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Further down the clinical trail, you could go into neurology (with an MD, so 4 years + residency and $200-300k/yr salary, although med school costs ~$150-200k) or you could do clinical neuropsychology (PhD -- 5-6 yrs; PhDs are generally "free," btw), which starts at about $95-100k/yr (average) and requires a single 2-year post-doc (during which pay is typically around $35k/yr).
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<p>The user has not been active for about a year, so I figure it'd be better to ask here. I've heard about this in passing before but I'm confused as to how it works. Does the department pay you? Do you earn that pay by teaching undergraduates? What are the steps necessary to achieving a "free" PhD?</p>
<p>If it helps, my field is cognitive neuroscience (interests are specifically in neuroplasticity and autism). </p>
<p>They pay you a stipend (~$27,000) in addition to paying for your tuition and health insurance. You can make more money on top of that by taking on additional TA jobs. There are also fellowships that pay slightly more (NSF-GRFP is $30,000 for 3 years) and some schools will supplement that with an additional award (~$2,000).</p>
<p>Yep. PhD programs “pay” for your tuition, and provide you a stipend. The amount depends on the program and where it is located.</p>
<p>They pay you because you are working for them, doing research and (sometimes) TAing. In sciences, essentially no one pays to get a PhD (and an acceptance to a PhD program without being funded is basically a rejection). There are also no necessary steps to take to get it for free-- it’s generally assumed that applying for a biology PhD= applying for a funded biology PhD.</p>
<p>what if by the slightest chance you get an NSF fellowship after you get no PhD funding. You can enroll, and then apply for funding later, right?</p>
<p>Yeah, and I would assume it’s pretty rare for someone to actually be accepted without funding. I personally have never seen it happen, have just heard rumors-- I doubt it happens regularly… it was more just a point that people don’t pay for PhDs.</p>
<p>Probably safe to say that a school either accepts you with funding or rejects you.</p>
<p>Just to add: while PhD students are generally funded, how the funding works varies by field. In some field grad students are funded mostly by teaching assistantships by their department. In some fields grad students are mostly funded by the research grants of their adviser. In some fields grad students rely heavily on national fellowships. </p>
<p>The amount of funding varies to. I’ve encountered anything from a $36,000 yearly stipend plus health insurance to $12,000 without health insurance.</p>
The engineering departments at Stanford routinely admit students without funding. At the beginning of each year there’s a general “oh crap i need to find an RA position or else i’m not gonne have funding” freak-out but most students do have funding once the dust settles.</p>