What It’s Like…academic stipends and the “poor student” life

Graduate students, Post docs, Professors/PIs and research technicians all deserve to be paid more and paid a living wage. That is a fact.

But then y’all are making this argument while also being classist and sometimes racist too. So yeah, not gonna lie, it makes me very uncomfortable and often times very angry.

If you are on academic twitter, this discussion of grad student/post doc pay is pretty popular and comes up very often. About two weeks ago, a tweet had gone viral from a PI expressing their struggle in finding post-docs to work in their lab, and many people responded to this PI to talk about some of the toxic work culture academia promotes and of course, the amount of money people make as a post doc.

If you are a post doc, and you have kids or a family to take care of, trying to do that while making 50-60K a year can be really difficult. I can understand that.

But then I saw this comment where someone said “yeah, after getting my PhD and finding out I’m going to go be making 50K a year, I was poor in grad school and I’d like to stop being poor.”

I also saw another comment where someone was like, “yeah, why would I want to continue to get poverty wages and be poor when I can go into industry and actually make money.”

I’m definitely paraphrasing a bit, but this was the argument that frankly, I saw a lot of people using. And this is when I clicked out of twitter so I wouldn’t start a fight with people on the internet. I was uncomfortable. I was angry.

Let’s talk about why.

To explain where this uncomfortableness and anger comes from, I’m going to explain a little bit about my life: specifically growing up in a low-income household and being a first generation student.

In my previous blog, I talked a lot about my feelings about being FGLI and often times the loneliness that I feel in science because most people I’m around did not grow up low-income. I’m not going to repeat everything I talk about in that blog here, but I’m going to remphasize this particular part of that blog because this is the perspective I’m coming from when I see these debates about academic pay.

“When I’ve thought about my FGLI identity, it has always been in the context of my experience as a hopeful physician-scientist and the experiences that I’ve had that has made my journey in academia very difficult. Of course I’ve brought in my personal life in these conversations/perspectives; such as how I knew from a young age that when everyone in my elementary school could afford converse shoes or my cousins getting to do many social activities that I never had the chance/nor was able to do, because even asking my dad for lunch money was an anxiety inducing task, yeah it didn’t take much for me to realize that my family did not have the same financial means as a lot of the people I grew up around and that their ticket to just a percent of that stability was going to be because of me.”

I grew up in a household in the City of Chicago where my parents combined income ranged between $30,000-$50,000, especially leaning on the lower end of this range. My dad has always worked 7 days a week for as long as I could remember, and when 2008 happened—ahh the recession, can’t wait to experience the 2022 one—my mom who had already stopped being a stay at home mom a year prior, had began working two jobs to help support our family. From age 8-18, both of my parents worked 7 days a week just to survive. The only reason why my mom finally quit her second job was because my dad and I, even though my parents still needed the money, recognized the physical and mental toll it was taking on my mother’s body; likely explaining many of the health issues my mom currently struggles with today. My dad, now 75, also struggled with some health issues as well, and only more recently, cut back on the number of hours he would work as a taxi driver.

My mom will still wear extremely worn out jeans to work, with holes and rips that are beyond fixing by her sowing machine, she rarely treats herself to even the dollar menu McDonalds, and will literally calculate things she needs to buy and pay down to the penny. She will even cheer on her rush to work if she finds a dime in her bag and exclaim “good, I can use this to pay the tax on the milk we need.” My dad getting a major tip from a passenger would have him coming home at 4 or 8pm, compared to his usual 10, 11 or 2am time and allow him to sit on our couch and rest for a bit longer.

Yet, despite all this, I would not say or call my family poor or that I grew up poor or that I am poor. I grew up low-income. I grew up in a household where, yes, every penny counts, that public school was my only option—though I was privileged to attend the public schools that I did—, but we had a place to sleep, food to eat, electricity; all the basics of survival. I couldn’t get everything I wanted, but my parents made sure they gave me everything I needed, and in return, I’ve made sure to do my best in school so that one day, my parents will no longer have to cheer at the sight of a dime on the ground and actually get to relax.

So when I see people on academic twitter calling theirselves “poor” or the term “poverty wages” or saying “ew, I don’t want be poor anymore,” my blood boils and I get extremely uncomfortable.

Now, I’m going to keep saying this because some of y’all are going to take this the wrong way: Graduate students, Post docs, Professors/PIs and research technicians all deserve to be paid more and paid a living wage. That is a fact.

I am now a junior specialist at UCSF, in the city of San Francisco, where the cost of living is so high, that the nearly 50K I make a year is very hard to survive off of. I recogize that because I live in SF and the number of hours that I work (because honestly, no one science really works “40 hours”, it is upward of 50-60 hours a week sometimes), I should be paid more and paid a wage where I don’t have 60-70% of my income going to rent. But to me, I also have this weird guilt with the money I make, because it nearly doubles what both my parents make combined. That I, at almost 23 years old, can afford to live in an apartment, with a roommate now of course, pay my ridiculously high rent and other bills, and even if there isn’t a lot left over, there is something. I feel this weird guilt, uncomfortableness that even though I’m struggling in SF, I think about how my parents had to raise me with the same income I’m making as an individual. And for the most part, they raised me with less than what I’m making.

And here’s the thing about academia. Like I said in my previous blog, in my lab of nearly 18 people, there are only two people as far as I know in my lab who grew up low-income, me and one other person. Some of my best friends are Grad Students or Post Docs and out of that amazing group of friends, only one of them grew up in a household that at UChicago for example, they would’ve been an Odyssey Scholar—the scholarship given to low-income students. Yet, Odyssey Scholars at UChicago and how UChicago defines low-income, is much different to what we traditionally consider low-income which are “pell-grant” eligible students, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Majority of post-college programs lack low-income students in their programs, but that’s what happens when you have to pay so much to apply for a variety of programs because it’s extremely competitive to get in. For example, when I apply for MD/PhD Programs in 2023, I will hopefully be able get the fee assistance program from the AAMC and have 20 of my 35-40 medical school applications covered. However, for the remaining 15-20 schools, and when I have to travel for interviews, I still need to make sure I have at least $6000-7000. Although MD/PhD Programs can pay for my flights and travel, majority of the time, it will be a reimbursement process, so regardless, I need to have the money to afford to do so. $6000-$7000 is not easy money or throw away money for students who come from low-income backgrounds. It’s certainly not something I can ask my parents so easily to give me too.

So in combination with how expensive it is to apply for higher education programs, the way classism and for Black students like me, racism and microagressions, make getting through college and pushing past systemic barriers an overwhelming challenge, there is no wonder that Black/FGLI represention in doctoral programs is extremely low—even beyond discriminatory admissions process but that’s a topic for another day because i’m getting ahead of myself but these issues are intersectional and I can’t help but not talk about it.

Thus, in light of all these things, I think it is fair to argue that many people in MD, MD-PhD, Masters and PhD Programs came from more financially well off families. So when many of these people are coming into PhD Programs where they are making 10-50K range, it is frankly a major culture shock to them.

Before I continue, also want to clarify something too. Non-science PhD programs are extremely underpaid and frankly exploitive and require students who come from money to get through it. It is actually ridiculous how many humanities and social science phd programs pay grad students less than 30K, less than 20K frankly, and take more money out of that pay for the teaching requirements, field work and other things those programs may require. That is a major issue and academia and institutions need to fix this issue. This blog is centering around science academia and I want to just make that clear.

Now, as I mentioned, since many PhD students are coming from more financially stable or well off families, when they find out how much they are making as grad students, it is a major culture shock to them; and that is valid. Living off of 25-40K a year, especially in major high cost of living cities like NYC, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Chicago to a certain extent (she’s expensive yes but she’s also manageable I will say as a major city), Austin and Atlanta, yeah it is hard. Yet, there is also a major difference in many of these people’s experiences. Some of y’all are still getting financial support and care from your families.

This is where I see the divide on this topic of pay and classism from fellow low-income people. And I’ve talked about this a lot with my low-income friends who are in PhD Programs. Yes, the amount they make isn’t a lot and they absolutely deserve more, but there are two sides to it. On the one hand, this is the first time for low-income students, they have access to a stable income, housing, health insurance, can afford therapy, and even some personal treats. But on the other hand, this money isn’t all for them. Many low-income students are responsible for supporting their families back at home. I helped my family out in undergrad, I’ve done my best to help my family out now as a junior specialist, and when I begin my MD-PhD training, I will also be sending money to my parents to support them because if I don’t, who will?

To many PhD students and post-docs who are not first gen and low-income, yes, the amount of money you are making isn’t a lot. That is true. But to be honest, for many of you, this is the first time you all are experiencing what my entire life has been. This is the first time you’re experiencing what it is like to be low-income. It is a very hard life, it is, and frankly, you’d think that maybe when we talk about income disparities in academia, you’d be more sensitive and careful with your words. But nope, some of y’all are like, ew I hate being poor. Even though some of y’all “poor students” are able to get support from your parents and extended family to help calm that burden a bit, sometimes through grocery money, utilities and even supporting y’all with your housing/rent costs. That’s not something I and many other FGLI students have access to.

Also I’m sorry but not sorry, but please, the term poverty and poverty wages isn’t just something you can throw around. Like, many of us are not in poverty. I myself did not grow up in poverty. In the city of Chicago, the federal poverty level is an annual income of 26,200 for a family of four. Federal poverty guidelines for San Francisco is $25,100 for a family of four. My family, struggled and are continuing to struggle today. But we are not in poverty, we are low-income. We are making wages that does not equal the amount of work we put into our careers and lives and that needs to change. But many of us are not living in poverty.

Many of Black and Hispanic workers who are keeping the lights on in our departments and cleaning your spills in the bathroom or the shared lab kitchen, many of them are actually living in poverty. And frankly, saying “I hate being poor” or “'being poor sucks and is gross” or “I need to hurry up so I can stop being poor”, in front of these people who are cleaning up after you is extremely classist and racist. And if you cannot recognize that, that is a problem.

Singing to the tune of “Wade in the Water” in a grad student union protest, a Black spiritual song created and sung by Black Slaves who were murdered, abused and raped for the color of their skin, and singing that in your union chants…yes, this literally happened in the UChicago GSU Strike back in 2019. UChicago GSU, you know I love y’all and know you all deserve better, especially with how much grad students have to do at UChicago in terms of teaching, and you all have done good things since, but that was extremely anti-Black and hella racist.

Academia and higher institutions need to do a better job at paying their students and post-docs better wages, and stop paying their chancellors 6.5 million dollars a year and letting them live in 10 million dollar mansions, where that money could actually be used to help many of us. That is absolutely true. Universities need to do a better job at support the people that actually give many of these universities their names. That is absolutely true. Grad Students, Post docs, and research techs should be paid what they deserve, for the hours that they work and the contributions they make to society. That is absolutely true. But many of you all are not poor. You are not in poverty. And you are definitely not slaves or experienced anything close to slavery.

My fellow academics, you cannot argue to dismantle the classism in academia, while using classist and racist arguments.

So when this debate about academic pay comes up again next week on twitter, you all better take the time to actually reflect on your experiences and the privileges you have. If not, I’ll just keep dropping the link to this blog in your responses.

But hey, at least I’ll get some website traffic.