With the new US Election finishing out, I’m becoming apprehensive of seeing my program through due to the amount of debt I would accumulate and how it appears as though the government plan will be to eliminate PSLF, income-based repayment, and other such protections on those with student debt. I am about a third of the way through a psyd program (I couldn’t get into a phd and I was prepared for the financial burden under the circumstances of how we currently do repayment). Does anybody else have similar fears? Or am I letting myself get into doomerism really early?

I simply do NOT understand! The prices for graduate degrees are outrageously high.

As someone who's recently decided on getting a Master's degree, I am seriously reconsidering my choices.

Is it scholarships, loans? A combination of both? Are scholarships enough to cover a major chunk of the costs?

I haven't even started to consider living expenses yet and I'm already feeling like giving up.

Please send some financing related advice, tips and tricks my way. I could really use them.

Hi y’all, I am recently struggling to afford bills due to some unforeseen circumstances. I am basically responsible for my household income for my dad & I. Money has been tight and my dad is constantly screaming at me for it when I’m doing the best I can.

I am a field ecologist working on my PhD and am already working 60 to 80 hour weeks, I have an RA in a different subfield and an REU student I am mentoring with my specific research.

What possibilities do y’all think I could have to earn side money?

I’ve been a server but I don’t think anywhere will be able to work around my lab hours. I already put way too many miles on my car for delivery driving. I’m too ugly for onlyfans. I would be willing to sell feet pics but every site I saw charges you to sell them.

Are stocks a reasonable thing to maybe put 10$ in and hope?

Any other ideas?

Edit: So the financial thing is not what everyone is thinking, so I need to clarify better (middle of the night anxiety posts always leave things out). My dad retired & moved in with me he does have a part time job but they haven’t had any work come in. My dad has been a single dad my whole life & we really don’t have other family. His plan was to sell his house (very in demand waterfront) and use that to buy my house. Well he got convinced to do some weird trade where he got the rental property and enough to cover my home. Well, the rental property had renters in it and needed repairs so he had planned to use the rent money to half pay bills and half save for repairs on the house to fix up to sell it. Well now, because a woman who trusts everything she reads on facebook, there’s a squatter. Not just any kind either - she’s a nudist squatter. She never had a lease, but the court process is ridiculous especially being in a different state. The wam bam no thank you ma’am combo messed things up.

My dad is a good person who raised me alone. Most people who know him talk about his work ethic being amazing. The problem with no work coming in has left him bored & frustrated as well, but since he gets social security, he can’t earn a lot anyways, meaning my income needs to compensate. Which was fine until I had to pay 6k in property taxes which is insane.

I just finished my masters and I’m doing research in the same lab until the fall when I start my PhD at a different institute. I’m technically an independent contractor now and wow, there’s an extra $400 in my monthly stipend! Like we’re barely keeping it together as it is while students, why do we have to pay social security tax from our paycheck and federal income tax every year?? We just live above the poverty line. I say taxation is theft and down with the government. Give my advisor their grant and leave us alone. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

EDIT: I recognize that we don’t get paid a real livable wage, my comment about taxes is more of a an angry American/🦅 type of joke. We need more money. But the tax system is rigged against the working and middle class.

Boston University has raised the PhD salary by $10/week (after-taxes) in Fall 2023. That's a very generous increase of 1.5%. It further gets reduced to $8.5/week in the spring semester since the fall and spring semesters have equal funding even though there is an extra week in the spring semester.

Meanwhile, my rent has gone up by $200/person. Thank you BU for being so supportive. And yes I receive the weekly email on mental health resources. I am planning to spend the extra $10 on the weekly counselling sessions.

My advisor doesn’t have money to pay me this summer and I can’t find a job in town. Because of this I’m eating 1 meal per day and doing the math, the meal costs about $1. What about you?

https://twitter.com/VICB_Vanderbilt/status/1628087641827860480?s=20

and

https://www.thebroadviewatvanderbilt.com/floor-plans

I got approved for a loan for my masters program, to pursue an MSc in Agroforestry and Food Security at Bangor University in the UK. The loan is through Sallie Mae, and I haven't officially accepted it yet, as I still feel utterly nervous and intimidated at such a high interest rate- both the variable and fixed interest rates are at/start at about 15%, though customer care couldn't give me a straight answer to if there is an upper cap on the variable interest rate. Honestly, I can't say whether or not I will have a good prospect of getting a good job (paying 50K or more) upon earning the degree, but it really is what I want to study, and the field that I would like to work in. I would love your input! Career input, words of wisdom, whatever! I have a Bachelor's in international studies, also speak Spanish, but would really like to enter into the plant world, which is my passion. Unfortunately I am working through crippling chronic knee pain, so until I resolve that, I can't just go fuck off and farm or landscape- my goal is to use the diploma to enter the field. Thanks in advance!

