POSTED AT 12:00 AM ON Oct. 17, 2006 | PRINT | Email | SHARE | COMMENTS (0)

Graduate students are underpaid and face high tuition costs.

This seems like an obvious statement, but many are surprised to discover this reality after entering graduate school.

As reported last Tuesday by the Indiana Daily Student, opportunities to pay for graduate school, such as assistantships and various tuition deferral programs, are becoming rarer and much more competitive. Students who graduate from IU with an advanced degree now can potentially owe up to $48,000.

While we agree that this is not a good situation for those seeking such degrees, we also believe students enter graduate school knowing the costs involved. Long hours of studying, long hours working at an assistantship or job and some form of debt are what most people expect from graduate school.

The question then becomes, is it worth it? Is it worth the debt and ridiculously long hours? That depends on your reasons for entering graduate school. In some cases, students pursue an advanced degree because, after joining the workforce, they decide they want to pursue greater career opportunities. In other cases, students are so fascinated by an academic interest that they choose to devote their lives to studying it. Students might even want something as simple as the satisfaction that comes with having a master's or Ph.D. hanging on their wall.

Whatever one's reasoning, the act of entering grad school represents a tacit understanding and acceptance of the hardships that come along with it. Furthermore, if graduate school were really so unbearable, why would so many people be interested in it?

According to National Association of Graduate-Professional Students, roughly 2 million people are enrolled in postgraduate educational programs. This is surprising given the supposedly insurmountable burdens that graduate students face.

Additionally, it's not as if assistantships and traditional methods of paying for school have dried up; they have simply become more competitive. Students have to compete against their peers for the best financial assistance and have to budget their money carefully.

We do not think it's unfortunate. We think it is the real world.

Certainly there are things that are necessary to make the lifestyle possible for graduate student employees -- scholarships, research and professional development grants, livable (if not generous) pay, health and dental care (hint, hint), University housing, support for students' families -- but nobody should enter graduate school thinking they will not face a profound short-term cost. Students are there to earn a degree that most people can only dream about -- a degree that, on average, leads to a considerable boost in one's lifetime income.

The bottom line is that while the situation in grad school is not as good for students as it could be, it is what it is. To get to that level of education, a students have to know what they are getting themselves into. It is a person's choice to pursue that kind of education, and once the choice is made, graduate students should be ready to deal with the consequences.