<p>Law and medical schools are called "professional" schools rather than "graduate" and they are generally quite different from programs that endow you with a PhD or MA/MS. You're much more likely to come out with no debt getting a PhD or masters rather than going through medical, dental, law, or pharmacy school. Although programs like PhD/MD I heard do fund you, instead of you funding them.</p>
<p>Graduate stipend is the money you receive as a student from a school such that you don't sit begging on the corners to make a living. You see, school administration and faculty really dont want to see you playing your violin with the ability of a 4th grader at the local subway stop that they pass to get home. They'd rather give you some money for food and rent and rid their sights and ears of you.</p>
<p>Seriously, details vary from discipline to discipline. I know chemistry and biology best. Basically, the great majority of PhD students are funded completely for the duration of their studies. Unless you want to spend more money than you earn on purpose, you will not owe anything by the time you finish. </p>
<p>At first, PhD students are required to TA in most schools. This requirement is not to simply get you money to pay bills, but also to get teaching experience that is useful for those aiming to work in academia. It is just like coursework that is required to obtain a PhD degree. So even if you are filthy rich, you still TA for 1-3 years and you receive money from whichever department you do it for. This money I believe comes from school itself, which gets the greatest part of it from the state. You also usually get other benefits such as health and dental insurance all through your stay. </p>
<p>Afterwards, you advisor starts paying for you. Advisors write grants and obtain money to fund their own graduate students as well as post-docs. Someone told me that a grad student needs about 50K a year of funding for salary as well as research material (this will vary by discipline of course). Graduate students and post-docs may also obtain fellowships. Student stipend one receives is usually very small. Fellowship money may add to your stipend a significant amount (your monthly salary with go up). But usually most money goes to your advisor to fund you. This naturally makes advisor very happy because he or she now can use grant money to buy that expensive piece of instrumentation he or she was drooling after for the past year instead of funding you.</p>
<p>The fancy names for receiving money for teaching undergraduates and working for your advisor for a salary that comes from grant money are Teaching Assistantship and Research Assistantship. The ability to get either depends on the program, but in sciences almost everybody gets them because there are always undergraduate labs to supervise and neither does the professor wants to lose you as a worker. Schools usually make these sound like awards, but in some disciplines every entering graduate student gets them.</p>
<p>As a master's student in chemistry or biology, you can usually TA your way 1-2 years and get enough money through it to pay for yourself completely.</p>
<p>In chemistry, grad students get ~19-25K plus moving expenses their first year (this is before taxes). Salary might change their second year, as some schools (such as UCLA) might lure your in with great salary your first year, and then cut it the second year. Almost always you also get health insurance paid for, often get a dental plan as well. Some schools also offer subsidized housing that might be as much as little as half the price of what you'll be able to find in the area. However, you should be aware that the line for it might be a year-long one. Post-docs usually get ~30-40k. The largest I've seen by far was in Los Alamos National Lab: a whooping 50-70K for a post-doc. Post-docs are costly and many advisors require that you bring in your own funding for the duration of your stay (meaning you have to get a fellowship to support yourself 1-3 years as a post-doc).</p>
<p>I do not know how other disciplines go. But in sciences, since you work with your hands and do useful research that brings your school and your professor prestige, fame, grants, and perhaps patents, you get paid for your work. Since you are doing real work that brings immediate monetary compensation, you get funded for doing it.</p>