Graduate Students’ Pay and Benefits Vary Widely, Survey Shows

When it comes to the financial packages that graduate students receive to pursue their degrees, the devil is in the details.

A Chronicle survey, conducted this summer and fall, of the pay and benefits of teaching and research assistants at more than 100 research institutions reveals a dizzying array of variables that students must compare.

Some institutions cover 100 percent of graduate students’ tuition, while others waive only a portion. It is possible to get health insurance paid in full — 42 percent of the institutions that responded to the survey do just that — but coverage for family members is harder to come by.

Then there’s location: Just how far will a $19,000 stipend go in Los Angeles, anyway? When it comes to paying rent, buying food, and otherwise making ends meet, stipends do matter.

“A large part of my decision was based on how I would be able to afford to live,” says Verity Mathis, a Ph.D. student in evolutionary biology at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. Her stipend for 12 months as a teaching assistant is a little more than $20,000. Ms. Mathis, 30, pays $500 a month in rent for a two-bedroom house. Louisiana State pays the bulk of her $500 annual health-insurance premium. Student fees, about $800 or so each semester, are among the expenses that she must cover. “I stretch my money out with student loans,” Ms. Mathis says.

The data collected by The Chronicle, though not comprehensive, provide a snapshot of what graduate students are earning in six fields this academic year. Comparisons among stipends are difficult because every institution has its own way of handling a financial package. Still, it is safe to say that while graduate students are hardly living the high life, some of them (science students) are less poor than others (English, history, and sociology students).

For instance, biology departments reported an average research-assistant stipend of $18,200 for an appointment that typically lasts a full 12 months. Students in English, however, got an average teaching-assistant stipend of $13,387 for an academic year.

Deep Pockets, Better Offers

Many institutions with deep pockets, not surprisingly, reported offering generous packages. Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago all offer stipends large enough to keep them competitive. But even other universities, too, are making moves to improve graduate students’ quality of life. For example, while efforts by graduate students at the University of Maryland at College Park to gain collective bargaining rights haven’t been successful, the university’s new strategic plan includes a suggestion that the minimum stipend be set at $18,000 (in 2006 dollars) for a nine-and-a-half-month assistantship. Previously, many Maryland stipends were significantly lower.

Sometimes increasing compensation can trigger controversy. The State University of New York at Stony Brook gave new graduate students this academic year a minimum stipend of $17,145, which is $2,000 more than the minimum stipend for the students who were already enrolled there.

“Graduate students were really disheartened because they felt like the university was placing a greater emphasis on recruitment than retention,” says Liliana Naydan, president of Stony Brook’s graduate-student organization, who is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in English. “We all deserve that $17,000 — really, more than that.”

In fact, the university’s Long Island location is reason enough to increase stipends for all graduate students immediately, says Ms. Naydan, 28, who earns $15,145 as a teaching assistant. One-bedroom apartments near the university rent for about $1,100 a month, she says.

Money vs. Workload

Even though graduate students tend to focus on landing the biggest stipends, earning less can sometimes be preferable, says Tonia M. Compton, president of the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students. For example, large stipends might come with responsibility for teaching multiple large classes. And sometimes a lower stipend is linked to a more manageable workload, she says.

Less money per year also can be more attractive when weighed against a stipend that is larger but may not be guaranteed for the length of a degree program. Ms. Compton, 31, who is scheduled to receive a Ph.D. in history in May from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, says her department guaranteed her financial support for three years, then helped her get an assistantship, followed by two fellowships. “I’ve been very fortunate,” she says.

Many graduate students, however, must cope with increasing financial pressure. Earl Kennedy, a third-year graduate student in sociology at North Carolina State University, makes about $11,500 over an academic year as a teaching assistant. He recently earned a master’s degree, an achievement that meant a slight raise. And now he can also teach classes in the summer rather than pick up temporary work on the campus, as he did in previous years.

Still, Mr. Kennedy, a married father of a 1-year-old girl, has racked up almost $60,000 in student loans, dating back to his undergraduate years. “There’s no way we’d be able to make it without the loans,” says Mr. Kennedy, 31, whose wife works part time. “It’s what I had to do to do what I want to do.”

TEACHING ASSISTANTS IN ENGLISH Ninety-five institutions reported average stipends for teaching assistants in English for 2008-9. Average stipend/Number of institutions $20,000 or more 6 $15,000 to $19,999 22 $12,000 to $14,999 34 $10,000 to $11,999 15 Less than $10,000 18 SOURCE: Chronicle survey

HEALTH INSURANCE Most of the colleges that responded to the Chronicle survey said they paid for all or part of the cost of health insurance for graduate assistants. Benefits for spouses and children, however, were harder to come by. Pay the full cost of health-insurance premiums for graduate assistants only 42 percent Pay a portion of health-insurance premiums for graduate assistants 42 percent Don’t pay for health insurance 16 percent Pay some portion of health-insurance premiums for graduate assistants, spouses, and dependents 15 percent NOTE: Figures add up to more than 100 percent because of overlap in categories. SOURCE: Chronicle survey

WHO PAYS THE MOST ... AND THE LEAST, 2008-9 Here are the highest and lowest average stipends in six fields for the 111 institutions that participated in a Chronicle survey. Highest Lowest Biology research assistants (full-year appointments) U. of California at San Diego* $28,000 Brandeis U. $27,500 U. of Chicago $26,500 U. of Southern Mississippi $12,000 Central Michigan U. $10,300 U. of North Carolina at Charlotte $10,124 *Stipend data are from 2007-8. Economics teaching assistants (academic-year appointments) Massachusetts Institute of Technology* $23,534 New York U. $22,000 Rutgers U. at New Brunswick $21,400 U. of North Carolina at Charlotte $7,500 Miami U. (Ohio) $6,001 U. of Arkansas at Fayetteville $5,800 *Stipend data are from 2007-8. English teaching assistants (academic-year appointments) Southern Methodist U. $24,720 New York U. $22,000 Rutgers U. at New Brunswick $21,400 U. of Arkansas at Little Rock $6,450 Portland State U. $5,860 Seton Hall U. $5,250 History teaching assistants (academic-year appointments) New York U. $22,000 Rutgers U. at New Brunswick $21,400 Cornell U. $20,710 U. of Central Florida $6,588 Portland State U. $5,508 U. of Missouri at St. Louis $5,500 Mechanical-engineering teaching assistants (academic-year appointments) Georgia Institute of Technology $25,370 Missouri U. of Science & Technology $22,000 Rutgers U. at New Brunswick $21,400 Portland State U. $5,644 U. of South Florida $5,421 Northern Illinois U. $4,096 Sociology teaching assistants (academic-year appointments) New York U. $22,000 Rutgers U. at New Brunswick $21,400 Cornell U. $20,710 Wichita State U. $7,000 Portland State U. $5,805 North Dakota State U. $3,068 SOURCE: Chronicle survey

http://chronicle.com Section: The Faculty Volume 55, Issue 15, Page A1