For those of you comparing the financial situation of graduate/medical students to that of kollel students:
1. Medical students do not receive stipends. (The only ones who do are in MD/PhD programs, and it is for the work on the PhD that they receive money–more on that below.) A great many medical students take out loans to cover the cost of tuition and living. The collateral for those loans is the MD’s earning ability later on–repayment of those loans is long-term–as the MD will not be able to repay them for quite some time. Average debt for medical students–about $150,000.
2. Graduate students in sciences–many do receive stipends. This, however, is not provided stam–it is generally a salary for teaching classes to undergraduates. Otherwise, they may receive a specific stipend for performing a specific topic of research. This, however, is something that the student’s adviser has gotten through grant applications–and they are very competitive. The grants are very goal-directed, and go for a very limited amount of time. Progress reports are demanded. For this, the student is expected to spend 60+ hours/ week in the lab on slow days–and over 90+ hours/week during the high-stress times. and there is no such thing as “ben hazmanim”. In other words, graduate work in the sciences is a more-than-full-time job. These students are exempt from tuition by their institutions.
3. Graduate work in the non-sciences is much less funded than what I have described above. There are a few teaching positions available, and a very few stipends. So most of the students doing graduate work in history, or literature, or such topics—have to solve the problem in other ways. Those who do not have money in the family usually hit upon the same original idea–they go to work. They study part-time, and work part-time to support their study. These students usually pay tuition, as well.