Wait ... Ph.D. students get PAID to go to school? ?

They get a stipend which is barely enough to pay rent and bills. PhD students are usually Graduate Teaching Assistants or Research Assistants, so they are getting paid to teach classes and do research for a professor.

yeah they get paid less than minimum wage to make advances in technology so we can have things like iphones and planes.

They are often paid for the teaching duties or to be research assistants in labs.

As a grad student (masters) I had an assistantship that covered tuition and most fees and a stipend. For that I worked in the fitness center.

Mr. Mojo Risin wrote:

Until recently I didn't know this. What a joke. Waste of public funds.

some do, mainly in the sciences

if you are paid by grant money, the government requires you to remain in the field and continue research otherwise you need to pay back your stipend

Serious question: is it only worth it to do a PhD (and really only in sciences/engineering) if you can do it at a top tier school like Stanford, MIT, etc.? It seems like people from there get lots of job offers and make a lot of money after the PhD but I am not sure about your run of the mill college.

Mr. Mojo Risin wrote:

Until recently I didn't know this. What a joke. Waste of public funds.

Where have you been? It's pretty common knowledge. Most PhD students receive an assistantship either in teaching or research. They work for the university and in doing so their tuition is waived and they receive a small stipend for either teaching classes, assisting a faculty member with classes or conducting research for a professor. Obviously the stipend is small, like minimum wage.....maybe! You can get by with it while you are doing your PhD but it's not really a livable wage. Nowhere near it. My wife, her brother, and his wife all had assistantships back when they were doing their PhD's. Oh, and here's another one to burst your bubble. A lot of international students are on assistantships too. Yep, that's right........non-US citizens receiving taxpayer money to complete their education here. I bet Peter Snell (ever heard of him?) was an international student doing his PhD at Washington State University back in 1976-1981. I'm pretty sure he was an assistantship as well. It's very common as I said earlier.

Yes I do a PhD and get paid well. Not much less than I would have gotten in a company

"paid" wrote:

They get a stipend which is barely enough to pay rent and bills.

Depends on the program, but most give stipends of around $20-30k/ year (places with a higher cost of living generally give larger stipends) which is very liveable unless you have kids or are really wasteful.

troll 1/10 for the responses.

sdfsfs wrote:

Serious question: is it only worth it to do a PhD (and really only in sciences/engineering) if you can do it at a top tier school like Stanford, MIT, etc.? It seems like people from there get lots of job offers and make a lot of money after the PhD but I am not sure about your run of the mill college.

In principle they qualify for the same jobs. Of course phd from a famous university often leads to better job offers and more money, but not always. However, even a phd from a 'lower ranked' university is a phd and shows a higher level of education leading to better career opportunities.

STEM wrote:

yeah they get paid less than minimum wage to make advances in technology so we can have things like iphones and planes.

I mean iPhones and planes were made by private companies. Grad students probably did the research that led to nice semiconductors that are used in iPhones and navigation systems for planes.

Bra-ket wrote:

STEM wrote:

yeah they get paid less than minimum wage to make advances in technology so we can have things like iphones and planes.

I mean iPhones and planes were made by private companies.

And if some academic hadn't invented gravity, we wouldn't even need planes to fly around.

yyy wrote:

troll 1/10 for the responses.

Most of us know the OP Is one of LRC's resident village idiots and trolls, and a bigly snowflake as well. He is being reversed trolled.

Mr. Mojo Risin wrote:

Waste of public funds.

We have urban and rural schools where 90% of the students steadfastly refuse to learn anything, and we throw absolutely massive amounts of money at these institutions. There is waste in our educational system, but paying our most motivated and capable scientists to become educated is not an example of such waste.

sdfsfs wrote:

Serious question: is it only worth it to do a PhD (and really only in sciences/engineering) if you can do it at a top tier school like Stanford, MIT, etc.? It seems like people from there get lots of job offers and make a lot of money after the PhD but I am not sure about your run of the mill college.

Even if your university isn't well known, you can demonstrate research talent through your publication history. Of course, that's harder to accomplish at a lesser-known school.

But I don't think you should do a PhD if you have no intention of going on in academia or doing some sort of research.

indentured servant wrote:

some do, mainly in the sciences

if you are paid by grant money, the government requires you to remain in the field and continue research otherwise you need to pay back your stipend

This is completely false.

Mr. Mojo Risin wrote:

Until recently I didn't know this. What a joke. Waste of public funds.

First off, not all PhDs get paid. I get my tuition paid for, healthcare paid for, and $2300/month stipend. It’s not bad for 3-4 hours a week of TA work. On an hourly basis it beats 90% of jobs.

But your thread is a microcosm of the greater issue with America. That is, Americans think education is a waste of time and anyone who is educated is not smart. But then again, all the wealthy folks are highly educated so maybe the majority of Americans are wrong.

Hmm...

sbeefyk2 wrote:

Mr. Mojo Risin wrote:

Until recently I didn't know this. What a joke. Waste of public funds.

First off, not all PhDs get paid. I get my tuition paid for, healthcare paid for, and $2300/month stipend. It’s not bad for 3-4 hours a week of TA work. On an hourly basis it beats 90% of jobs.

But your thread is a microcosm of the greater issue with America. That is, Americans think education is a waste of time and anyone who is educated is not smart. But then again, all the wealthy folks are highly educated so maybe the majority of Americans are wrong.

Hmm...

Like the OP, most Americans are stupid sacks of sh!+ who think that funding doctoral research is a waste of time but that paying money for football tickets, a plasma screen TV and their meth addiction is perfectly fine.

Mr Mojo Risin, could you take this quiz and post your results. http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php