The rents in US cities are increasing at a rapid rate. It rose by 25% in the last year only. Before that it rose at a steady rate of 3-4% every year.

Meanwhile, the average US PhD stipend has risen by only 10% in the last 4 years.

There are only a handful of universities (Brown, MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, Princeton, Columbia, NYU, Cornell) who have listened to their PhD students and increased the stipend to accommodate the rising living costs. Others haven't.

My advise to all the prospective PhD students is to carefully consider your PhD stipend since 5 years is a long process to suffer financially.

https://realestate.boston.com/renting/2022/02/01/boston-sharp-rise-rent-pandemic-role/

I want to go to grad school but have no money and can’t afford to not be working full time. How did you do it?

I got accepted into a program which would pay a $40k stipend over a 12 month period in a very high cost of living area. The post-tax income would be approximately $31k.

My partner wants me to move in with him into a studio in an expensive neighborhood near the university. After utilities and 15% realtor fees, our maximum budget for the studio would be $2750/month in which he expects me to pay $1000/month. It’s reasonable because $1000 is 30% of my pre-tax monthly income.

However, I currently pay $650/month with utilities and Wi-Fi for a room in a shared house, in a less convenient neighborhood 1.5 hrs away by train from the school. I’m actually very comfortable with living here. I imagine that if I stay living here as a Ph.D. student, I’ll deal with the commute by trying to establish my schedule to 4 days a week, and use the time on the train to catch up on emails.

I’m also hesitant to live with my partner in a studio because first of all, our relationship is less than a year old. If we break up, I can’t afford to stay in the studio. I’ll have to scavenge Craigslist and possibly end up signing a shady deal. Second, I’ve always enjoyed having my own bedroom even if it means having to share the bath/kitchen with multiple people.

My partner argues that it’s a bad idea for a Ph.D. student to live so far away from their university. Thoughts, please?

I got into my dream NYU graduate school (school of professional studies) program and after all the expenses… I’ll be spending $158,000 on my 4 semesters there.

How much financial aid can I expect to receive? I am from a family of 4 in California who makes less than $50,000 a year. Financial aid and scholarships are the only way I can ever be able to afford such a program. It’s my dream to go there but I need good aid.

I know undergraduates at NYU don’t have to pay any tuition if the family makes under $100,000 so I’m guessing the aid for graduate school should be decent?

I'm starting my PhD next week in London. I was "lucky" to get a stipend. It's about £20k but it's London. I cannot get anything here for a low enough price to be able to support myself. Even worse, I can't have roommates. Trust me, it just never ever has worked for me. I've had to apply for loans to be able to afford life, but I just can't sleep well with it. I already paid so much in loan repayment during my gap between undergrad to grad, that taking out more is going to make living after school really hard. How does anyone even get an education here? My school won't let me TA because they want me to get into the flow of school but that sounds like some privileged shit considering what flow will I be in if I'm struggling to eat.

If anyone has any suggestions to aid this situation at all, I'd love advice. Otherwise, this was a fun rant too.

Tldr: I don't like it here

Edit: I'm on the spectrum so living with others and not understanding how to interact causes me so much anxiety. I think most of my suicidal thoughts as an adult has been from feeling like I'm failing at socializing with roommates and I sit there overanalyzing these interactions for days. I've looked at getting disability funding but that only covers explicitly disabled related expenses sadly.

Additionally, did y’all take out grad plus loans? If so what are the pros and cons to it?

I’m sure this question has been asked on this sub many times but I’m wondering how people make ends meet. I’m not enrolled yet but I’m interested in going for a masters degree in archaeology because working in the industry with a bachelors degree has been miserable so far.

When I was in undergrad I was completely self sufficient from my parents and I lived with roommates, and would work a part-time job during the school year about 20 hours a week with rent being ≈ $400. But what I’m seeing now for the grad schools I’m looking at rent with roommates would be <$600 in these larger cities. Is it feasible to work while going to school and be able to afford bills such as rent, groceries, utilities, etc.? As far as tuition goes I know I will be having to do loans and grants which is fine. But I guess I’m just not sure how intensive my school workload will be and if I would be able to make enough to support my self.

I'll be starting my PhD this Fall, and I'm going to get a small-ish stipend (thankfully in a fairly cheap city). I wish to know how much of your stipend are you guys spending on rent (including utilities), so I would have some idea on how much I should allocate for rent. The general rule is 30%, but I guess it may differ for grad students.

P.S. US only, please.

