What is the average salary of a phd student

[John Stamos]

So either way i split it I'm going from making 6 figures to basic poverty as a phd student. I get it and it is my choice. The PhD is way more important to me than money and a boring 9 to 5. 

With that out of the way...what is generally considered the average salary for a full tuition and stipend for phd students? All of the offers I have gotten place me at making about $20K a year with 20 hours a week as a RA/TA and then about $5K in the summer. Is this reasonable? I'm trying to gauge what everyone else in a phd is getting.  

[goosejuice]

There really isn't a solid answer for this because it often has to do with the cost of living in certain places. In addition, some programs just naturally give larger stipends than others (primarily STEM vs non-STEM). Grad students are never raking in money, that's for sure.

[PsyDuck90]

I second what @goosejuice said, but that is within the realm of numbers I've heard from multiple students. 

[AnonNeuroGrad]

6 hours ago, John Stamos said:

So either way i split it I'm going from making 6 figures to basic poverty as a phd student. I get it and it is my choice. The PhD is way more important to me than money and a boring 9 to 5. 

With that out of the way...what is generally considered the average salary for a full tuition and stipend for phd students? All of the offers I have gotten place me at making about $20K a year with 20 hours a week as a RA/TA and then about $5K in the summer. Is this reasonable? I'm trying to gauge what everyone else in a phd is getting.  

depends on the program and location. In neuro, a very high CoL (bay area or NYC) might get you a stipend around $38k while one in a low CoL might get you $26k. Some other programs will go as low as $12k and you have to take out loans to survive. Your RAship isn't 20 hours btw.

[BabyScientist]

http://www.phdstipends.com

[crackademik]

20-30k pre-tax. As others have mentioned it does depend on what field you’re in and what area you’re in. 

[John Stamos]

13 hours ago, HawaiiLee808 said:

depends on the program and location. In neuro, a very high CoL (bay area or NYC) might get you a stipend around $38k while one in a low CoL might get you $26k. Some other programs will go as low as $12k and you have to take out loans to survive. Your RAship isn't 20 hours btw.

Indeed every single RA I have been provided has a max of 20 hours per week. I get it, yes, there will be work that I will be doing outside of this but the limit is indeed 20hrs per week. This is helpful when calculating hourly rate. 

[AnonNeuroGrad]

4 hours ago, John Stamos said:

Indeed every single RA I have been provided has a max of 20 hours per week. I get it, yes, there will be work that I will be doing outside of this but the limit is indeed 20hrs per week. This is helpful when calculating hourly rate. 

At least for biosciences, that "max" is completely meaningless. Many students are spending >50-60 hours per week on their research. Anything less than 40 and your PI is gonna be pissed.

[paraent]

two higher ranked schools i've encountered in large cities have both enumerated $31k; i honestly doubt it gets much better than that anywhere, at least in my field (neuropsych)

Edited March 6, 2019 by paraent

[John Stamos]

1 hour ago, HawaiiLee808 said:

At least for biosciences, that "max" is completely meaningless. Many students are spending >50-60 hours per week on their research. Anything less than 40 and your PI is gonna be pissed.

I think you are taking what I am saying too literally. Obviously I expect to work full time on my research and POIs projects. But officially the universities I have been accepted to cap employment at 20 hours a week. This is, on paper, simply important to assess hourly and semester wage. All I wanted to know from my question, regardless of major field, was what the average full time PhD student rakes in a year. Based upon these responses it seems the answer is $18K-$28k, which is what I found to be acceptable. I didn't want to low ball myself making $25k a year when other were making $80K, which is why I asked. 

Edited March 6, 2019 by John Stamos

[AnonNeuroGrad]

1 hour ago, John Stamos said:

I think you are taking what I am saying too literally. Obviously I expect to work full time on my research and POIs projects. But officially the universities I have been accepted to cap employment at 20 hours a week. This is, on paper, simply important to assess hourly and semester wage. All I wanted to know from my question, regardless of major field, was what the average full time PhD student rakes in a year. Based upon these responses it seems the answer is $18K-$28k, which is what I found to be acceptable. I didn't want to low ball myself making $25k a year when other were making $80K, which is why I asked. 

Oh okay just making sure. I've spoken to undergrads who think that the 20 hours actually means anything. I've never heard a student or program describe their compensation in terms of their hourly rate instead of the total pre-tax stipend for each year. I've never heard of a stipend above $45k unless they were somehow in an exceptionally well-funded program and won additional fellowships.

Edited March 6, 2019 by HawaiiLee808

[MCC778]

You can always negotiate as well if you've received multiple offers. I applied to Social Work PhD programs and, upon negotiating, all of my stipend offers are now between a minimum of 21k and upwards of 28k. I know those numbers fall within the average range you mentioned, but it is not necessarily the average range for social work (which tends to get less funding than  STEM). So, I would definitely use your multiple offers to negotiate if your top choice is offering a little less than a choice that isn't your #1 and you may find out about fellowships that they don't publicize but usually tend to distribute based upon applications (unless someone reaches out negotiating--they are sometimes able to use it for recruitment purposes then). Every dollar counts! 

[paraent]

Found some data on stipend sizes: http://www.phdstipends.com/results?fbclid=IwAR1nxViF_Ko9a_780FvnTNJh7_FoEXPKqon-wYngEmsLqV6cBzYFNEkCdM4

[Ternwild]