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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.
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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.