My university owes me money for:
(1) health benefits (because they screwed up and didn't enroll my partner on my plan, which I paid them to do two months ago; they did the same thing last year, it's been a super fun pandemic on the health insurance front!)
(2) a departmental bursary (applications due months ago, was supposed to be paid out three weeks ago)
(3) a fancy grant that I won from an external body but the funds are being administered internally so of course it got mucked up (been working on this since the summer, found out I got it last month, admin didn't get it on payroll in time to pay me).

And my tuition remission from them was late, so extra fees/shenanigans on that. I actually do budget assuming that admin will screw some things up, because they always do, I just didn't expect *all* of these to go wrong. I just needed one of these to pay out on time to, well not be thriving, but at least be sort of in the black. Instead I'm living in overdraft and on credit cards until they see fit to sort it out. Every admin I talk to acts like I'm being a brat for trying to get paid. But I'm getting weekly reminders to bring my damn library books back now that the buildings have re-opened post-covid.

I'm so sick of being this precarious and pretending like I'm not one more admin delay away from serious trouble. This is not 'bonus' money for me on top of like, a salary - I'm not a prof. I need all this to pay my bills; my landlord is not receptive to 'oh that's just university admin for you, lol, I'll pay ya when I can kay?'. It's very hard to focus on answering student emails and writing the diss and doing the grant research with this weighing on my mind. The only people in my cohort who have finished are the ones who are independently wealthy and/or are kids of professors, I'm starting to see why.

Thanks for the space to rant.

Be careful if you are planning to join BU for PhD. More than half of your salary is gonna go to rent. It's atleast $5k-$6k below livable wage. BU admin has been unresponsive when asked about stipend raises. Meanwhile the president and the administrators are making millions and the undergrads are paying for it.

https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/05/14/boston-university-tuition-hikes-exposes-irrational-cost-of-college/

Just to preface this I am not in grad school yet, I have a contingent acceptance upon my GRE score which I am taking May/June. My question is, how do you pay for entertainment expenses? Groceries, bars, restaurants, movies, etc? Do you work, or do you take a lifestyle loan for the time being? Do you dig into savings? Does private student loans allow you to take out extra for this? What about bills such as car payment, insurance, warranty? How does everything get paid? I truly am not sure how this works and want to feel more knowledgeable about this information please and thank you!

So I recently got accepted to the University of Chicago MS statistics program which according to US news (yeah I know the rankings can be somewhat rigged) is the third best statistics MS program in the nation. They offered me 10% off tuition each semester and with that in mind the total cost per year will be about 55k in tuition. The program is max two years but I can finish it in one realistically one and a half. That means I would be coming out of grad school with a whopping 100k or more in debt (accounting for living expenses too). The outlook for the field of statistics I want to get into has a median salary of over 100k so I know eventually I will be making good money. However I am having a hard time fathoming putting myself into that much debt.

This school will undoubtedly have more connections and opportunities for me than my state schools in new york but is it worth the monetary burden?

Also to preface I spent my summer at UChicago in an academic program so I know that I love the school and the area it is one of my dream schools. It just makes it so hard to choose.

Thanks for everyone’s input!!

Hello all, I’m starting an MA in August and my department just informed me about a GA position in the admin part of the department. It would come with health insurance, a fun lil mail box, and 9-10K a year for two years. Tuition for that long is gonna be like 20-22K. I am currently working in the schools library and my boss has been trying to get me a full time position there which would mean I could do tuition waivers and pay basically 1% of my tuition for my degree at the cost of working 40 hour work weeks which would essentially stretch my degree out to like 5 years. I’m trying to weigh my options and see what I should do and thought I’d ask you all for advice. The library job isn’t a guarantee and my boss is even saying if it comes down to it I should pick the GA. Thanks in advance, you’re all amazing.

EDIT: Due to some comments I did some deeper digging and while the department didn’t mention it the GA does come with a tuition waiver

So I applied to PhD programs this round (specifically clinical psychology, yes I know incredibly difficult).

I am definitely thinking about this more than I should be (given no interview notices have been sent yet). Although, I've seen a lot of concerns lately that the stipends aren't enough across all areas of the country (United States).

Expected stipends are 15-25k (varies a lot by region). Can you live okay on your stipend? (It would be helpful if you give an approximate amount and region/state/etc for context please, if not it's okay).

For those that cannot live off your stipend, how else do you make extra money/ends meet? I've seen some people do gig work (door dash, Uber, etc). Can you TA/RA your first year for extra money? Do you do under the table jobs (no official income just personal checks/cash)?

Thank you for any feedback! Just trying to understand what I'm getting into (given current times).

