I was recently accepted into an applied math Ph.D. here in the U.S., and being the 1st in my family to graduate from university, I had a hard time explaining to them why my university will be spending close to 50k on me per year (stipend, tuition, health insurance, fees).
I know that I will be working for the university as a TA, and that perhaps that will go towards covering some of the costs outlined previously, however, it hardly seems to justify the full expenditure.
Answer
A good question. Why would the school make this investment (which could be closer to $100K/year)?
- As pointed out, if you are TAing/grading/teaching, you are providing services that the school charges undergraduates for.
- The funding of a university is not entirely like that of a business. Some of the money is a direct investment in purely academic pursuits, especially that from grants. Educating people and doing basic research is part of what that money is allocated for.
- Averaged over all the graduate students, the direct value that they provide to the university in terms of research which goes on to get grants/prestige/donations/patents is substantial.
- There is a non-trivial chance that you will become a wealthy donor to the school.
No comments:
Post a Comment