Applying to five grad schools will set you back $500 these days. Still, so worth it. I'll find out by mid-March where I'll slave away for my PhD. Going on a Caribbean cruise next week. Life is good.
Yeah, it's expensive. My wife applied to Med residencies and that was really pricey too. Had to fly all over the country on your own dime etc. Also boards, also student loans etc. Getting an education is extremely expensive. Good luck with the grad school hunt and enjoy the cruise.
Thanks, tng. I'm lucky in that I'll have my tuition fees waved and receive a stipend for being either a teaching or research assistant, but other folks studying different subjects aren't so kind. I'll be living on pennies though, I haven't really saved enough working my current job to do much damage. Oh well.
One of my colleagues joked "Sure, it sucks, but it's negligible compared to the costs of the impending schooling :D".
The way I understand it is that it's fairly well adjusted for the cost of living wherever the school's located. The stipend from UCLA is around 35k, but Dartmouth's is only ~25k. So yeah, around $10k variance. I'm going to accrue some dept, because Ramen noodles are going to get really boring after a couple months. That's ok though, this is an investment in future salaries. What's ironic is that I'll be making far less during my post-doc than I am right now, but things should rapidly improve from there.
Honestly, I think it's just cultural... a nationwide pact between universities to milk every last drop of cheap labor out of soon-to-be ex-students. If I ever hear otherwise, I'll try to remember to let you know.