Life sciences PhD programs - stipend for 6 years?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi everyone!</p>

<p>I have recently received an offer of acceptance from UT Southwestern and am very happy about it. :)</p>

<p>At their interview, the dean made a big point that students will be supported with a stipend as long as they are PhD students in good standing. My question to you is: is that really out of ordinary? Do most schools only fund you for 5 years or so?? Does it totally depend on your PI???</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I have never heard of a school that doesn’t guarantee you funding as long as you are making acceptable progress on your PhD.</p>

3

<p>thanks belevitt! :)</p>

4

<p>5-year funding is the normal nowadays in PhD programs. Some programs only offer 4 years.</p>

5

<p>tenisghs, thank you for the info.</p>

<p>For programs only offering financial support for 4 years, do you know what the students do to survive? You certainly would not be able to take a second job while trying to finish off your dissertation, right?</p>

<p>Any info would be appreciated. Thank you.</p>

6

<p>Take out loans, get fellowships/scholarships, get a job (some do this and write their dissertation)</p>

<p>I believe in some cases you don’t necessarily have to live on campus after the third year.</p>

7

<p>Why would they fund you for 5 years but not the 6th. Surely, you will have to apply for an extension if that were the case.</p>

8

<p>belevitt, many grad programs are under pressure to get as many grad students done with their dissertations as possible. The best programs generally have the funding to offer students the best packages. Five years is usually enough time to do coursework, pass the qualifying exams, conduct original research and write up the dissertation. Some individuals need an extra semester or year for various reasons. Who wants to stay in grad school for more than six years?? People need to get on with their lives.</p>

9

<p>Let’s talk in six years.</p>

10

<p>I didn’t know InsiderHigherEd recently published an article on time to degree progress.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/30/tdd[/url]”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/30/tdd&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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</p>

11

<p>This is an excellent question I never considered.</p>

<p>No matter what, I would not go to a program that only offers 4 years of full stipend considering most biology PhD’s take 6 years.</p>

12

<p>I agree, shnjb. It surprised me that they made a big deal out of it at UT Southwestern, and I guess that IS a huge plus. I am eager to find out whether the other schools on my list will offer full funding for as long as you are there.</p>

13

<p>And then there are some PhD programs that won’t even fund your first year. That’s a warning sign to don’t go there!</p>

14

<p>Fortunately, there is no program like that in biology.</p>

15

<p>

The average time to degree in most biomedical sciences PhD programs is 5.5 years – for the average student, eleven semesters is enough, but clearly not for a large percentage. I speak for myself here when I say that experimental organisms are not always accomodating of your data-collection needs.</p>

<p>As for the topic of the thread, in my program, you’re only funded by the program for your first two years (when you’re on an NIH training grant). After that, you’re funded by your advisor, who must fund you until you finish your PhD, but could a) very strongly encourage you to apply for a fellowship, or b) request that you defend your dissertation even if you feel you want more time to get higher-impact papers. So even if your funding is guaranteed, your advisor can still strategize about paying for you.</p>

<p>My advice: get a nice fellowship to pay for yourself (e.g. NIH NRSA) so you can (sort of) be your own boss, regardless of the department’s promises.</p>

16

<p>OH yeah that’s right huh.
I guess I need to sleep because I knew that too but for some reason I was outraged by the idea of not being funded.</p>