Question about paying for research supplies

[Grace_ethnobot]

Hi all,

I'm a second year Ph.D. student (as of fall 2019) and I am funded with a teaching assistantship. As I'm sure you know, this means I basically earn minimum wage. Although I have applied to a lot of other sources of funding (and will continue to), I haven't received anything additional yet. My question is, for others with a similar financial situation as me, how did you pay for your research expenses. My research is international and I'm paying for everything out of pocket (flights, housing, supplies). It's a huge stressor and financial burden for me, and I'm wondering if other people share this experience with me. I also have student "fees" which amount to about $3000/year, which are not covered by my funding (though the rest of tuition is). Is putting out more applications the only thing I can do? How do people survive like this? I feel like and idiot paying for all of this but I don't know what else I'm supposed to do when my research requires it.

[morawel]

On 7/25/2019 at 4:20 PM, Grace_ethnobot said:

Hi all,

I'm a second year Ph.D. student (as of fall 2019) and I am funded with a teaching assistantship. As I'm sure you know, this means I basically earn minimum wage. Although I have applied to a lot of other sources of funding (and will continue to), I haven't received anything additional yet. My question is, for others with a similar financial situation as me, how did you pay for your research expenses. My research is international and I'm paying for everything out of pocket (flights, housing, supplies). It's a huge stressor and financial burden for me, and I'm wondering if other people share this experience with me. I also have student "fees" which amount to about $3000/year, which are not covered by my funding (though the rest of tuition is). Is putting out more applications the only thing I can do? How do people survive like this? I feel like and idiot paying for all of this but I don't know what else I'm supposed to do when my research requires it.

Oh my goodness, you should not be paying research expenses and travel costs. I’m sorry if that’s not a helpful response but you should know that it’s not normal or expected! I’m curious how your program works; did you apply to work with a specific PI? And if so, did they develop the project with you, and was there any discussion of funding? This is why many programs will not accept students without at least partial guarantee of funding (e.g., a grant your PI has that you will be working under), but I don’t know how it works in your field. Do you have a dissertation committee, and did you go through a research proposal process? I cannot imagine allowing a student to take on an international research project with no funding. At the very least, your advisor and department should be helping you find grants to apply for. 

Unfortunately I think it’s pretty standard to have to pay student fees even when your tuition is covered, as much as that sucks. But the research expenses are a different story. I hope you are able to find some support. 

[Grace_ethnobot]

@morawel I applied to my school with a proposal for an international project. Granted, I am in the US and my research is in Mexico, so it's not very far or overly expensive. However, I am part of a very small lab and my PI doesn't have grants for us to work under. I always hear people talking about "being funded" but I always figured that meant as a TA or RA, which I have. However, it's really only sufficient for living expenses, though I have to use it for travel as well. I have had help finding grants to apply for, I just haven't gotten any of them yet. But I couldn't delay the start of my research, so I had to use my own money. No one else is ever in this position? Based on my experience, I thought this might be somewhat common?

[juilletmercredi]

I went to a PhD program where international research was very common, and most people had some kind of grant or assistantship that covered their research internationally. Lots of people got Fulbright grants to support their work; some people got NIH grants or fellowships; there are a variety of other less well-known ones that people got as well; and some people got small grants from the university or from their PI's grant to travel.

I know a few people who paid small amounts to fund the very early stages of their research - mostly the travel costs - but most people had some kind of outside funding by the time they were doing regular or long-term research projects elsewhere. To be clear, though, most of them weren't traveling internationally for their work until at the earliest their second or third summer in graduate school. They concentrated on finishing coursework and did equivalent domestic projects (or data analysis) before going international. That was primarily to give them the time to get the grants, because as you've noticed, they take time and work!

I'd see if you could talk to your PI or university department about the supplies, at the very least. Keep applying for grant funding and see if your university has a 'machine' or support for applying (mine offered very heavy and targeted support for applying to a bevy of fellowships and grants, including helping you find suitable ones that were good fits for your work). And consider if there's another way for you to get some research work done domestically for a time before you start traveling again, so you can do it on someone else's dime and not out of pocket.