As price of graduate school rises, dream of degree begins to fade

Corrections appended

Princeton students often dream of seeing the letters Ph.D. after their names, but for many of them, that dream will come at a greater cost than ever before.

In the past 10 years, the average annual price of attending a master's program has jumped 60 percent from $9,272 to $14,825, while the price of a Ph.D. has risen 55 percent from $13,423 to $20,903. Though much of these costs are supposed to be covered by university stipends, many students nationwide find themselves forced to take out loans to cover the difference.

Such excessive student borrowing was one of the greatest concerns addressed at the annual meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington last week. Graduate school deans focused on the growing disparity in funding for the hard sciences versus the humanities and social sciences, as well as on how much students, particularly minorities, have to borrow.

Kenneth Redd, director of research and policy analysis with the Council of Graduate Schools, pointed to a greater governmental interest in scienceand technology-related fields for the purposes of economic development.

"In order to foster more students going into those fields, there has been better financing for those areas," he said in an interview. "Recently, there hasn't been as much of a push for the humanities and social sciences."

Disparities in funding can also be attributed to the institutional way in which resources for departments are allocated. Funding for each department is determined by the graduate school, the provost and the departments themselves, if not stipulated by a named donor, Sandra Sussman, assistant to the dean of the Graduate School, said.

"In the engineering and natural sciences, a lot of the funding comes from external grants that the University administers, whereas humanities and social studies are supported more by Princeton funds from the endowment and named fellowships," she added. "In general, the former have more funding than the latter, but there are exceptions such as the Woodrow Wilson School."

This push toward the hard sciences may be responsible for the difference in borrowing between white and minority students as well, Redd said.

"Underrepresented students are much more likely to study in education and other fields that are not related to science and technology, whereas Asian and white students are much more likely to be precisely in these fields, which provide students with much greater resources," he said. "Asian and white students are also much more likely to be enrolled at research-extensive institutions that have much more funding available for fellowships."

According to the latest statistics from a Council of Graduate Schools analysis of Department of Education data, while 19 percent of white students who attended graduate school acquired degrees in science and technology in 2003-2004, only 10 percent of African-American students did the same.

But the magazine also notes that even within the sciences, African-American doctoral students were less likely to be awarded assistantships and more apt to need loans than whites. While approximately 43 percent of minorities took out an average of $19,103 in loans to finance a year of doctoral study in 2003-04, only 34 percent of white doctoral students took out loans, and on average, these loans were more than $1,000 lower.

"The real challenge is not what to do with the people here but how to get them here," Shin-yi Lin, president of the Graduate Student Government, said of the low recruitment for minority students in the hard sciences. "I think the real problem is the disparity between humanities, social sciences and engineering, and that's an effect of where public money has gone in the past."

Princeton's commitment to a no-loan policy at the undergraduate level also carries over to its graduate school, where it tries to be as generous as possible with stipends, Sussman noted. "Everyone would like to be making more, but the stipends certainly provide sufficient funds for students to live on campus and participate in student life."

A major contribution from the University is the housing subsidies it provides its graduate students. For apartments that would otherwise cost $1,000-$1,600, the University charges $500-$700, approximately half of the price, Lin said.

But "the main trouble is sustaining funding from the time that you're here until you graduate," she added. "We're guaranteed a certain amount of funding for program length. The problem is that 'program length' doesn't match 'time to degree.' "

Time is of the essence when it comes to funding the gap between the end of "program length" and actual acceptance of the degree. Many students find themselves forced to take part-time jobs to reduce their expenses, Redd noted, which actually has the effect of increasing the amount of time it takes for a student to earn a degree.

Despite these obstacles, Redd remains hopeful that students won't be deterred in their pursuit of higher education.

"There's going to be more students going on to undergrad and grad schools because college graduates, especially with graduate degrees, will continue to earn more than individuals who did not go to college," he said.

Corrections

There were a number of minor errors in this article. The average price of a Ph.D in 2004 was $20,903, not $20,803, and 10 percent of African-American doctoral students were in science/technology fields, not nine percent, as reported. Finally, the statistics come from a Council of Graduate Schools analysis, not InsideHigherEd.com. We regret the errors.