You have to think (and talk) about money
Recently, 4 more copies of A Field Guide to Grad School were shared with prospective and current PhD students in the United States bringing our total number of newsletter book winners to 84! Recipients included: Emily Lubin, Malerie McDowell, Debasmita Padhi, and Joshua Schneider. If you are a prospective or current PhD student in the United States and are interested in winning a copy of A Field Guide to Grad School, be sure to enter the book giveaway to receive your own copy. More information on how to do this is at the end of the newsletter.
In December of last year, I had the opportunity to meet with a group of PhD students as part of their proseminar series. During our meeting, we discussed several aspects of money, including differences in pay across disciplines, the importance of negotiating when entertaining job offers, and concerns the students had about finances more generally. In this post, I share three key takeaways from that discussion. I encourage everyone to continue the conversation and welcome questions you may have about securing your financial future while a PhD student.
Not every assistant professor earns the same amount. Although many people intuit that faculty across a single campus take home different salaries, the actual differences in pay can be surprising. For example, according to the salary information made available by a large public university in the United States, an assistant professor in the humanities earned about $80,000 during the 2021-2022 academic year whereas an assistant professor in the natural sciences earned about $100,000. These numbers pale in comparison to an assistant professor in the business school who earned over $180,000 in the same academic year. Obviously it should be noted that I do not know whether these faculty have earned additional salary beyond that required to be disclosed by the university, nor do I know about the nature of their negotiations, etc.
I share this information to simply highlight that there can be sizable differences in the salaries earned by faculty at the same level on the same campus. Of course, these differences reflect many different things that I’m choosing to not discuss in this post. Again, this is just information.
So, why do I share these numbers? I share them to highlight that you can get a sense of what to expect when you’re on the academic job market. Public universities in the United States are required to disclose campus salaries. You can look up my salary if you would like! The same caveats apply, however. These records don’t always include all monies earned, but they are usually close.
Feeling like you don’t know enough about money is more common than you think. Prior to our conversation, I asked the PhD students to indicate how knowledgable they felt about financial matters on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 10 (extremely). The mean response was 5.5 with very little standard deviation.
I didn’t ask the students to share more than a numerical response; however, my own conversations with PhD students have revealed to me that many feel ill-equipped to navigate financial stuff during their PhD training because: 1) they didn’t learn much about financial decision making in their childhood homes, 2) they are unable to allocate their money in a way that is comfortable due to underfunded stipends, and/or 3) they feel embarrassed by being “academically smart” but “financially stupid” and are, thus, reluctant to reach out for help.
I *get* all of this! Money remains a very taboo topic in many cultures and admitting you need help can be very difficult. I encourage PhD students to come together to openly discuss money and share resources. Here are a few resources that you may find helpful:
Personal Finance for PhDs (website and blog)
Marketplace (public media outlet)
Mixed Up Money (Instagram account)
Financial Feminist (podcast)
Be curious. Ask questions. It may surprise you what people are willing to share. I have asked friends almost anything you can think of with respect to money. I have asked directly about salary, negotiations, research funds, you name it. Not one person has refused to empower me with some information in some way. In turn, though, I am also free with information. Importantly, I believe that my friends share such information because they know that I will not publicly connect their names to what they have shared about themselves (without prior approval). As a result, I have been able to learn so much and help many others because I have concrete information about financial stuff. You can start building out your own vault of information with your friends right now.
Final thought. If you feel like you don’t know where to start, that’s ok. Just start somewhere. It may not be the “best” place, but it’s a *better* place than no place.
Until next time!
How to reach me: You are always welcome to email me (letstalkgradschool@gmail.com). You can also find me on Twitter (X) @tweetsbymidge and Bluesky @bskybymidge.
Want to support my #hiddencurriculum efforts? Consider “buying me a coffee” via Ko-fi. All funds will be put back into my Let’s Talk Grad School initiatives (i.e., weekend groups, buying/mailing books, etc.). Learn more about my efforts here.
Let’s give away some books: Readers located in the United States are eligible to enter the book giveaway to receive a copy of A Field Guide to Grad School by Dr. Jessica Calarco. To do so, complete this survey and note that you only have to complete it once to be entered in all subsequent giveaways! I do hope to expand the reach of the giveaway; however, at the moment, the shipping costs are too great to scale. If you’d like to talk about ways your institution could secure an electronic (or hard) copy, please let me know.
Wishing you all the best!
Margaret