This page was created by Janice Gerda, a current HIED student and Assistant Professor at Kent State University, the thoughts contained, and the humor, are hers. The thoughts and calculations expressed on this page don't mean anything to the official BGSU money people. They are not guaranteed, warranteed, insured, bonded, certified, or even exhaustively researched. Take them as you will, at your own risk and judgment.

Many prospective full-time doctoral students who are investigating our program have little miny heart attacks when they see the total $$$ figure of our stipends. "Can you really live on that?" they croak, gasping for air. Those of us who have been full-time students for a while have gotten (appallingly) accustomed to those numbers, and sometimes forget how scary it was to go from a damn decent professional salary to full-time grad student status. Me, I just noted that most of the doctoral students seemed to be cheerful and not too skinny, and trusted that I'd find a way too. (Besides, I figured it might be good to get a little skinnier. That didn't happen.)

This page is an attempt to offer you something a tiny bit more specific than assurances that "it will all work out." Yes, it's not the lap of luxury, and you should finish your dissertation with all due speed so you can get back into a better tax bracket and start rebuilding your retirement portfolio. But I hope this page will help you to see that it's do-able. (Remember, the future Dr. You will probably make more money than the former PhD-less you. Also, remember that whatever your grad assistantship stipend is, it's more than the master's students make. It could be worse.)

Of course, each doctoral student has a different set of circumstances with which she or he is blessed/cursed. Because coming here full-time on assistantship is the most drastic option, most of my comments are directed to those considering that decision. For your information, I left a full-time job in Virginia and moved to Bowling Green, Ohio to be a full-time student on assistantship.

JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM

BGSU has a webpage for the Annual Costs for Graduate Students (they have to - it's a law.) The numbers there are next year's numbers (I assume) but I'll use the 2001-2002 figures so you can see some real live examples of people living on this income. Also note that Ohio is having some financial troubles and higher ed is on the chopping block, so tuition is on the way up. However, as long as our assistantships cover tuition, the doctoral student bottom line should be the same.

Here's what we're dealing with: