2007-8 GRADUATE STUDENT STIPENDS - Graduate Student Stipend Comparison - what PhD programs in biological sciences pay their graduate students

	AMERICA'S BEST GRADUATE SCHOOL STIPENDS 2007-2008 EDITION SALARIES FOR PhD CANDIDATES IN THE BIOLOGICAL & BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

This list is a little different from previous graduate stipend comparisons. Cornell Weill Medical College (New York City) still holds the top spot with $30,754 - the first time a base stipend surpassed the $30K mark. However, because New York's high cost-of-living obviously factors into this record-shattering stipend, I decided to also adjust all the stipends to New York standards. Furthermore, since so many people have kindly given me additional stipend information, the list this year includes almost 50 schools.

After making the cost-of-living adjustment, most stipends increase (in green). In inexpensive regions where some schools still maintain competitive stipends, students can live quite comfortably during their PhD studies. For example: at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, students earned $26000 in 2007-8; when adjusted to New York, this figure jumps to about $56875! That's about what a starting assistant professor makes!

At the other end of the spectrum, we have the California schools in cities where the cost of living approaches (or even exceeds) that of New York. At Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA) - a seemingly generous stipend of $28000 is not so generous when a cost-of-living comparson deflates it to a mere $19649 (ouch). The University of California school system also deserves to be singled out for giving $26500 stipends regardless of cost-of-living variations - especially in notoriously expensive cities like San Francisco and Santa Barbara. Governor Schwarzenegger, do something!

I'm also starting to compile data for the current 2008-9 academic year. If you have stipend information to volunteer, please email me at wendychao (AT) post.harvard.edu. Thanks very much in advance.

2007-2008 PhD STIPENDS IN THE BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES¹

Rank	School	Location	Stipend	Adjusted²
1	Cornell Medical College (Weill)	New York, NY	30754	30754
2	Harvard University	Cambridge, MA	29004	37391
3	Rockefeller University	New York, NY	29000	29000
4	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Cambridge, MA	28400	36613
5	Columbia University	New York, NY	28164	28164
6	Boston University	Boston, MA	28000	36097
	Stanford University	Palo Alto, CA	28000	19649
	Yale University	New Haven, CT	28000	46359
9	Brandeis University	Waltham, MA	27500	36277
10	Tufts Sackler School of Medicine	Boston, MA	27250	35130
11	New York University	New York, NY	27000	27000
12	Cornell University	Ithaca, NY	26667	46167
13	University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia, PA	26520	47262
14	University of California, Berkeley	Berkeley, CA	26500	25529
	University of California, Los Angeles	Los Angeles, CA	26500	28005
	University of California, San Diego	San Diego, CA	26500	29700
	University of California, San Francisco	San Francisco, CA	26500	23283
	University of California, Santa Barbara	Santa Barbara, CA	26500	19966
	University Massachusetts, Worcester	Worcester, MA	26500	43483
19	Johns Hopkins University	Baltimore, MD	26200	47094
20	University of Washington	Seattle, WA	26016	32426
21	Albert Einstein College of Medicine	Bronx, NY	26000	26000
	Califorma Institute of Technology	Pasadena, CA	26000	28328
	Duke University	Durham, NC	26000	45612
	Northwestern University	Chicago, IL	26000	33825
	Scripps Institute	La Jolla, CA	26000	29140
	University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston	Houston, TX	26000	49880
	University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio	San Antonio, TX	26000	56875
	Washington University	St. Louis, MO	26000	53313
29	St. Louis University	St. Louis, MO	25500	52288
	Tufts University	Medford, MA	25500	35080
	University of Chicago	Chicago, IL	25500	33174
32	State University of New York Health Science Center	Brooklyn, NY	25385	25385
33	Northwestern University	Chicago, IL	25250	32849
34	Brown University	Providence, RI	25000	40410
	Duke University	Durham, NC	25000	43857
	Medical College of Wisconsin	Milwaukee, WI	25000	49260
	Tulane University	New Orleans, LA	25000	45425
	University of Texas Medical Branch	Galveston, TX	25000	48045
	University of Utah	Salt Lake City	25000	42019
41	Georgetown Univeristy	Washington, DC	24776	24565
42	Dartmouth College	Hanover, NH	24500	27384
	Mayo School of Health-Related Sciences	Rochester, MN	24500	40816
	Thomas Jefferson University	Philadelphia, PA	24500	40816
	University of Michigan Medical School	Ann Arbor, MI	24500	40816
	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	Minneapolis, MN	24500	39457
47	University of Colorado, Boulder	Boulder, CO	24282	28489

1. Includes specialties such as biochemistry, bioinformatics, biophysics, cell biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, genomics, immunology, infectious disease, microbiology, molecular biology, neurobiology, neuroscience, and structural biology.

2. Stipends were adjusted to the city with the highest base (New York, NY) using the cost-of-living calculator at http://www.bestplaces.net/col.

Comments? Questions? Corrections? Please email me at wendychao (AT) post.harvard.edu

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