From semester to semester, Josh Bousquette doesn’t know if he’ll get a bill for $12,000 or a monthly paycheck in the mail.
It all depends on whether the UW-Madison graduate student manages to find funding as a teaching assistant or research assistant. If he gets funding, his out-of-state tuition of about $25,000 a year is covered, and he’s got a job that pays for most of his living expenses.
….Increasingly, graduate students at UW-Madison are scrambling to get their hands on scarce and meager funding, especially those studying humanities. Even students lucky enough to come in with guaranteed teaching or research positions must work for some of the lowest salaries within the UW’s peer institutions.