Graduate Student Stipend Survey and Spreadsheet

Let’s talk about the lack of ✨pay transparency✨ in academia.

In today’s workforce, pay transparency is so important, especially for women and minorities. Women and people of color are significantly underpaid compared to their white-male counterparts. Pay transparency is equally important for current and prospective graduate students, as graduate students are often underpaid. It’s hard to find good information, even on a university’s website, on grad student pay and compensation package. I’ve found that other open-source websites don’t include a lot of important information that influences the stipend. PhDStipends.com I’m looking at you!

Just like with any “normal” job, your compensation package isn’t just your salary or an hourly wage. It includes your benefits like health insurance, paid time off, taxes, retirement, and parental leave. With graduate school, you need to consider more than just the stipend value on your offer letter.

Graduate school often has tons of hidden fees and peculiar ways of making you pay more. For example, you might receive a tuition waiver, which will cover most of your educations costs. You might still have to pay for fees or your own health insurance. These fees add up over semesters! Some schools offer health insurance waivers, but don’t make that clear on their sites! Sometimes, a graduate student is only paid for 9 months out of the year, or stipend amounts decrease over the summer. Very often, this is not made clear to grad students. It certainly came as a surprise to me!

The university location will also influence your stipend. Cost-of-living considerations are a must! Unfortunately, many graduate student stipends barely cover the cost of living in some cities. So this is an important consideration as well.

The funding source, such as the university itself or external funding, also influences the stipend amount. Very often external funding in the United States pays much better than the universities. Unless you’re lucky to have a union at your school! (Another consideration!)

Lastly, the field of the degree will affect the stipend. Often, STEM students are paid more than social sciences or humanities. It’s an unfortunate reality of higher education.

So, I hope this survey offers students clarity.

If you’re a graduate student or were a graduate student, please consider filling out She Sciences Anonymous Graduate Student Stipend Survey using the link in my bio! It only takes 5 minutes to complete, and the results will be publicly available.

Submit your graduate student stiped information here: https://forms.gle/FSXFySa3rZJBjehw9

View the results of the graduate student stipend survey here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dj7m7zWcqsCJp979t1JavxXWQA3JPFCT8OpmBYXGITo/edit?usp=sharing

All results will be anonymous and no personal information will be collected or stored.