Graduate Student Mental Health - Universities need to do better
Chanel Lee
In May 2022, I withdrew from my PhD program. I spent two years trying everything to make it work, but it just didn’t work out. Why? I promise you it was not because I’m not good enough. The issue is that there is a systemic problem in academia. Academia was created by rich white men for rich white men. This legacy is still felt today. This is felt through low stipends, overworking grad students, and other systemic issues. Minorities and women are no longer banned from universities, but this antiquated system has produced a mental health crisis among graduate students. The opinions expressed here are based on the experiences of my friends and me during our PhD grind. Toward the end of the blog, I will share some links to articles and research papers that dive deeper into the topic of graduate student mental health.
My name is Chanel Lee. I’m a black woman with a bachelor’s in pure mathematics and a master’s degree in applied mathematics both from California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). Since the age of 17, I have wanted to be a college professor. I was a first-generation college student, and my undergrad experience was rough. I had an awful advisor, a math professor, who thought it was appropriate to advise me to switch my major to something easier. I spent the year after graduation in a “Post Grad Depression.” To learn more about this, check out my podcast Chatting with Chaddi where my friend and I discuss our post grad depression experiences at length.
After recovering from this depressive episode in my life, I decided to give academia another chance. I went into my master’s program to see if a PhD could be for me. I enjoyed my master’s program for the most part, so I decided to go into a PhD program. Pursuing a PhD ruined my mental and physical health, and if I could go back in time, I would have never applied. I am not the only one; many graduate students are suffering now. There needs to be a systemic change in the way PhD students are treated throughout their programs. Let’s talk about some of the common areas that contribute to the poor mental health of grad students.
1. Low Stipends
In the first year of my program, I was paid $26,000 a year. The stipend rate was not raised for the previous eight years in the department. The $26,000 didn’t go far, but surprisingly most grad students were delusional when it came to being underpaid via our stipends. One student said that our stipends are more than enough. He lives at home with his wealthy parents. Even a low-income student, whose only income was the stipend, told prospective grad students that the stipend was more than enough. I asked her “how much do you have leftover at the end of a month after expenses?” She said $100. If she had a medical emergency or a car accident, she would be bankrupt. This is the same person who missed one payment from the school due to an error and had no way of paying her rent.
Graduate students deserve to live comfortably. They should be able to afford to live alone or with their families on the grad school stipends alone. All graduate students are bachelor’s degree holders or, in my case, even master’s degree holders. A STEM entry level salary for a bachelor’s degree is $60,000. Graduate stipends offered by universities are around $30,000, if you are lucky. Graduate students are sacrificing four to seven years of earnings, retirement savings, and overall financial stability. These programs only make financial sense if you have additional external support such as parents, guardians, or a spouse. With the high inflation and housing costs of the last decade, low stipends will make grad school not an option for socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Gone are the days where you can pay $600 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. I had a two bedroom apartment in Texas, and I paid $1,400 a month. If I were to rent that same apartment today it would be closer to $2,000 a month.
Many students take advantage of the opportunity to supplement their graduate income with summer internships. However, not everyone is guaranteed this opportunity. Some advisors will choose to recommend grad students for internship positions, while other graduate students have to figure it out for themselves. This leaves a wide open door for discrimination, especially when these internships pay two-to-four times the monthly stipend pay.
2. Lackluster job prospects
Only pursue a PhD if your future career requires it. When I started my higher education career, I wanted to be a college professor. However, many courses are now being taught by graduate students, lecturers, and other cheaper alternatives, decreasing the need for college professors. So I decided to no longer pursue a PhD. When I was looking for industry positions in my field, I found that I would be great without a PhD.
3. Grad students have few protections from advisers’ power
When I was applying to PhD programs, so many professors told me that the most important person is your advisor. They decide whether you will get a PhD or not. I have a friend who was defending their dissertation in a week. Stressed, she told me that her advisor told her to add a new chapter to her dissertation. She had no choice but comply and suffer to get him his chapter in a week. If a graduate student has any issue with the department or an advisor, in reality their only option is to do as they are told, switch departments, switch advisors, or leave the program altogether. Additionally, I felt that I had no recourse if I felt abused or harassed by professors. I know students who have allegedly reported professors and nothing happened.
This lack of accountability for advisors may be the reason why some of these professors use their unchecked power to the fullest of their ability. My advisor was notorious for making graders hold office hours, answer student emails, and write his assignments and exams.
