How to Make Graduate School Work for Your Lifestyle

When I first started graduate school, I was 35 years old and living my best life. I lived in Atlanta, where I had a great job and a great friends group, was casually dating, and traveled A LOT (visiting at least four new countries annually). Much of my family also lived in Atlanta, making it easy to regularly connect with them. I was also doing well financially. I owned a house and was getting rental and employment income, which allowed me extra slack in my budget to save. As you can probably imagine, I worried that starting grad school - which would entail moving to Seattle, one of the most expensive cities in the United States on the opposite side of the country, and having to live in the library - might wreck my lifestyle a bit.  

As expected, the first year of grad school wrecked my lifestyle indeed. I was very focused on learning the material and passing qualifying exams. I did nothing but study, sleep, and go to the gym. I also was on a graduate student stipend, which meant no traveling or saving. Luckily, the first year of intense studying eventually ended. And with that, I started looking for ways to live my best life again.

In grad school years 2-4, I returned to a more fun-filled and flexible lifestyle. In the last three years, I have taken on additional jobs, continued to save for retirement, and traveled to 10 countries. I also fell in love, had a baby, and got married. Partially due to COVID forcing classes online, I have also been able to spend much of my time in grad school in Atlanta instead of in Seattle, where my school is located. In this blog post, I'll tell you how I navigated starting a family, not living in the city where my school is, and how I patch income streams together to pay for school. I'll also share some tips that I learned along the way that can help you do the same.

How to Live in a Different City Than Where Your School Is

Not all graduate school programs require you to work and stay in the city for the entire duration of graduate school. Some programs only require that you be there while you are a student taking classes. Some schools also require you to be a TA (Teaching Assistant) or an RA (Research Assistant). If you must TA as part of your program, you will likely need to be in the city when teaching the class. It’s possible that being an RA will give you flexibility to live elsewhere but it depends on the program. For example, if you are in a discipline where you need to work in a physical lab, you will likely need to be on campus. If the RA job doesn’t require being in person, you may still be restricted to the same state because your program may not be willing to pay for the out-of-state tuition costs they would incur if you lived elsewhere. At my school, RA jobs did not require you to live in the state. Every program has different rules, so it’s important to check your handbooks and ask your advisors.

At a minimum, you must be on campus for your coursework, which usually takes approximately 2 years. If you are strategic, you can take all your coursework and complete any in-person TA or in-person RA requirements back-to-back so that you only have to live in that city for the first two years. It's important to note that not living in the city differs from never going there. Once you get to the dissertation phase, you should regularly visit to meet with professors and continue to be part of the graduate school network. Beyond completing course requirements, there's another reason you may need to stay in the city of your school for longer than 2 years. Some schools require you to pay for dissertation credits, and you may have to work as a TA or RA that requires you to be on campus to pay for these credits. I'll explain this in more detail in the next section. 

How to Pay for Graduate School

Students often get 4-6 years of guaranteed funding when completing a PhD. This usually means your tuition and fees are waived, and you get a stipend that is barely enough to live on in exchange for working part-time as a TA or RA. If you don't work as a TA or RA you will be on the hook for paying tuition, which can be very expensive. For example, the University of Washington's out-of-state tuition is about $10,000 per quarter. In addition to working as a TA or RA, you may have the opportunity to work other jobs while in school or to apply for grant funding.

At some points during your program, alternative job options may be more lucrative than working as a TA or RA. Despite receiving 4-6 years of guaranteed funding that includes waived tuition, program requirements are likely closer to only 3 years. You will not need to pay for credits if you are not taking class or completing required dissertation credits. Thus, the TA or RA job is less lucrative if you do not need to pay for class or dissertation credits. For example, if you're at a point in the program where you do not need to pay for credits and do not live in the same city, you might prefer to do some consulting or other work gig work instead. It's important to note that not all programs permit side hustles outside the TA or RA job. While I won't discuss this here, international students are also subject to additional constraints regarding work.

Another option for paying for dissertation credits and living expenses is to apply for grant funding. How tricky grant funding is to ascertain will depend on your discipline and program requirements. Different disciplines have different ease of access to grant funding. Further, large grants that substitute a TA or RA job (e.g., grants that provide a stipend and pay for your dissertation credits) are primarily available only to students who have defended their dissertation proposals. Every school's requirements vary regarding when you take your dissertation credits and when you propose your dissertation. Therefore, consult your program manuals and your advisors to determine how to time grant funding applications if you want to use grant funding to pay for dissertation credits.

