<p>for biomedical phds</p>
<p>how much money do you get per month for example?</p>
<p>is housing generally something you have to figure out on your own and pay for your own (from the stipend of course) or provided by the grad school and paid directly by the grad school? </p>
<p>at the end of the month, how much money do you have left to put in the bank and save up? if not much, does this worry you? I ask this because my family doesnt have much money, so I definitely can't rely on parents.</p>
<p>Are you planning on having some of the stipend left over to put into your savings?</p>
<p>Biomedical PhD stipends tend to vary by cost of living, but in every case I know, they get more than enough money to survive. They vary from about $30-32,000 per year on the high end (NYC, Boston, SF) to the mid-$20s (low cost of living areas).</p>
<p>Biomedical PhDs are actually quite spoiled as far as grad students go -- my stipend is about 50% greater than the stipends of many of the engineering students I know who live in the same (expensive) city I do.</p>
<p>Some schools have graduate student housing, and some schools have a real estate office which facilitates (and sometimes subsidizes) students finding apartments in the area. My school does the latter, but I don't live in a school-affiliated apartment.</p>
<p>My first year in grad school, I was supporting both me and my husband on my stipend, and we still had money left over to put in the bank every month. Granted, we lived pretty frugally, and it took some budgeting, but we still went out to dinner occasionally and such. We will have enough money for a down payment on a house by the time I finish grad school.</p>
<p>I sense that you are a bit wary about financial independence. This is perfectly natural. I am not currently a graduate student but I have put a lot of research into the financial aspects of being a graduate student and have been financially independent for about 5 years now and have been paid around what stipends are.</p>
<p>The stipends seem to range from 25 to 32 as Mollie indicated. At the 25 range, you can expect to get a monthly paycheck of about 1800. At the higher end of the range you could expect 2200 a month. (All of this will vary with state taxes). Recurring bills you should expect are rent (250-650 depending on location), phone (75), internet (60), car insurance (100), utilities (50), student loans, groceries, entertainment, car payments, copays, gas, pet supplies. At any rate, after the first month or two, you can save quite a bit if you live modestly, at 32K (the rest of my salary goes into a retirement acct directly), I can save about a quarter of my salary each month. </p>
<p>Making a budget is critical but don't get discouraged when you pump out three months of salary your first month of work. You will have to pay a lot for security deposit, first month of rent, maybe last month of rent, pet deposit, furniture, installation for cable/internet, first grocery run. However, once you are set up, it isn't too bad.</p>
<p>belevitt, may I add that in many cases (if not all?) you can get 'in-school deferment' for your student loans?</p>
<p>I am definitely applying for in-school deferment of my student loan payments for the 5-6 years I'll be in school for...</p>
<p>PatchesNBrownie, I actually didn't even have to apply -- my program reporting to the government that I was enrolled was enough to trigger deferment with no action from me.</p>
<p>Still, you'll probably have enough money to pay your loans, so it's nice to be able to defer them, but it's nicer sometimes to go ahead and pay them off. I have subsidized Perkins loans, so my interest is deferred while I'm in grad school. I'm paying them off anyway, and I'll be done paying by the time I finish my PhD, so I'm effectively getting an interest-free loan for my undergraduate education. ;)</p>
<p>if only $30K were normal for SF. Unfortunately its only 27K :(</p>
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<p>This is very impressive. I had the incorrect assumption that these stipends don't give you this much flexibility.</p>
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<p>Belevitt - your rent numbers seem to be a little on the low side. What regions are you considering? Your post was very informative, thank you.</p>
<p>About the 30-32K schools you're surprised by...</p>
<p>MIT, Harvard: 29.5
Columbia, Rockefeller: 32</p>
<p>I don't know where in Boston or NYC you are looking at, but there is no 250 dollar rent anywhere, unless you are going to live with a group of immigrants in someone's garage.
650 would also only be possible in heavily subsidized situations.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm just curious as to why some students get a higher stipend from the same school (different department) even though the difference is small and probably negligible. </p>
<p>In every place I'm looking at (Bay Area / Boston / SoCal), the 250-650 range doesn't seem to fit these places.</p>
<p>SDTB/Shnjb, my rent estimates come from the costs in Madison, WI and Durham, NC and figure in your share of rent. There are certainly many 3 bedrooms for under 750 in both of the cities I mentioned, but I was specifically referring to what my wife and I pay (were it actually divided). Sorry for those of you who picked places like California, Boston and NYC, your rent estimates might as well be triple what I had mentioned.</p>
<p>do you have to pay taxes on your stipends?</p>
<p>I believe there are no taxes taken out on stipends. (There is a section on the FAFSA where you enter this information) I could be wrong.</p>
<p>you do pay taxes on your stipends. you don't pay taxes on the tuition remission.</p>
<p>edit: at least that's what i was told by one school that offered me $30,000/yr. if someone has information that shows otherwise, i'd love to see it. i've accepted an offer to another school with a smaller stipend package, and they haven't mentioned taxes yet one way or the other.</p>
<p>Stipends are taxed.</p>
<p>I was told by ______ grads that a lot of them choose not to pay taxes.</p>
<p>Legally you have to pay taxes on your stipend as it is considered income. (Tuition remission is not taxable; funds used for required fees, required books, and required course-related expenses are also not taxable.) Some may choose to break the law and hope they don't get caught.</p>
<p>You can choose not to have taxes removed from your paycheck, however they will still be owed at the end of the year.</p>
<p>actually for the 2008-2009 school year, columbia was $29.5K, while cornell and rockefeller were around $30K. but we're breaking the $30K mark for the next school year (yay!), while the housing for off-campus places is getting cheaper. :)</p>