4. Racism/Sexism/Classism – All the isms!
I found that as a black woman, academia is exhausting. Professors will treat you differently than everyone else. As one of the only two black women in the department, we shared some of our experiences with other graduate students. They were shocked and said “wow [that professor] has never acted that way with me.” I responded by saying “I wonder why?” while gesturing to my skin, braids, and facial features. I want to note that it was not only white men professors who treated me badly. Professors of all races and genders perpetuate racism and sexism.
Let’s talk about classism. I feel like this “ism” is the most forgotten about because many people believe poverty is a choice. I grew up in the middle class and have two parents still married who are willing to help me financially. I do not personally experience the effects of classism; however, I saw egregious displays. From graduate students bragging about their parents paying their rent; proclaiming, “I'm so glad I have rich parents.” Students believed the stipends were enough because they were well off even though evidence pointed to the contrary. A professor bragged about buying new homes and complained about 3% budget cuts while not increasing the graduate student stipends for eight years. Professors were shocked that a graduate student couldn't afford to buy a new laptop after their old one died.
5. Classes and qualifying exams are pointless except to weed out students
Classes, and therefore the qualifying exams, do not help you become a good researcher. Keeping up with mind numbing assignments and being a good test taker have nothing to do with research. They are a waste of time and a way to weed out students that professors do not deem “qualified.” Once again the door is open for discrimination.
6. An insurmountable workload
PhD students are always working. I know so many working 40+ hours a week, going into the lab daily, and answering advisor emails on the weekend. The heavy coursework load and research bog these students down. When you are doing research, most advisors give no guidance or metrics of success, so this exacerbates the tendency of PhD research to expand to fill the time allotted. This circles back to advisors having too much power over grad students. They can move the goalposts at any time. My theory is that the immense workload at the discretion of professors is a hazing ritual. You can’t become a part of the brotherhood of academia unless you pay your dues.
7. Lack of support for grad student mental health
Everything I mentioned before contributes to a lack of graduate student mental health. In addition, there is no focus or push to address mental health in meaningful, systemic ways. During my second year, a graduate student committed suicide. There was no reflection by the university or a new initiative in place. I only remember getting an email saying that a student passed away and if you need support go to the mental health services. This tragic event and lackluster response put everything in perspective for me. I reflected on my time at the university: low pay, aggressive professors, sexism and racism, and more. I sacrificed time away from my friends and family and my mental and physical health. It was time for me to leave grad school. This decision was solidified when I asked my department chair for some type of support in the program, and he had nothing for me. He suggested I take a break and reconsider if this was for me.
I started my PhD at the beginning of the pandemic. The pandemic was a stress test for universities, and they failed. The pandemic made it clear what is wrong with PhD programs, but unfortunately, universities have yet to take responsibility for their part in maintaining a hostile system. Academia has a habit of blaming the individual. “You quit your PhD? Well, it just wasn’t for you.” “A student committed suicide. Let’s just point students to the underfunded mental health services.” “The retention of black students is low. Let’s just have the black graduate student association have more events.” Two years of my life were dedicated to getting a PhD. The university and my two departments (I transferred to another department after my first year) did not care about me aside from my diversity funding, fellowships, grades, and research output. Universities, departments, and professors need to do better.
A message to current PhD students:
Hang in there! You are worthy. You are loved. I am rooting for you! Your life and mental health matter more than getting your PhD. You do not need a PhD to be successful. You do not need a PhD to be happy. You do not need a PhD to be worthy. You are more than enough! Feel free to reach out, if you want to talk to someone who understands the mess that grad school can be.
You are not alone! If you are are experiencing difficult thoughts, please call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255. In case of emergency, please call 911.
A message for prospective PhD students:
Think long and hard before you decide to pursue a PhD. Reach out and talk to professors, post docs, and grad students. Tell them to be candid! If it is not an absolute requirement for your future career, I would not recommend doing a PhD. In any case, I wish you luck. Feel free to reach out to me if you would like to know more about my experience.
Here are some articles and research papers on the current grad student mental health crisis with respective short summaries:
Evans, T. M., Bira, L., Gastelum, J. B., Weiss, L. T., & Vanderford, N. L. (2018). Evidence for a mental health crisis in graduate education. Nature Biotechnology, 36(3), 282–284. https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4089
The authors, researchers at UT Health San Antonio, St. Mary’s University, and University of Kentucky, use data from surveys conducted via social media and email of graduate students based on clinically validated scales for anxiety and depression to test their hypothesis that there is a mental health crisis in graduate education. Their hypothesis is supported by their findings that graduate students are more than six times more likely to experience depression and anxiety. The rates of depression and anxiety were higher for women, transgender, and gender-nonconforming graduate students than their men counterparts. Graduate students with an unhealthy work-life balance and poor mentorship quality from their PI or advisor showed higher rates of depression and anxiety. This article recommends universities and policy makers provide graduate students better access to mental health support, facilitate a culture change to reduce mental health stigma in academia and promote better work-life balance. A limitation of the study is that people who are depressed and/or anxious might have been more likely to participate in the survey.
