tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post4572055024213429268..comments2023-10-15T04:23:50.187-04:00Comments on College Misery: PhD Debt Data.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-29070864346031207472014-01-20T14:35:43.301-05:002014-01-20T14:35:43.301-05:00Yah. But in my case the Army paid off my undergrad...Yah. But in my case the Army paid off my undergraduate loans as well. There was an added opportunity cost (four years in the Service) on top of six years of grad school plus post-doc, but the Army time netted me about $20K on top of my salary and benefits.introvert.profhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09042783611716432247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-59130030191466226072014-01-20T14:06:33.346-05:002014-01-20T14:06:33.346-05:00The STEM student is still spending five years to g...The STEM student is still spending five years to get a PhD and earning low wages. That time might be better used starting a career. If you've got student loans from undergrad, those balances are still accruing interest while you are in grad school. I agree that STEM students fair better in grad school and it's probably still worth the effort for most people but it's not without a Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-68188201494255336672014-01-20T09:07:24.963-05:002014-01-20T09:07:24.963-05:00Thanks to a teaching assistantship and a little ex...Thanks to a teaching assistantship and a little extra kicked in from a few hours per week at a campus job (as basically a library monitor), I actually earned more as a humanist than my STEM (but non-citizen) partner back in grad school. We both graduated debt-free, which has been the greatest gift we could ever have given ourselves in terms of starting our now-married lives post-graduation. But IEdna Expathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11438002061912782295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-34624533326255952352014-01-19T16:20:00.756-05:002014-01-19T16:20:00.756-05:00This is such a complicated issue for me. I decided...This is such a complicated issue for me. I decided to go into debt for grad school because I went to an R1 (and highly ranked) institution that only offers funding for 5 grad students in the first year. After that we get a package for proving ourselves. I took out $18,500 for that first year, depleted all my savings, had no heat and rented someone's dining room as my bedroom. It was the worstAcademic Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07086078244493768565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-76612359648708044302014-01-19T13:17:41.893-05:002014-01-19T13:17:41.893-05:00That all said, if I hadn't had GI Bill money I...That all said, if I hadn't had GI Bill money I might have run up a bit of debt for living expenses, since I was married and had a new baby.introvert.profhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09042783611716432247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-90328052463750733932014-01-19T13:15:13.733-05:002014-01-19T13:15:13.733-05:00It was said well on a previous thread on grad-scho...It was said well on a previous thread on grad-school debt: If you're going into debt to go to grad school, you need to sort out your priorities -- unless it's a professional school, and even then you should sit down carefully and calculate what impact that sort of debt will have on your future. <br /><br />In STEM, *they* pay *you* to go (partly because the proffies need bodies to staff introvert.profhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09042783611716432247noreply@blogger.com