of US$31,000 annually , the financial support provided at the University of Houston is substantial. 

The Graduate Tuition Fellowship (GTF) further enhances the financial package for eligible students, covering tuition and fees, resulting in a net annual benefit of US$20,800.

Meeting a 3.00 grade point average and working as a graduate assistant are prerequisites for GTF eligibility, proving the university’s dedication to maintaining academic excellence among its doctoral candidates.

The fellowship covers nine semester credit hours (SCH) in the fall and spring semesters and six in the summers. 

6. Ohio University 

Ohio University’s financial support for PhD students is among the most generous in the country –surpassing over 1,000 other universities.

Here, s tipends come in different forms. Examples are teaching assistantships, research assistantships and graduate assistantships. 

At the School of Communication Studies , for example, eight to 12 new students are offered graduate assistantships that provide a full tuition waiver and a stipend of approximately US$16,100 per academic year.

A PhD degree holds high value in the job market as well as in the research world. Source: AFP

7. Boston University 

At Boston University, all PhD students in good standing are guaranteed the following:

• five years of stipend support
• 100% tuition scholarship
• a health insurance credit

How much? That varies by PhD programmes but its website states a range from US$27,318 for eight months to US$40,977 for 12 months for the 2024/25 academic year.

8. Cornell University 

For the 2023/24 academic year, Cornell graduate assistantship and fellowship stipends grew by 8% . 

This made the minimum 12-month assistantship rate US$43,326 and increased the minimum nine-month academic year stipend to US$32,494.

Here, a graduate assistantship refers to “ an academic appointment requiring 15 to 20 hours a week , averaging no more than 15 hours per week for the base stipend as established by the Board of Trustees.” They receive full tuition credit and a stipend.

Meanwhile, a fellowship refers to an “arrangement in which financial support is given to a graduate student to pursue his or her degree without any obligation on the part of the student to engage in teaching and/or research in furtherance of the university’s academic mission.”

Popular stories

Pack your bags, there’s good reason to move to the most expensive countries to live in, earning a veterinary degree is harder than you think, just ask this singaporean student in rural australia, need reasons to study in the most educated countries in the world this isn’t the list for you, the most respected engineering degrees are what you’d expect them to be, 5 countries offering the highest phd stipends, 10 top uk universities accepting 2024 applications, the stanford grad helping international students get into top us and uk unis.

Computer Science Open Data

By jeff huang on 2022-04-13.

• professors [ source ]
• rankings [ source ]
• best papers [ source ]
• stipends [ source ]

The writing on this page is not advice. Rather, I've described on this page what I find most provocative in the data, but you are encouraged to review the data yourself. We have spent hundreds of hours of work putting together the source data, subscribe here for updates .

CS Faculty Composition and Hiring Trends

Analysis of Over 5,000 Computer Science Professors

We host a public dataset comprising profiles of computer science professors in the United States and Canada. The profiles include the names, institution, degrees obtained, subfield, and when they joined the university. The dataset hosted on our platform, Drafty, aims to include all professors who can sole advise computer science students, excluding lecturers, professors of practice, clinical, adjunct, affiliate, or research professors (similar to an older analysis from Jeff Erickson); mainly because we were constrained by time and resources. This analysis uses data collected as of 2022-04-12, so hires in 2020 and 2021 are likely to be grossly underrepresented because of their recency, as this is a publicly-editable dataset; you can help contribute by editing the source directly on Drafty .

Hires among Computer Science Areas

By grouping subfields into four broad categories of Systems, Theory, AI, and Interdisciplinary (this 4-area taxonomy is based on CS Open Rankings ), and plotting the professors' Join Year on the x-axis, we can visualize hiring trends.

The most clear patterns are that computer science hiring has been growing since 2010, reaching about 250 new computer science professors hired per year among the 102 universities tracked on Drafty. The broad area of Systems has generally been the largest group of hires, but it looks like AI has closed the gap in recent years, and is on track to surpass it. and Theory and Interdisciplinary areas seem to be keeping the gap with Systems in the past decade.

The Doctoral Degrees of Professors

Probably not surprising, 99.9% of professors have a Ph.D. Where did they obtain their bachelors and doctorate degrees? If a graduate from a university get hired as a professor, we call it a " placement ".

The below table shows that a quarter of professors come from just four universities: MIT, Berkeley, CMU, and Stanford. The 15 universities with the most placements make up a little over 50% the professors in the United States and Canada.

Are there universities that hire their own Ph.D. graduates, either immediately or after returning from first working at other institutions? Actually, yes, and at a higher rate than I expected. 7.4% of professors have a Ph.D. from the same university that they are teaching at. MIT in particular has a high rate of self-hires, with 36% of their professors having MIT Ph.D.s themselves.