Wilkins-Yel, K. G., Arnold, A., Bekki, J., Natarajan, M., Bernstein, B., & Randall, A. K. (2022). “I can’t push off my own Mental Health”: Chilly STEM Climates, Mental Health, and STEM Persistence among Black, Latina, and White Graduate Women. Sex Roles, 86(3-4), 208–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-021-01262-1
The authors, researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Arizona State University, used twelve semi-structured interviews with Black, Latina, and White Women to answer their research question, “What is the psychological impact of navigating marginalizing experiences in a White Male dominated STEM environment?” They found that challenging STEM encounters contributed to increased stress, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation for women of color. These STEM stressors and the subsequent psychological toll contributed to a decrease in STEM persistence. This study is a call to action for faculty and administrators to address institutional norms and adopt a “whole person” approach to supporting women graduate students in STEM. Notably, this study did not include indigenous or Asian women.
Barreira, P., Basilico, M., Bolotnyy, V., Abel, J., Acquatella, A., Bell, A., Blattner, L., Bratu, C., Coglianese, J., Eappen, B., Feinberg, J., George, S., Glaeser, E., Goldin, C., Greatorex-Voith, S., Hendren, N., Hillis, A., Jackson, M., Laibson, D., & Levine, S. (2018). Graduate Student Mental Health: Lessons from American Economics Departments, (Working Paper). https://scholar.harvard.edu/sites/scholar.harvard.edu/files/bolotnyy/files/bbb_mentalhealth_paper.pdf
The authors, researchers at Harvard University, use data from online surveys via email from eight economics departments across the US to understand the prevalence of mental health, students’ thoughts and feelings and how these relate to their mental health, and recommendations to economics and other departments on ways to improve mental health of their graduate students. They found that PhD students have more feelings of loneliness than retired Americans, and feel like they have less opportunities to make a positive impact on the community or society than the faculty and the general population. PhD students who were further along in their program had higher levels of depression and anxiety. Those students who regret pursing their PhD had higher mental distress and suicidal ideation. This paper recommends that students work on things that give them meaning, work on more than one project, and become involved in activities that are meaningful and outside of research. Faculty should check in on students once in a while, let students know their wellbeing is important, encourage good exercise and sleep habits, and assist in adviser changes. Departments should be clear that the students will be supported no matter what professional path they choose, have clear and open communication, encourage students to share concerns and questions, address sexual harassment, make coursework relevant to research, destigmatize talking about failures and getting help, create a system for faculty to receive feedback on advising, empower students and faculty to come up with solutions, and partner with the university counseling center. This study only observed economic departments, and this is a working paper, so it has not been peer reviewed.
Posselt, J. (2021). Promoting Graduate Student Wellbeing: Cultural, Organizational, and Environmental Factors in the Academy. Council of Graduate School. https://cgsnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CGS_Well-being-ConsultPaper-Posselt.pdf
The author from the Council of Graduate School combined knowledge about cultural, organizational, and environmental factors that either support or inhibit graduate students’ mental health. They analyze how graduate school stakeholders directly affect student development and wellbeing and provide recommendations for these individuals to help graduate students thrive in their programs. Some key factors that inhibit mental health are financial stress, foregoing years of full-time income for a perceived weak job market, a competitive and resource-scarce environment, and faculty using their autonomy and power to sexually harass or racially discriminate against students. Their recommendations include creating a culture of shared responsibility for wellbeing, training scholars for healthier cultures, and enabling equitable access to varied resources for wellbeing.
Tsai, J., Muindi, F. Towards sustaining a culture of mental health and wellness for trainees in the biosciences. Nat Biotechnol 34, 353–355 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3490
The authors, researchers at the Boston Medical Center and Harvard University, analyze studies from seven universities in the US based on graduate students or postdoctoral students with the aim of determining how to best create and sustain a culture of mental health and wellness for training researchers in the biosciences. They highlight six top predictors for trainee well-being: finances, career prospects, overall health, academic and research progress, social support, and relationship with advisor. They suggest that there is a lack of high-quality data when it comes to mental health for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. They believe in using a top-down and bottom-up approach—such as creating an office in the NIH to support mental health and wellness at the same time as creating programs that allow for students to talk about mental health—to bring change in mental health wellness. Lastly, there should be a culture of shared responsibility for everyone’s mental health.
Chanel Lee is a data science and software engineering consultant. She is passionate about supporting master’s and PhD students.