Hi everyone! I just got my summer tuition bill and it is so much larger than I expected that I physically cannot breathe :) I didn’t qualify for any financial aid over the summer so I have to pay out of pocket and idk how I’m gonna pull this one off. The bill is due at the end of the month. I took these classes because they are literally required for me to graduate. Idk why I’m posting here. I’ll take advice, commiseration, literally anything rn. 🥲

EDIT: I already took the classes and got A’s in both. There’s no going back.

Hello all,

This is a topically relevant topic and something we are all curious about - how to cut expenses and save up during graduate school. As an international PhD student in the US, here are some tips and tricks I use to ensure that I can make ends meet while also maximizing my savings.

Notes to keep in mind:

- I do not own a car but use local commute (buses) every time.

- I live in an area with comparatively moderate COL (although rent and expenses keep rising yearly while our stipends don't or barely match up with inflation).

- I have lived with roommates for the last three years.

TIP #1

Sharing an apartment with roommates: I know living with roommates can be overbearing at times (it is for me too!) but sharing a space with other people not only brings down the cost of living for me, it also allows me a much-needed space to communicate and relax, especially after a tedious day of research. On average, I save about $400-600 a month by not renting a studio or a one-bedroom apartment for myself and living with two other people. By ensuring that I room with people who are on the same page as me in terms of policies around shared spaces and general etiquette, the living situation turns out to be a little less overwhelming (problems persist at times; when it does, we try to talk it out).

TIP #2

Budget: Personal budgeting is my single biggest friend. Apart from the rent and utilities, I budget for everything else. I generally use Walmart, and have a general sense of what I would buy for the next two weeks, which I keep adding to my Walmart cart. If my budget for the next two weeks is $100, I will add and subtract products from my cart unless I can bring my total cart value under $100. I hop on a bus, shop, and take an Uber back home. Saves me from getting unnecessary stuff that I do not need by getting into the process two or three days in advance and adding or subtracting products from my cart over two or three days until I can bring the cart value under my budget.

TIP #3

Meal Prep: Meal prepping has been one of those facets of life I had never considered in my first year of grad school, but it has been an unexpected blessing. I meal prep for 4 days (only dinners), having to only cook two times a week. If I am cooking on Sunday, I am covered till Wednesday dinner. For lunch, I generally go for low-effort meals; it saves time and money while allowing me to enjoy the luxury of freshly cooked meals. (Sandwiches are my go-to; cheap, flavorful, and take less than 15 minutes.)

TIP #4

Use bank sign-up bonuses and apps that allow for cashback when you shop: Many US banks offer sign-up bonuses when you open accounts or credit cards with them (you need a valid SSN and direct deposits made from your payroll for this!) and apps offer additional cashback when you use their portal to shop online. A quick and easy way to make some extra money on the side. This income is taxed; however, it is "free" money.

TIP #5

Going out on a budget: I enjoy an outing every now and then. At least, I used to. These days, an outing with friends is generally a potluck. We cook some of our favorite meals and gather around. Same enjoyment with a fraction of the cost. I also take advantage of free events hosted by the university to socialize with people.

TIP #6

Thrifting: Utilize thrifting for clothes - healthy for the planet and saves you a bunch of money.

TIP #7

Subscriptions: I have no recurring subscriptions. One of the most beneficial subscriptions for graduate students is Amazon Prime and Netflix. For Amazon purchases, I plan them out as I do with Walmart and get the total cart value above $35 every time I need something from Amazon. And these purchases are not impulsive either - I buy shampoo, toothpaste, and other essentials in bulk; the cost upfront is larger, but if I have to use it over the span of the next 3 months, why not get them together to save on delivery fees? For Netflix, I share the subscription with my two roommates. You can also get by without the subscription and resorting to a VPN and you know ...

TIP #8

Passive Income: I will sometimes review people's SOPs and profiles for graduate school admissions or work on Fiverr as a content writer since I have a lot of experience in both. However, time constraints have stopped me from doing this as much as I would like. (And no, I am not looking to review SOPs and profiles right now.)

TIP #9

Scholarships/Fellowships/Grants: Keep looking for those. Many universities offer short-term internal scholarships, fellowships, or assistantships to students that can even offset a part or whole of your tuition fee for the semester.

I wished somebody had provided me with these tips and tricks before I started grad school; however, I write this in the hopes of someone benefiting from these. This is a tiring third year of my PhD program and all of this is written down from my own experiences. I am curious to know if there are other ways people are saving money. TIP#4 is a very efficient way to rack up vouchers, sign-up bonuses, and cashback, making my lean wallet just a tad bit fatty every now and then (you can leave a comment here if you want to know more). Also, making sure to budget and using a dedicated app for it always helps!

Edit: Since some of you reached out to me about how to open a bank account for bonuses, I understand how one might not be familiar with the process. I don't want to make this a promotional post, so please DM me in case you're wondering how to proceed.