Wednesday, July 26
Wednesday, July 26, 2006 | 
Posted by
thistle
As a graduate student without a trust fund or other outside income, I find myself having frequent money difficulties. I was telling my advisor about the latest troubles, and she said that when she was a grad student and broke, she used the pain to channel her energies into finishing her degree. The idea of finishing and not being broke anymore kept her motivated.
This is ironic, I think, because I could make more money doing almost any other kind of job that requires my current qualifications than I could make being an assistant professor. Just saying.
This is ironic, I think, because I could make more money doing almost any other kind of job that requires my current qualifications than I could make being an assistant professor. Just saying.
1 comments:
Yes, that's likely very true, but regardless, you WILL be making more as an asst prof than as a grad student. (Of course, you'll also have more financial obligations, but we'll leave that for later.)
The only way the difference b/w grad school and asst prof earnings would be tiny is if you had some super rare and super prestigious high-paying fellowship for your last year of grad school and then ended up in a not-at-all good job. Those two don't often go together, given that presumably what got one a super super fellowship will help one get a reasonably good job.
In any case, I can see your advisor's perspective. The promise of a change of lifestyle was part of what got me to finish already. It wasn't necessarily the money though, a good chunk of it was about the status and not having to answer to people quite as much anymore, or at least somewhat differently.
Post a Comment