A Wider Diversity of Bachelors Degrees

For bachelors degrees, there is a wider range of source institutions, and many international ones. There are several universities from India and China, and it's remarkable that Tsinghua University is where 2.3% computer science professors in the United States and Canada did their bachelors. The 15 universities that grant the most bachelors degrees comprise a little under 25% of professors in our dataset, as opposed to over 50% in the case of doctoral degrees.

Students often want to know if getting a Ph.D. from the same institution they did their undergraduate degree will make it harder for them to continue in academia. This turns out to be more common than I expected: 14% of professors have a bachelors degree from the same institution as their doctorate.

Bias in Computer Science Rankings

Rankings are an Ideology

College rankings are being questioned from two sides. On one hand, the ideologies underlying them are being exposed, such as emphasizing selectivity rather than quality of education. Depending on what factors you count, and the weight given to them, college rankings can range from nonsensical to being fabricated to suit a predetermined assumption . But on the other hand, colleges have come up with tricks to game the same factors that are being questioned by others, proving Goodhart's Law . A recent examination of the data Columbia submitted to U.S. News seems to uncover outright deception, but other practices can be subtle, like keeping classes below a certain threshold to count more small classes on paper, or creative ways to define who counts as a student.

Those are university-wide rankings, but similar biases can surface in rankings of computer science programs, which are mainly evaluated for their research. Two popular rankings, U.S. News and csrankings.org use completely different methodologies. U.S. News ranks doctoral programs separately than the university, with computer science rankings "based solely on the results of surveys sent to academic officials", meaning they are entirely reputation based and are not affected by the issues plaguing Columbia's data mentioned earlier. But using data from self-selected survey respondents may lead to other biases, who often base their own judgments on past years' rankings.

On the other hand, csrankings.org is purely generated from publicly-verifiable data. This doesn't mean the data is more correct, but that we can see how things are calculated. For example, the University of Illinois and University of California San Diego have crept from ranks 5 and 11 in 2019 to ranks 2 and 4 today , just 3 years later. Being a top 4 CS department is a big deal. And the way that computer science programs are scored encourages ideologies of a different kind. For example, in csrankings.org, "a single faculty member gets 1/N credit for a paper, where N is the number of authors", but students don't count, so a paper with a single faculty author is worth three papers that have two student co-authors. While this has probably not been attempted, this ideology rewards leaving student co-authors off papers, or hiring more faculty in subfields where solo authored papers are common like in theoretical computing science.

Diversifying the Ranking Sources to Expose the Biases

Let's put U.S. News and csrankings.org* side-by-side and compare, basically creating a meta-ranking. And add two other ranking sources, one is "placement rank" which treats universities as nodes in a graph, with unidirectional links occurring when one university hires a graduate of another university to be a faculty member. A PageRank -style scoring is computed, so that universities whose graduates become faculty get credit for that, with more credit going to placing students at other universities whose students are also sought after. The second ranking source added is a count of best paper awards for each university, with more credit going towards authors listed first. Here's how the resulting four rankings line up.

*The csrankings.org methodology is our attempt to replicate what's described on their website, but may have slightly discrepancies due to data differences

Some differences are particular to one or two ranking sources, reflecting their biases:

• U.S. News places California Institute of Technology (CalTech) high at #11 (not visible in the above table, but shown in the source data ) despite its small size and low positions on publication-based rankings
• The University of Illinois and University of California San Diego (UCSD) seem to excel particularly well on csrankings.org, as noted earlier due to their climb. Perhaps most relevant is UCSD doubled in size from 53 faculty in 2019 to 108 faculty in 2022.
• Harvard and Princeton have particularly effective placement of their students, despite being lower on other rankings
• The University of Washington is ranked highest for best paper awards, but only #8 on csrankings.org, probably reflecting their performance at the ACM CHI Conference which distributes a particularly generous number of these awards

Each individual ranking makes choices that can be subject to debate. For example, it's clear that multiple ranking sources benefit from larger departments who may publish more in total but its researchers are not individually more productive. Dividing by the department size might be tempting, and would especially benefit my own institution which ranks highly despite its smaller size. Or perhaps allowing only recent data to matter, which is csrankings.org's default setting, whereas best paper award rankings disregards the year.

But by summing the rank from the four sources, we can get a resulting meta-ranking we call CS Open Rankings . The meta-ranking includes the biases from the individual ranking sources, but none of them too strongly, leading to a somewhat more stable ranking.

The conclusion is that individual rankings are unreliable, subject to biases that become clear when compared with other rankings. Each individual ranking can have based on ideologies that are subjective, or sometimes the ranking can have anomalies that are a surprising even when the methodology is known. We haven't yet looked at area-specific rankings (AI, Theory, Systems) and there may be possibly more anomalies to uncover. This exercise is left to the reader, and can be investigated on CS Open Rankings .

Who Wins CS Best Paper Awards?

Most best paper awards go to a few dozen institutions.

Thousands of institutions around the world publish computer science papers. At most of the top conferences, a select few are designated as "best paper" or "distinguished paper" for that year. But just a couple dozen of these institutions get a disproportionate number of awards.

Looking at 30 well-known conferences , the 25 institutions that receive the most awards get 44% of these best paper awards, 552.4 of them. Best paper award credit is divided among institutions in decreasing author order as is customary in many subfields. The top 7 of these win over a quarter of the best paper awards: Microsoft, University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California Berkeley, and University of Michigan.

Of the 25 institutions who receive the most awards globally, 22 are academic institutions, and 3 are corporations headquartered in the United States (Microsoft, Google, IBM). 17 of the universities are in the United States, 2 are in Canada (Toronto and UBC), 2 in the United Kingdom (Oxford and Cambridge), and the remaining one is in Switzerland (EPFL).

The institutions get more diverse in the top 35 institutions, which represent over half the best paper awards. There are two additional Canadian Universities (Waterloo and McGill), two Chinese Universities (Tsinghua and Peking University), Yahoo and the University of Chicago, both from the United States, and institutions from France, South Korea, Singapore, and Israel (INRIA, KAIST, National University of Singapore, and Technion respectively).

Analysis done on data from 2022-04-12. See the source data in my best paper awards collection .

Verified Computer Science Ph.D. Stipends

Computer Science Stipends have been Rising

Computer science Ph.D. stipends are a bit mysterious. Departments rarely publicly list them on their websites. Maybe it's to avoid the comparison with stipends from other departments, or because they perceive it as unimportant to applicants' decision-making. But this also prevents potential Ph.D. applicants from knowing, and the stipend pay is an important consideration especially for low-income applicants.

Anecdotally, I found that many people have a sense that stipends are lower than what they are now. Partly because stipends have been rising, or because they hear about stipends in other fields, or because they may be thinking of the 9-month stipend as an annual salary. I think having accurate information about CS stipends is a good thing.

I wanted to verify stipends being offered with my own eyes. A number of applicants who had applied to Ph.D. programs for Fall 2022 shared their offer letters containing stipend rates, and I've compiled them together in the table below (last updated 2023-02-17).

[1] Normalized a longer-term academic stipend to a 9-month stipend [2] A RA position paying 2X in the summer is possible [3] Offer letter states that this is the "anticipated" stipend [4] Includes additional pay from two optional TA jobs

Every stipend number shown in the table I checked myself, except for the shaded values where I had to interpolate from the other stipend number (9-month or 12-month). The stipends are for the first year in a Ph.D., as stipends often increase annually or after candidacy, so they are the base minimum stipend that every admit gets. The numbers shown in the table are rounded for reasons that I won't get into, but the table is sorted by the exact 9-month stipend number. If you have a need to see the actual stipend dollar amount, and you can help contribute to the data, then email me to discuss.

I would also caution that the stipend does not include required fees (some public universities had fees up to about $2,500), varying non-covered costs for health insurance for some universities, nor do they include benefits like equipment or travel discretionary funds, or bonuses and top-up fellowships. There's also the factor of cost-of-living, where housing would simply account for much of the stipend.

I've learned a few things during this process. First, CS stipends have gone up. But funding agencies haven't caught up. In fact, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship provides an annual stipend of $34,000 (which is the same for all disciplines), which is below the 12-month stipend for first year Ph.D. students of nearly every computer science department in the table. Second, private universities generally pay higher stipends. The table below is sorted in descending order of 9-month stipends, so it's clear that all the higher stipends come from private universities; Berkeley has the highest stipend of any public university.

In this series

Who Wins CS Best Paper Awards ?

Other articles I've written

Behind the scenes: the struggle for each paper to get published

This page is designed to last , a manifesto for preserving content on the web

Illustrative notes for obsessing over publishing aesthetics

My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file

The Coronavirus pandemic has changed our sleep behavior

Extracting data from tracking devices by going to the cloud

• PhD Salary in UK – Explained
• Funding a PhD

What Are PhD Salaries?

The average cost of undertaking a PhD in the UK is approximately £20,000 per academic year for UK students and £40,000 for international students. To help offset the cost of this, many students question whether undertaking a doctorate comes with a PhD salary.

The salary of a PhD student is governed by three factors: whether they’re assisting in undergraduate teaching, assisting in research, or have secured a PhD with a stipend. Depending on which of the three categories a student falls within, they will receive an income during their studies, however, the amount will differ by a substantial amount.

To help show you how you can fund your postgraduate degree and how much you can expect to earn whilst doing so, carry on reading below.

Types of PhD Salaries

There are three types of PhD degree salaries:

• Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs) . In exchange for a salary, you’ll be required to assist in the delivery of one or more courses over a number of years. This includes, but is not limited to, marking student tutorials, supervising lab experiments and providing support to undergraduates during office hours. Besides this, you may have to teach a small section of the course itself. You can discover more about GTAs on King’s College London’s website.
• Research Assistantships (RAs) . In exchange for a salary, you assist a departmental professor with their research. In the ideal scenario, the professor you work with should also be your PhD supervisor and the research you’re asked to support with relates to your own doctoral project.
• Stipend via Studentship: A stipend is a non-repayable grant provided to doctoral students to help support their studies. A studentship covers a student’s tuition fees whilst a stipend covers a PhD student’s living costs. This includes outgoings such as rent, food, bills and basic travel. Unlike Graduate Teaching or Research Assistantships, stipends rarely have duties attached to them. The only expectation of receiving a stipend will be that you maintain continuous progress within your degree.

It’s worth noting these earning opportunities can be also be combined. For example, it’s possible to be a research assistant whilst also committing time to teach undergraduate students.

Average PhD Salary in UK

The average PhD student salary for teaching assistantships will vary depending on the level of responsibility you’re taking. However, to provide figures, past doctoral students have reported receiving approx. £10/hr for marking tutorials, £15/hr for leading laboratory sessions and up to £20/hr for leading undergraduate classes and tutorials.

The actual amount you can earn from teaching assistance will depend on the rate your department offers and the hours you can realistically take on. If you’re on a Graduate Teaching Assistantship programme, they will require you to dedicate a set number of hours per week. If you’re not on a GTA but would still like to earn an income through this scheme, you will likely need to commit several hours per week consistently. Although this can be a great way to earn whilst you study, you need to make sure you manage your time effectively as to not become overwhelmed by taking on an additional commitment.

The average salary for research assistantships will vary depending on the field of the doctoral degree you are enrolled in. Usually, these positions pay between £25,000 to £30,000 per year, however, it’s possible to come across positions which sit slightly outside of this. As a general rule of thumb, STEM assistors are paid more than non-STEM assistors.

In the UK, PhD students can receive a stipend which varies between £15,000 and £18,000 per annum. As part of the studentship your stipend is provided under, your tuition fees will also be paid for. UK tuition fees will vary between universities but are approximately £4,500 per year for doctoral courses starting in 2021/22 as per the UKRI recommendations .

Although £15,000 to £18,000 per year is the typical range for a stipend, some can be far greater than this. For example, Wellcome Trust , a research-charity based in London, offers an annual stipend of up to £23,300 and £26,000 for doctoral students located outside and within London, respectively.

Are PhD Salaries Taxed?

PhD stipends are tax free. Therefore, you don’t need to pay any income tax nor do you need to make any national insurance contributions. This means you’ll keep all the money you receive from an annual stipend. However, this is not the case for Research Assistants.

In the UK, Research Assistants are employed as university staff members and are paid a direct salary as opposed to a stipend. As a result, it will require you to pay tax on your earnings and make national insurance contributions.

To put this into perspective, for the 2019/20 UK tax year, you’re required to pay a 20% tax on any income above £12,500 but less than £50,000. You’re also required to make national insurance contributions of 12% of your weekly earnings over £166 but less than £962. This means that an annual Research Assistantship salary of £30,000 will equate to a take-home salary of £23,938 per year.

How to Get a PhD Stipend

To find research positions which offer stipends, we recommend you search our PhD database and filter by ‘funded’ positions.

Besides this, you can also secure a studentship from UK Research Councils or directly from your university as a scholarship. Independent organisations, such as charities and research trusts, and innovative firms within your industry also offer funding. You can read our PhD studentship guide to see how these work or our Where to find a PhD guide for further ideas.

Finding a PhD has never been this easy – search for a PhD by keyword, location or academic area of interest.

How to Get a Research Assistantship PhD

Unfortunately, research assistantships opportunities aren’t as common to come across compared to PhD stipends. Besides this, when they are available, they’re predominantly in STEM subjects such as computer science and engineering. The reason for this is these subjects usually have access to greater research grants and have a greater volume of practical work available.

To find a research assistantship, we recommend that you contact the university departments who host the courses you’re interested in directly. This is because research assistantships help professors with their research, and while they may require help, they may not be openly advertising for it. They may, therefore, be able to create a role for you within their department or put you into contact with one of their colleagues who already has an open position.

International Students

It’s worth noting that international students will have a harder time securing a funded PhD position than UK ‘home’ students will. This is largely because there are usually fewer funding opportunities available to international students, which as a result also attract significant competition.

Besides this, if you’re an international student studying in the UK you will most likely than not be on a Tier 4 visa. Although a Tier 4 visa will allow you to work to earn an additional income alongside any studentship you may have, there will be certain restrictions on what you can and can’t do. For example, during term-time, you won’t be allowed to work more than 20 hours per week. For a full list of restrictions, please refer to the government website.

Browse PhDs Now

Join thousands of students.

Join thousands of other students and stay up to date with the latest PhD programmes, funding opportunities and advice.

Next Steps for Implementing the Graduate Student Union Contract (Faculty and Staff Message)

Dear faculty and staff,

We write today to provide an update on the first collective bargaining agreement between Northwestern and the graduate student union (NUGW-UE). We would also like to express our gratitude for your continued engagement during this process.

Since NUGW-UE ratified the contract on March 15, many of you have sought guidance across an array of topics that are included in the agreement. As promised, last week we created a new Union Contract webpage on the graduate student unionization website . We also updated the General FAQs and will continue to refine the entire site.

We do not yet have detailed answers to all your questions, but we want to assure you that coordinated teams of experts from throughout the University, including the impacted schools, are working through these topics and many more. Northwestern will provide guidance on these matters as clearly and as quickly as we are able, either centrally or, when appropriate, through schools and units.

Here are updates on some of the most common issues being raised by faculty and staff:

• The University’s academic expectations remain unchanged. Faculty and staff members can and should continue to engage with their graduate students as they have in the past and hold them to the same academic and performance expectations as before, continuing to facilitate their academic growth. This includes assigning duties, setting work schedules, mentoring, evaluating performance and providing feedback.
• Graduate student funding costs are increasing substantially. These new costs must be absorbed over time through a combination of The Graduate School, school and grant-funded resources. Increased costs before Sept. 1, 2024, including the ratification bonus, new dental and vision benefits, and other new benefits agreed to, will be covered by Northwestern for all eligible University-funded and grant-funded students. Full support for stipends and all other costs will continue to be provided beyond Sept. 1, 2024 for students currently funded through Northwestern.
• For eligible students on current grants , principal investigators may reduce tuition recovery to offset the June 1 increase to the stipend. After Sept. 1, 2024, the cost of graduate students supported by current grants will continue to rise. Northwestern is evaluating options to continue tuition recovery reductions as a temporary offset to these increased costs. Further details, including total cost assumptions for current grants, will be provided in April.
• Principal Investigators should budget the full cost of graduate students for all new grant proposals . Details are housed on the Office of Sponsored Research website .
• The union contract requires Northwestern to issue appointment letters , which generally should be issued at least 30 days before an appointment starts (i.e., before the actual work begins) and contain specific information relevant to the appointment (e.g., TA, RA, etc.) as detailed in the collective bargaining agreement. A work group is refining an approved appointment letter template that meets the contract requirements. Spring appointment letters do not need to be reissued, but all letters should use the template after it has been distributed. In light of this 30-day requirement, timely selection and recording of graduate students’ roles is increasingly important.
• Many faculty now take on the role of supervisor , and the University anticipates providing resources to facilitate this relationship. Generally speaking, faculty supervising graduate student employees’ work should attempt to resolve any grievances informally, if possible, via the consistent application of existing standards and expectations. A work group has formed to create guidance on a formal grievance process that meets the contract requirements. Prior to the rollout of central guidance on the grievance process, any faculty or staff member who receives a formal grievance from NUGW-UE should send it to [email protected] immediately.
• Contract provisions regarding graduate student time off largely track existing practices. When a graduate student employee is sick or has been exposed to infectious illness, time off should not be unreasonably denied. Similarly, graduate student employees should not be unreasonably denied the ability to take personal time off, subject to obligations attendant to their respective appointments. Academic policies related to leave remain unchanged.

