Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

nature.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 248 posts

Re: PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

#81

Post by throwaway6734 »

prepend wrote: post #57
LewisVerstappen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is all this tuition even going to? Schools in the US charge an absurd amount of tuition compared to schools in Europe/Asia and yet these colleges are also systematically underpaying PhD students, Teaching Assistants, etc. College Professors don't exactly make the big bucks either. Yet, universities in the US have made put many Americans in lifelong debt. These colleges are all "nonprofit" (and get significant t…

> Where is all this tuition even going to? I have a family member who works in the “alumni relations” department of a small, regional public university. Probably ranked like #300 or something. There are like 5 people in the department. They make a magazine, email newsletter and schedule alumni events. It was really surreal when they explained their job and that the department exists. There’s an admin costs problem in…

Also know someone that works at a large university in alumni relations. Their department doesn't pay great, but the bar for performance is so low.

Re: PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

#82

Post by the_svd_doctor »

uberman wrote: post #39

While I agree that PhD students don't get enough cash on a weekly basis to get buy, they are certainly compensated well above what is quoted in the article. International PhD students by law cannot work more than 20 hours a week. Most institutions cap paid responsibilities at 20 hours a week. Most have 9 month appointments, most likely get the full cost of their tuition and fees waved. Most of the time waved costs su…

> PhD students by law cannot work more than 20 hours a week.

While most teaching (and research) assistanships might indeed be technically 20h/week, I can assure you most/all PhD students work >20h/week total.

You still need to do your research on the side. If you RA and your PhD research align, nice. If it doesn't, tough luck.

Re: PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

#83

Post by prepend »

throwaway6734 wrote: post #81
prepend wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where is all this tuition even going to? I have a family member who works in the “alumni relations” department of a small, regional public university. Probably ranked like #300 or something. There are like 5 people in the department. They make a magazine, email newsletter and schedule alumni events. It was really surreal when they explained their job and that the department exists. There’s an admin costs problem in…

Also know someone that works at a large university in alumni relations. Their department doesn't pay great, but the bar for performance is so low.

For my family member the salary isn’t huge, I think like $40k so the whole department is probably less than $500k/year including overhead and whatnot. My assumption was if they are spending stupid money on this they are likely spending stupid money on many other things.

Re: PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

#84

Post by temp8964 »

twistedpair wrote: post #30
LewisVerstappen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is all this tuition even going to? Schools in the US charge an absurd amount of tuition compared to schools in Europe/Asia and yet these colleges are also systematically underpaying PhD students, Teaching Assistants, etc. College Professors don't exactly make the big bucks either. Yet, universities in the US have made put many Americans in lifelong debt. These colleges are all "nonprofit" (and get significant t…

Ever seen Football coach, and college president salaries? For state colleges, they're often some of the highest paid employees in the state. [1] 1. https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/28261213/dabo-s...

No. Football coaches don’t get salary from tuitions. Athletic department has separated funding sources.

Re: PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

#85

Post by mikkergp »

twistedpair wrote: post #47
dgfitz wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of coaches don't make this kind of money. I refuse to believe tuition is insanely high because of coaching salaries. I was actually under the (possibly incorrect) assumption that coaches salaries come largely from boosters and things like ticket sales, jersey sales, etc.

Here's some real data for you, in a NY college no less. President of my undergrad college made $884K last year [1], but a medical school professor made nearly $2M. 1. https://nonprofitlight.com/ny/rochester/university-of-roches...

They're a professor for Orthopedics. Orthopedics is the highest paid specialty and at a university, Professor == Physician.

Point is he's making that money for the hospital for patient services, not because of his teaching.

Re: PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

#86

Post by uberman »

mbauman wrote: post #52
uberman wrote: post #39

While I agree that PhD students don't get enough cash on a weekly basis to get buy, they are certainly compensated well above what is quoted in the article. International PhD students by law cannot work more than 20 hours a week. Most institutions cap paid responsibilities at 20 hours a week. Most have 9 month appointments, most likely get the full cost of their tuition and fees waved. Most of the time waved costs su…

> PhD students by law cannot work more than 20 hours a week. Most have 9 month stipend appointments. Wat. Citation needed.

Sorry, I posted faster than I was thinking.

F1 students are limited by law to 20 hours a week and where I work, stipend responsibilities are similarly capped at 20 hours though though that is not a legal cap, just one that aligns with the international cap.

Re: PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

#87

Post by nostrademons »

prepend wrote: post #57
LewisVerstappen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is all this tuition even going to? Schools in the US charge an absurd amount of tuition compared to schools in Europe/Asia and yet these colleges are also systematically underpaying PhD students, Teaching Assistants, etc. College Professors don't exactly make the big bucks either. Yet, universities in the US have made put many Americans in lifelong debt. These colleges are all "nonprofit" (and get significant t…

> Where is all this tuition even going to? I have a family member who works in the “alumni relations” department of a small, regional public university. Probably ranked like #300 or something. There are like 5 people in the department. They make a magazine, email newsletter and schedule alumni events. It was really surreal when they explained their job and that the department exists. There’s an admin costs problem in…

Alumni relations is a profit center for universities, not a cost center. Many universities are funded as much by alumni donations and endowment gains on them as they are by tuition.

Re: PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

#89

Post by cvoss »

mbauman wrote: post #52
uberman wrote: post #39

While I agree that PhD students don't get enough cash on a weekly basis to get buy, they are certainly compensated well above what is quoted in the article. International PhD students by law cannot work more than 20 hours a week. Most institutions cap paid responsibilities at 20 hours a week. Most have 9 month appointments, most likely get the full cost of their tuition and fees waved. Most of the time waved costs su…

> PhD students by law cannot work more than 20 hours a week. Most have 9 month stipend appointments. Wat. Citation needed.

I can't speak to the "by law" part. But many universities, including two that I have experience with, consider the PhD stipend to be compensation for a part time job (RA/TA), accounting for 20 hours of the student's time, with the idea that the remaining 20 hours are to be devoted to taking classes. And during the summer, when a student may not be taking classes, a student may receive a full 40 hours' worth of compensation.

Re: PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

#90

Post by temp8964 »

twistedpair wrote: post #47
dgfitz wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of coaches don't make this kind of money. I refuse to believe tuition is insanely high because of coaching salaries. I was actually under the (possibly incorrect) assumption that coaches salaries come largely from boosters and things like ticket sales, jersey sales, etc.

Here's some real data for you, in a NY college no less. President of my undergrad college made $884K last year [1], but a medical school professor made nearly $2M. 1. https://nonprofitlight.com/ny/rochester/university-of-roches...

Medical schools usually have separated funding sources too. Many professors are in fact practicing medicine in their field.
Post reply on HN