Do you help support your graduate?

cathymee
Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:54:10 +0000

My D has been fortunate enough to mostly support herself on her fellowship during grad school…but shes in St Louis where rent is pretty cheap.She pays all utilities, internet cable,cell. Shes still driving the car we bought her as an undergrad and we paid her car insurance until she turned 25 and the rates dropped. Shes worked off and on over the years at the Music Library to supplement, and lives pretty frugally.Our insurance cut her off at 25 and she picked up the U’s policy which she pays for.When she first enrolled she took out a smallish student loan not knowing what her expenses would be like, and to have a cushion in the bank. We recently paid that off as a gift.We’re also pretty generous at holiday/birthday time and pay for her plane tickets home for visits (but not her travel otherwise).I did just gift her a round trip plane ride to Switzerland where she’ll be doing a research residency for three months.The institute there is paying her a stipend but Swiss rents/food costs are outrageous.
Shes even managed to save some $$ over the years which she intended to use to pay back the loan but won’t have to now.Shes got one year left to PhD and we’re hoping the academic job market will open up a little…