How I Navigated the System to Pay For Grad School

To make money in grad school and pay for class credits, I patched together several income sources and strategically took on TA and RA roles when taking classes. My various income sources also allowed me to hop between Seattle and Atlanta during school, living in Seattle only when working in-person TA or RA roles and taking in-person classes. I recently moved outside of San Francisco, where I intend to spend the remaining of my grad school time working in a remote RA job to pay for dissertation credits. The flexibility of not having to live in Seattle made it much easier for me to start a family so I could live where I had support systems and affordable housing. 

Before starting grad school, I made two arrangements that gave me additional income streams while in grad school. 1) I purchased a house that would provide me rental income, and 2) I negotiated with my employer to let me have a flexible hourly job at my same rate of pay for at least the first year. Both of these income sources helped substantially. When juggling school and RA/TA responsibilities, I found I could work 10 hours per week while taking classes. My employer also let me work full-time during breaks and the summer. The house was a great purchase because it provided about $500 in monthly rental income above my expenses when I didn't live there. Between the various income sources I pieced together, my income was approximately the same in years 1-4 as before grad school. 

The house purchase became even more helpful when COVID hit because it allowed me to move to a place where I could live for free- the rental income from roommates covered all my costs when I lived there. Due to COVID pushing classes online, I returned to Atlanta in April of year 1 and stayed there for all of year 2. 

By year 3, I was married with a baby on the way. My partner's job was in Atlanta, and I was working full-time in person at the Atlanta Fed. As a result, I also spent a good portion of years 3 and 4 in Atlanta, going to Seattle for only one quarter when I needed to TA and take a couple of classes. Having my baby in Atlanta and remaining there for his first year was ideal because I had a great living situation and an extensive friends and family support system. Further, I was eligible for maternity leave because I worked full-time before and after my son's birth.

In January of year 4, my partner and I decided to make some moves. I quit my Atlanta Fed job to focus on finalizing a program requirement I had to complete before starting my dissertation work, and my partner landed a new job in San Francisco. Before returning to the West Coast, my partner and I converted my house in Atlanta into a duplex that we could rent to short- or long-term tenants. The duplex would provide rental income and give us a place to stay when we visited family and friends back home.

My latest challenge on the West Coast has been figuring out how to make money and pay for required dissertation credits while attending school remotely. Luckily, soon after I moved to California, a consulting job fell into my lap. A nonprofit organization I had engaged with while working at the Atlanta Fed reached out to me to help them compete for a large NIH grant with a tight deadline. The project required me dropping everything I was working to write the grant full-time for the next three weeks. Due to the flexibility of grad school, I was able to do this. After finishing the consulting gig, I started looking for University jobs I could do remotely. My program offers funding in exchange for working as a TA or RA. While the TA jobs are abundant and highly coordinated, the RA jobs for professors in my program are impossible to apply for because they are not advertised. Indeed, securing RA jobs is a part of the 'hidden curriculum' that I still need to figure out. Thus, my job search led me to apply for RA jobs outside the Evans School.

After applying for several remote RA jobs, I secured a position at the Law school, which is expected to last three quarters. This will help pay for some of the dissertation credits I am required to take. After I complete my dissertation proposal, I will be eligible to apply for a wide array of external grants that provide funding for dissertation credits and a living stipend. I also plan to apply for a few smaller grants from my university. A benefit of receiving a grant from the University is that it triggers in-state tuition even if I don't live there. Therefore, if I need to pay for dissertation credits out-of-pocket, receiving a small grant can be very valuable due to the in-state tuition trigger. 

How I Balanced Family Life

I commonly get a question: "How did you manage (from a time perspective) to start a family, complete grad school requirements, and do side hustles?" The truth is that after completing my qualification exams in the summer after the first year, I found grad school to be very flexible. At least in my program, you can choose when to take classes to fulfill credit requirements over the course of your PhD. Day-to-day life is also very flexible. When you are not taking classes, you don't have to get up at a particular time, go to bed at a specific time, or commute. The flexibility allows you to take on side hustles, travel, raise a family, or do other things you may want to do during grad school. Further, after starting my dissertation work, I found distractions essential for keeping me productive. I realize that may sound weird, but hang with me for a minute. 

