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The abuse of grad and PhD students might be even more egregious than undergrad admissions. Paying objectively world class talent a meager $15,000 stipend to work themselves to the bone while they earn the university millions in grants and industry contracts, teach undergrad classes, and slave away on their own thesis. It’s super gross.

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Well .. there is an upside to this. Typically grad students who are employed by the university as RA or TA don't have to pay tuition . About 18 months of misery that opens up a world of opportunities.

Highly dependent on the field nowadays IMO. A lot of masters programs exist as a way to make it easier to get a US visa.

18 months of misery for a Master ~7 years of misery for a PhD

Please propose a solution too!

I work with many PhDs so I’m familiar with the problems. But I don’t know enough to have a solution.

It may just be “pay them a living wage!”. Pay them $75,000 and call it a day. The waived tuition cost is BS. They aren’t undergrads living on campus and taking a half dozen classes. It doesn’t cost $50,000 / year to have a PhD student do lots of work for the school. Quite the opposite! The school makes a lot of money of their labor!!

At least for STEM PhDs at research universities.

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