Additional information is forthcoming on other topics such as vision and dental insurance enrollment, childcare grants and the international student support fund. It is our goal to facilitate a timely, transparent and respectful transition, and each of us has a role to play in the successful implementation of this contract. Faculty and staff who have questions about new processes, procedures or interpretations of contract language should contact their dean’s office or use the online form . Members of the implementation strategy team monitor this form and respond to inquiries promptly .

While the manner in which we engage some of our graduate students in their work is changing, our commitment to our vibrant graduate student community is unwavering. Thank you for your cooperation and collaboration as we implement the graduate student union contract.

Kathleen Hagerty Provost and Professor 

Kelly Mayo Dean of The Graduate School and Associate Provost for Graduate Education

PhD Stipend Survey Results

Thank you for submitting your entry! Please invite others to view the database and share their info on Twitter or Facebook .

The living wage ratio (LW ratio) normalizes each gross pay entry to the local living wage. The purpose is to allow you to quickly compare the pay received by students at universities in different cost-of-living areas. See the FAQ for more information.

Show/Hide gross pay details.

• Visual Essays
• Print Subscription

Graduate students stage walkout protest for higher stipends and other benefits

Following the protest, the college offered a counter-proposal to the union, continuing the bargaining process..

On March 27, the Graduate Organized Laborers of Dartmouth-United Electrical Workers — the College’s graduate workers union — staged a walkout protest on the Green. According to Rendi Rogers, a GOLD-UE organizer and Ph.D student at the Geisel School of Medicine, the protestors decided to gather after the College failed to provide a counter-offer to their demands for higher compensation and other benefits by their March 7 deadline. 

According to Rogers, approximately 300 graduate students and supporters — including faculty members and undergraduate students — gathered to protest. Rogers said the union is bargaining for higher stipends and various benefits — including child care support, dental coverage, expanded vision coverage, healthcare coverage for dependents and retirement benefits. 

“There is a lot still on the table that our members say they are willing to fight for,” Rogers said.

The College and GOLD-UE have engaged in negotiations over proposed articles since Aug. 25, 2023, with tentative agreements reached on 16 of the 28 articles,  according to the group’s bargain tracker. These articles include agreements related to an inclusive work environment, international employee rights and non-discrimination.

Logan Mann, a GOLD-UE organizer and third-year Ph.D student at the Thayer School of Engineering, said one of the group’s primary motivations is “simply to afford to live here in the Upper Valley.” Mann said graduate students have been unable to afford healthcare, housing and food due to increases in cost of living — with some students relying on food banks to “survive.” 

“We’re just getting everyone out to show that we’re here, we’re well-organized and our membership supports our demands,” Mann said. 

The protesters gathered on the Green with signs expressing various frustrations with the College, ranging from “give us dental or give us death” to “living wage or workers rage.” Student Workers Collective at Dartmouth member Roan Wade ’25 described the atmosphere at the protest as “exhilarating.” 

“You could just feel within the crowd, not just the frustration towards the College, but a sense of hope,” Wade said. “There’s obviously a sense of outrage, but also amongst workers, there is a tremendous amount of community.”

Rogers said the “fight” for a living wage was ongoing before the union was officially recognized or nationally affiliated last April .

“Over two-thirds of us are rent-burdened, which means we spend over 30% of our income on rent,” Rogers said. “[The College] said they would have an offer back to us by our bargaining session on March 7, but came empty-handed. They even canceled the bargaining session last week.”

GOLD-UE bargaining committee member Genevieve Goebel, a fifth-year Ph.D candidate at the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, said the walkout protested the College’s lack of response to the union’s economic proposals in the past two months.

Ankita Sarkar, an international student and third-year Ph.D candidate at Guarini, said that international students feared “their visa status may be at risk” throughout the bargaining process.

“Dartmouth has been dragging their heels and employing delaying tactics at the bargaining table,” Sarkar said. “[The College is] trying to sabotage us at the bargaining table, and the rally is to let them know not to do that, and that we will strike if necessary.”

According to the website of the Provost’s office, the College believes that collective bargaining is responsible for delayed decision-making.

“Dartmouth feels that unionization is counterproductive to addressing the needs of our graduate students,” the website states. “We feel that collective bargaining may actually slow down our ability to respond quickly and decisively to situations that arise; the process may also introduce additional costs, time and bureaucracy to making decisions that directly affect graduate students.”

At the protest, Rogers also said the union had launched a strike pledge — meaning members would strike if they did not hear back from the College regarding their economic demands at their bargaining meeting on March 29. At the meeting, the College offered a counterproposal, effectively staving off the strike and continuing the bargaining process.

In the counter proposal, the College rejected the union’s request for a minimum stipend of $55,000 and instead offered a stipend of $46,000. According to the Guarini website, graduate students currently receive a stipend of $40,000. 