Dissertation work is very individual. In my program, we cannot co-author any papers for our dissertation. This means there are no brainstorming sessions, meetings, or energy from other people to help keep you engaged and moving. Further, reading and writing all day is mentally taxing. I have found that alternating activities during the day helps to both give my mind a rest and keep it stimulated simultaneously. Pivoting to different activities during the day helps prevent me from getting bored with my dissertation work. When these other activities involve non-desk activities, people, or both, the pivoting also helps prevent me from feeling like I'm going crazy. 

Another challenge with working only on your dissertation is that your advisors are extremely busy. This has meant that a non-significant portion of my time is spent waiting for them to have time to review my work or meet with me. In between submitting something for their review and waiting for feedback or a meeting is typically 1-3 weeks. In cases where they are on sabbatical or vacation, I have even waited more than a month. Thus, I have had time to engage in non-dissertation activities.

In addition to working for the Atlanta Fed, I enjoyed spending my flexible time traveling and starting a family. Taking care of a child gives me the mental break I need, and having a flexible schedule allows me to do this without feeling too stressed out. For example, say my kid gets sick and has to stay home from daycare, meaning I must take a day off. If I were working full-time, I would worry about missing deadlines or essential meetings if that happened. However, with grad school, I can typically push my work to the next day without much consequence. The flexible schedule also means I can visit the park during daylight hours with my kid. Further, one of the reasons I enjoy spending time with my kid as much as I do is because it gives me a much-needed break from constant reading and writing.  

As I alluded to in the beginning, I like to travel. So far, while in grad school, I have visited at least 10 countries, taken many domestic trips, and attended at least 7 conferences. I have already explained how I had time to do this, but I still need to explain how I paid for this much travel. First and foremost, the cost of travel really varies by the place you go. I always aim for cheap locations (e.g. central America), cheap accommodations (e.g. hostels), and put my house on Airbnb while I am gone. I also secure cheap flights using points, especially for international travel. To accumulate enough points to fly for free takes a bit of strategizing. I generally put all my spending onto one travel credit card that gives me substantial points (I use Chase Sapphire Preferred but I recommend reading articles by ‘the points guy’ to decide which card is right for you.). I have also opened up four additional airline specific credit cards over the years; each card opening can provide enough points for roughly 2 international trips or 6 domestic trips (one-way). The airline credit cards I have opened up are Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest, Alaska, and United. I chose Southwest and Alaska because I needed to fly to/from the west coast a lot since my school is located there; I chose Hawaiian Airlines because I fell in love with Hawaii the first time I visited and was dying to go back as much as possible. I chose United because they have amazing points deals for international flights. While this idea gives many people I speak to great anxiety, I don’t see it that way. After spending enough (e.g. $3,000 in the first 3 months) it’s not necessary to use the cards anymore. After I receive the point bonuses, the cards just sit in my desk drawer; after I use the bonuses, I cancel the cards. A side note on this is that you typically need an excellent credit score to get these credit cards. If you are new to building credit or haven’t been building your credit strategically, I suggest reading up on that now so that when you graduate and start making money you’ll have the credit score required to secure the lowest interest rate. 

In terms of logistics, many of the trips were done before the baby was born. However, I have also traveled to plenty of places after the baby. My trips now involve taking my child to my parents' house in Florida before departing or meeting my partner's mom somewhere internationally so she can watch the baby while we travel. Also, I always work remotely while traveling to stay caught up. 

In conclusion, grad school doesn't have to be the end of living your best life. With these tips, some strategizing, and good fortune, I hope you can enjoy your time in grad school as much as I have!

About the Author

Ellie Terry is a fifth-year doctoral student at the University of Washington. Prior to joining the Evans School of Public Policy, she worked as an Economic Policy Analysis Specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Her research typically involves analyzing social policy problems through an economic lens. Her research combines the insights from the disciplines of social psychology and economics to understand research questions related to economic mobility and social assistance policies. In her free time, Ellie likes to hike in the Berkeley Hills with her partner and 2 year old and travel the world. Ellie has been to over 30 countries. You can read about some of her travel adventures on her travel website.