MA/PhD with a Family

[kdavid]

Is anyone else out there studying while also raising a family?

I'll be beginning my graduate studies in when I move home from China in 2014. There will be at least three of us (me, my wife, and son--and maybe a fourth! ).

I'd like to get an idea as to what I can expect regarding expenses, and whether or not universities offer any type of assistance. For example, would a university provide a dormitory big enough for a small family? What about health insurance? Could my family eat on campus? Etc.

I won't be going home dirt poor, but won't have a lot of freedom economically. I'm not against working part-time as long as it doesn't interfere with my studies.

My wife is Chinese, and won't have her green card right away. Aside from private language tutoring, she won't be able to help out financially; at least not to start.

I appreciate you sharing your insights and experience.

Edited November 17, 2012 by kdavid

[Sparky]

A lot of this will depend on your school. My school does have grad housing, with separate complexes for unmarried grad students, married with no kids, and families (Catholic uni so "married" is indeed the operative word). Health insurance is offered to families, but this is a point of some contention because it's *really* expensive to get your dependents covered. The school is taking some steps to try and make things more manageable with students for families. Unfortunately, in the process it's kind of screwing over those of us *without* kids (which is totally the administration's fault and everyone recognizes that rather than blaming each other).

People here who live in family housing tend to really like it! Apparently it's a very supportive atmosphere, people help each other out with childcare, the GSU throws lots of family-friendly events, and so forth.

Eating on campus will generally be more expensive than cooking at home. But grad housing, especially for families, would be *almost* universally apartment-style, so you'd have a kitchen!

If you think you will need a part-time job, be careful about program choice. If you are a full-time student, especially with an assistantship or fellowship and tuition remission, many programs will not allow you to hold outside employment. (Others, of course, are designed specifically around people who have full-blown careers and continue in them during studies.) There are often options for extra on-campus jobs, at least here. A prof needs a 500-source bibliography typed up. The library archives need someone to monitor the front desk 10 hours a week. And so forth. So you would want to be on the lookout for or actively seek out those as well.

[virmundi]

Is anyone else out there studying while also raising a family?

I'll be beginning my graduate studies in when I move home from China in 2014. There will be at least three of us (me, my wife, and son--and maybe a fourth! ).

I'd like to get an idea as to what I can expect regarding expenses, and whether or not universities offer any type of assistance. For example, would a university provide a dormitory big enough for a small family? What about health insurance? Could my family eat on campus? Etc.

I won't be going home dirt poor, but won't have a lot of freedom economically. I'm not against working part-time as long as it doesn't interfere with my studies.

My wife is Chinese, and won't have her green card right away. Aside from private language tutoring, she won't be able to help out financially; at least not to start.

I appreciate you sharing your insights and experience.

Some programs actually specify what kinds of housing and benefits they provide for their students on their websites. If not, I have found that the administrators who handle graduate admissions at the departmental level usually are pretty forthcoming and helpful in giving you this information or connecting you with current students who can do so...!

[Eigen]

My experience has been that even when the university offered married/family housing, while nice, it was more expensive than what you could find a little way out from the campus- and this was true across a range of schools I visited.

Similarly, when I looked into getting my wife covered on University insurance as a dependent before she started her program, we found that even with the university subsidizing my insurance, it would be cheaper for us to both get another policy.

And as has been mentioned, eating on campus is often always way more expensive than cooking for yourself.

[GreenePony]

I think everyone so far has pretty much covered it- we looked into covering my husband as well as myself under a university health plan and while it was possible, it was very expensive. In the end we got a plan for myself elsewhere and he just has catastrophic (but with savings to cover the amount needed before it kicks in). At my undergrad they had fairly decent family housing, but it was cheaper to live off campus. Where I am now and other programs I considered abroad did not have married student housing. I found out information on lack of married student housing on most Campus Living sections of university websites, but I imagine admissions would likely be able to help as well. As far as family housing went at undergrad, I lived in a near identical apartment for two years with 1-3 other college-aged women- our residence director lived next door with her husband and two young sons while they were both in graduate studies. They fit but they found it necessary to find outside play areas or else it got cramped very quickly. It was similar for our resident chaplain who had his own small family in a connected complex.

[kdavid]

Thanks very much for your replies.

I guess I'll just have to wait until I get accepted and go from there.

Thanks again!

[Dynamom]

Tip for your wife - if she's decent with kids, she could work as a part time sitter/after-school care provider. The wife of a foreign grad student babysat my kids - she was happy to earn fair pay and I was happy to have my kids on campus for a reasonable rate.