<p>From what i hear, most graduate stipends in the life sciences are in the 25,000-30,000 range. Is that really enough to afford living expenses (mainly rent) in a place like Manhattan?</p>
<p>both weill and rockefeller have stipends around the top of the range (31k, last year). Also, at least rockefeller columbia and weill have very subsidized housing available. In NYC, the biggest expense is housing. I know at rockefeller rents are around $600 a month, which is better than you can get in most other parts of the country. Columbia and Weill are closer to $800-900 a month I think, but that is still totally doable.</p>
<p>Oh okay, sounds reasonable enough. Just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have to take out more loans for considering those schools.</p>
<p>I don't think you would need to take out loans if you're fully-supported as a life science grad student. The schools take factors like housing and general economy into consideration before deciding on a specific stipend package.</p>
<p>I've got a stipend of $29,328 for next year (I know Rockefeller and Weill Cornell are in the $31K range) and pay $736 for a room in a 3br/2ba apartment. I've heard of people paying anywhere from low 600s for a dorm room to 1000+ for studios and 1-br apts.</p>
<p>Rockefeller has a stipend of 31,000/year + $2,500-3,000/year for lab expenses (computer, travel, etc.). They also provide subsidized apartments that range from $500-$750/month. I'm staying in a 3br/2ba apartment that is 1165 sq. ft. for $615/month.</p>
<p>What do people think about the idea of living in campus housing? Is it dignified to live in a dorm as an adult? How do you reconcile having a spouse and pets in these situations? Are there options that don't resemble dorm rooms? From my experience in Madison, the "graduate housing" was primarily international students and adjunct faculty. Is the situation the same at your institutions?</p>
<p>I think the two main factors for picking campus housing over 'real' housing are convenience and price. In NYC, a large percentage of graduate students choose to live in school housing because it's subsidized and close to the workplace. Options (at Columbia) range from the stereotypical dorm rooms w/shared bathrooms to groups of students in apartments, studios for individual students, and even private apartments for couples. In each case, if you don't like the school's furniture, you can opt to replace it with your own. </p>
<p>I also did some grad school at UCSD, where housing is plentiful, most people have a car (and can live farther away), and thus more students live "on their own." </p>
<p>Overally it depends on your preferences - but I would probably try campus housing for the first year if I were you; most schools have housing waitlists and priority is always given to new students from out of the area. Take advantage of that while you can.</p>
<p>it depends on the availability of nearby housing. In NYC almost everyone lives on campus since its hard to afford anything else. The same seemed to hold true for Stanford. It also helps that most of those schools have nice housing when compared to waht is affordable nearby. In Boston it seems more mixed, and everywhere else I looked almost everyone lived off campus. Most graduate housing is apartment style, so you have your own room, and usually a kitchen + bathroom and living room shared with 1-3 other people. There is also usually married student housing, or other options for 1 bedrooms, that you may have to pay more for but should satisfy your needs. I know that at rockefeller you can opt for post-doc housing where you are guaranteed a studio or 1-bedroom apartment, in some of the nicer buildings. You do pay a premium, but presumably you have 2 incomes to pay for the housing, and it is still far under market rate.</p>
<p>"but presumably you have 2 incomes to pay for the housing..."</p>
<p>Sorry if my question sounds really dumb here, but do you mean that most grad students also have a night job or something like that?</p>
<p>no, two people. i believe ec1234 was referring to married student housing.</p>
<p>I lived in married student housing for a year, and it really felt more like an apartment than a dorm. I'm glad we moved out, though, because even though it felt like an apartment, it felt like a really crappy apartment. :) </p>
<p>I'm in Boston, which is just about as expensive as NYC, and it seems like all of the people in my lab and my program are doing well. They're mostly not living by themselves -- they either have roommates or significant others to drive the price down -- but they're doing fine. I personally live in a 1200 sq. ft. apartment in the suburbs, and it rocks.</p>
<p>So at my university one of the options for grad students is to get free housing and a stipend working a graduate housing resident (GHR) for Residential Life. They basically oversee RAs and serve as liasons between RAs and Reslife. Do any of the NYC schools offer similar programs through thier Res life department.s</p>
<p>well rockefeller and cornell have no undergraduate population. Most of the work at columbia and NYU are at the medical campuses, which also have no undergraduate population. Thus, my guess would be no, unless you are at the undergraduate campuses of columbia or nyu.</p>
<p>columbia has a few (like <12) RA positions for the med student dorms and an apt building (both on the med center campus), but i've never met anyone who did/wanted to do it. best to give these jobs to the starving med students -- they aren't as lucky as us with stipends.</p>
<p>@ec1234 wait what do you mean Cornell has no undergrad population. Do you mean it has no undergrad housing, which I'm pretty sure is incorrect. </p>
<p>I was just curious, I'm actually in the social sciences, there's a good chance my stipend won't be that high :(</p>
<p>the cornell campus in the city (weill) is just the medical school and science graduate school. Thus there are no undergrads, only medical students and grad students. There also may be a school of public health, although I don't know about that. Cornell's main campus is in ithaca, where of course they have undergrads and undergrad housing.</p>