<p>^Agree with above; it’s true. In addition to the stipend, though, PhD students also tend to get tuition covered/paid for and health insurance through the university. How good that health insurance is depends entirely on the university and the provider they use. My university uses Aetna, and the coverage is very good!</p>
<p>Other benefits will also depend on the university. For example, mine provides subsidized apartments within walking distance of campus; they are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, but most of my colleagues live in them and can get them at some point during their graduate career (the ones who don’t live off-campus by choice). Like all students my ID card allows free or discounted access to many of my city’s cultural attractions, particularly museums. As part of a doctoral consortium, I can use the libraries of nearby universities in and around my city for study if I want.</p>
<p>I totally agree with the advice to take into account cost of living - I had no idea how much it would cost to live in New York, so my original stipend ($31,000) seemed crazy good for the social sciences. It’s still pretty good, but money was tight and necessitated living in a less desirable neighborhood with a roommate. My current stipend ($22,000) is so low as to necessitate a second part-time job - after taxes, $22,000 a year, which is the standard NIH level of funding for doctoral students,is about $1400 (give or take, since I have to take the taxes out myself by estimating). And I’m only getting by because at this point I am married and live with my husband, who pays the majority of our rent.</p>
<p>So make sure that your son calculates the living expenses of the area in which he must live and sees that the stipend actually covers the living expenses - $25,000 will go much farther in Rochester, MN, or Dallas than in Philadelphia or San Francisco. (In fact, as much as I pined and many other beginning graduate students pine to live in an exciting large city, I would recommend - all other things being equal - a small college town. Fewer distractions and much more affordable on a graduate stipend. That said, I’ve enjoyed my time in NYC, despite being really broke.)</p>