“Feedback we received from members during our caucus portion of the bargaining session was that $46,000 isn’t enough, especially without a cost of living adjustment tied to our annual raises,” Rogers said. 

According to Wade, a “historic win” in the SWCD contract means that the graduate students who work for Dartmouth Dining Services could also participate in the GOLD-UE strike. Wade also discussed a possible sympathy strike by the SWCD.

“It is really important for us to show solidarity with our fellow workers,” Wade said. “That means potentially going on a sympathy strike … We, as workers, are the ones who hold the power. We can grind this university to a halt.”

The College did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. 

Mock Trial secures spot in national competition for the first time since 2008

Dartmouth skiers find success at NCAA skiing championships

Two women’s rugby players nominated for MA Sorensen Award

Tennis icon roger federer to speak at 2024 commencement ceremony, ‘pennies from heaven’: dartmouth announces largest scholarship bequest in its history, dartmouth offers admission to 1,685 applicants for the class of 2028, college declines to bargain with men’s basketball team's union, working hard or hardly working: anti-intellectualism at dartmouth.

The Dartmouth

Education | Johns Hopkins graduate student workers union…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Capital Gazette eNewspaper

Education | Johns Hopkins graduate student workers union reaches tentative agreement with university

The Johns Hopkins University graduate student workers union reached a tentative agreement with the private university Friday.

Members of the Teachers and Researchers United, or TRU, are Ph.D. students who teach or conduct research while earning their degrees. They will vote to ratify the contract over the next month, which sets a minimum stipend of $47,000, guarantees stipends for four years of a five-year degree and provides up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

“It’s definitely a relief to get to this point,” said Andrew Eneim, a fifth-year Ph.D. student and TRU member who’s helped organize the union for the past four years. “It’s why we did all this work in the first place.”

If the agreement is approved, TRU members would become some of the highest-paid graduate workers compared with the cost of living in the country, Eneim said. TRU’s 22-member bargaining committee and Hopkins representatives agreed to the tentative contract.

A Hopkins spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Graduate workers are paid stipends for teaching and research. But work opportunities are limited, and the stipend amount could vary depending on the field of study and department. That created a $20,000 disparity between the lowest- and highest-paid graduate workers, Eneim said, a gap that would be closed by the agreement. Workers would be guaranteed funding for teaching assistants, research assistants and fellows for at least four years depending on their department.

“Everybody is getting paid fairly, and there aren’t these tiers that the university created in the past,” Eneim said.

More than 3,300 Hopkins Ph.D. students voted to unionize with a 97% vote in February 2023. TRU is affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America and began bargaining with the university last May.

Graduate student unions have been around since the 1970s, but there’s been a surge in organizing at elite, private universities. The National Labor Relations Board in 2021 reversed a rule that had excluded undergraduate and graduate students from filing a petition to the board, opening the door for TRU to become an official union.

As a private institution, Hopkins is subject to the National Labor Relations Board’s federal jurisdiction. Conversely, the University of Maryland, a public university, does not have collective bargaining rights.

TRU members can’t strike or promote a work slowdown or stoppage as part of the agreement that would expire in June 2027.

Stipends would start at $47,000 in July and increase to $52,000 by July 2026. Graduate workers would each receive a one-time $1,000 signing bonus if the contract is ratified.

Along with the university covering health insurance premiums for dependent children and spouses, employees would receive a subsidy of $4,500 per child annually for children aged 6 and under. Employees with children aged 6 to 18 would be eligible for a $3,000 subsidy per child annually. There is an annual maximum of $12,000 per family.

Those with adult dependents would be eligible for an annual $3,000 subsidy per dependent.

International students would be able to apply for an $80,000 yearly fund to cover visa renewal fees, as well as being eligible for 14 days of leave to maintain immigration status.

Other highlights of TRU’s agreement include the right to peacefully protest without being met by force, free local transit passes for Baltimore and Washington, timely resolution of sexual harassment/Title IX complaints, explicit performance standards and just process in discipline and discharge procedures, and the use of progressive discipline, not law enforcement, in cases of mental health crises and drug abuse.

“We have work to do in the coming weeks to inform our members and ratify what we believe to be the best contract in higher ed labor,” Wisam Awadallah, a TRU member, said in a statement.

More in Education

Education | Maryland Appellate Court dismisses lawsuit against Johns Hopkins, campus police department

Local News | Montgomery County judge rules Maryland’s Child Victims Act unconstitutional

SUBSCRIBER ONLY

Education | anne arundel county graduation rates dip slightly despite 11 of 14 high schools boasting rates of at least 90%.

Education | Annapolis mother running for District 6 Board of Education seat

Princeton trustees set 2024-25 budget, increasing spending for undergraduate financial aid and graduate student support

The trustees of Princeton University have adopted an operating budget for the University totaling $3.1 billion for 2024-25, which includes a 7.8% increase in the undergraduate financial aid budget, to $279 million. The increase underscores Princeton’s commitment to access, affordability and socioeconomic diversity, and reflects the continued expansion of the student body.

Most families with incomes up to $100,000 pay nothing to attend Princeton, receiving aid to cover the total cost of attendance, including tuition, housing, food, books and personal expenses. A quarter of all undergraduates pay nothing to attend.

The University also provides financial aid to many families with higher incomes; about two-thirds of students currently receive assistance. Nearly half of all Princeton students receive aid that covers the full cost of tuition, including most families with incomes up to $200,000.

Princeton’s financial aid program is recognized as one of the most generous in the country. In 2001, the University was the first in the country to eliminate loans from undergraduate aid packages, enabling students to graduate debt-free. The University made substantial enhancements to its aid program starting in the 2023-24 year, providing even more generous support to undergraduates and their families.

In 2024-25, the estimated average grant for undergraduates receiving aid will rise by more than $3,200, to $74,380 a year.

Princeton is also committed to supporting its graduate students. The University will increase average graduate fellowship and stipend rates by 4.25% for 2024-25. Total graduate student support is projected to increase 6.7%, to $335 million, based on other rate changes and enrollment.

Between fiscal years 2022 and 2025, Princeton’s spending on graduate and undergraduate student financial support is expected to increase by about 33%, or $152 million, due to pathbreaking changes in aid methodology, stipend rates and the numbers of students receiving support.

“At Princeton we make big bets on human talent from all sectors of society,” Provost Jennifer Rexford said. “We attract amazing students — at both the undergraduate and graduate levels — and go the extra mile to make their educational ambitions affordable.”

The University’s commitment to access and affordability has allowed it to diversify the makeup of the student body in significant and meaningful ways. In the Class of 2027, 67% of students receive financial aid, compared with 52% in the Class of 2008. The percentage of undergraduates eligible for federal Pell grants, restricted to lower-income students, has also risen, from 7% in the Class of 2008 to about 20% in recent years.

Earlier this month, the Board of Trustees set aggressive new enrollment goals for low- and middle-income students . The trustees said the University should aim for a total undergraduate student body that is at least 70% eligible for need-based financial aid and at least 22% Pell Grant eligible.

Princeton provides financial aid in the form of grants, which do not have to be repaid. It does not require any borrowing, so students can graduate without debt, and there is no expected contribution from student work or summer earnings.

Aid packages are recalculated each year to offset increases to tuition, room, board and other expenses and to account for changes in the family’s financial circumstances. In determining need, Princeton excludes equity in the primary residence and retirement savings, and it considers other obligations, such as educational expenses for other children enrolled as undergraduates, as well as debt.

The University’s endowment distributions and investment income cover more than 70% of the undergraduate financial aid budget and over 60% of the overall operating budget.

The undergraduate fee package (which includes tuition, room and board) for the 2024-25 academic year will be $82,650. The estimated “net cost after aid” to attend Princeton for the average scholarship recipient is expected to be approximately $13,000 for 2024-25. The estimated “net cost after aid” to attend Princeton for the average student on aid has fallen significantly since the University enhanced its aid methodology , from $20,000 in 2022-23.

The trustees approved the budget during a meeting in late March.

The article first appeared on the Princeton University website . 

• Venture Forward

You May Also Like…

AI at Princeton: Pushing limits, accelerating discovery and serving humanity

At Princeton, interdisciplinary collaborations of researchers are using artificial intelligence to accelerate discovery across the University in fields ranging from neuroscience to Near Eastern studies.

Campaign reports share the impact of Venture Forward, including Annual Giving

In the third year since Princeton University launched the Venture Forward campaign, two new reports provide an in-depth look at the campaign’s progress, on the campus and beyond. The 2022-23 Venture Forward impact report, “Making Audacious Bets,” and the Annual Giving impact report, “Forward Together,” are both available online.

President’s Annual ‘State of the University’ Letter 2024: Excellence, Inclusivity and Free Speech

President Christopher L. Eisgruber sent his annual State of the University letter to faculty, students and staff, calling Princeton “stronger than ever” and urging all Princetonians to serve as ambassadors for the University and for the value of higher education in America.

Copyright © 2023 The Trustees of Princeton University