Blog

Vinay Prasad: Benefits of having a grad student

Photo from Vinay Prasad/Twitter

Nov 23, 2023, 02:53

Vinay Prasad: Benefits of having a grad student

Vinay Prasad, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco, shared a post by Paul J. Dauenhauer, Director at Center for Programmable Energy Catalysis, on X/Twitter, adding:

”Benefits of having a grad student. Gives you purpose in otherwise bleak, short and meaningless life. Does all the work to allow you get the next grant while you sit in office typing? Somethings are priceless, for everything else there is Mastercard.”

Quoting Paul J. Dauenhauer’s post:

”How much does a graduate student cost per year?
Salary: $35,793;
Benefits + Tuition: $26,463;
Supplies: $12,000;
Travel: $3,000;
Overhead: $42,491;
Total: $119,747.

I honestly think C and EN (Chemical and Engineering News) should do a story on this every year to provide all of the students real details on the actual costs associated with research and graduate school. Let’s communicate the real situation.

People fail to realize is that the grant provides a stipend for 20 hour of work/week. That work could be anything defined by the contract; it does not need to be related to a student’s thesis at all. The lucky students are those for which the contract overlaps with their thesis.

In that case, they can GET PAID 20 hours per week to work on something that also happens to be their thesis. This is a fantastic option when faculty are able to make this happen.”

Source: Vinay Prasad/Twitter and Paul J. Dauenhauer/Twitter