Every highest phd stipend list on the internet quotes a handful of famous numbers. This phd stipend ranking is built differently: it comes from our own database of 798 doctoral programs at 100 universities, using only stipends the programs themselves publish. For each university we take its best published 12 month program stipend, then set it against the average one bedroom rent our database records for that city, because the ranking that matters is the one that survives rent.
The 10 highest PhD stipends in the USA, from published program data
| Rank | University | Top published stipend (12 month) | Program | Average 1BR rent | Rent share of monthly stipend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) | $55,435 | Computer Science | $2,881 | 62% |
| 2 | Yale University (New Haven, CT) | $53,629 | Biological and Biomedical Sciences | $2,344 | 52% |
| 3 | Brown University (Providence, RI) | $52,198 | Computer Science | $2,481 | 57% |
| 4 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) | $51,226 | Computer Science | $3,440 | 81% |
| 5 | Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) | $50,000 | Computer Science | $1,237 | 30% |
| 6 | Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) | $49,862 | Computer Science | $3,000 | 72% |
| 7 | Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) | $48,912 | Computer Science | $2,683 | 66% |
| 8 | Tufts University (Medford, MA) | $48,513 | Computer Science | $2,250 | 56% |
| 9 | California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA) | $48,244 | Computer Science | $3,048 | 76% |
| 10 | Columbia University (New York, NY) | $47,137 | Physics | $2,480 | 63% |
Three things stand out. First, computer science holds seven of the ten top spots, which is what an industry bidding war for the same graduates does to stipend offers. Second, every university on this list is private, and most sit in expensive housing markets. Third, the rent share column scrambles the ranking: the highest phd stipend on paper, Princeton at 55,435 dollars, keeps less of itself after rent than fifth placed Johns Hopkins, where a 50,000 dollar stipend meets a 1,237 dollar average rent and rent takes only about 30 percent of the monthly figure.
The headline number is not the living number
MIT is the clearest example. Its 51,226 dollar stipend is fourth in the country on this list, and Cambridge rent still takes about 81 percent of the gross monthly figure. Caltech and Dartmouth show the same pattern at 76 and 72 percent. A stipend ranking that ignores rent will send you toward the most expensive offer, not the most livable one. Our ranking re-sorted by what rent leaves you runs the full table the other way up, and the RealPay Calculator adjusts any single offer for the full cost of living, not just rent.
Breakdown by field
The top of the table is a field story as much as a university story. Across all 265 published 12 month stipends in our data, the field medians run: computer science 41,000 dollars, engineering 40,666 dollars, physics and astronomy 40,144 dollars, mathematics, statistics and data science 40,144 dollars, life sciences 38,404 dollars, economics 37,853 dollars, and chemistry 37,818 dollars. The full field table, and what a fully funded package in each field actually includes, is in our guide to PhD stipend amounts by field.
How to read this ranking before you use it
- Best program basis. Each university is shown at its best published program. Many universities pay one rate to every program, and where a university pays different rates, your program's own figure is the one that matters. Look it up in the searchable database before you quote this table.
- 12 month basis only. Programs that publish only a 9 month figure are not in this table, however strong they are, because a 9 month number cannot be compared honestly with a 12 month one. Another 173 programs in our database publish only the 9 month figure, with a median of 29,192 dollars.
- Published, not rumored. If a program does not publish its stipend, it is not ranked here. Of 798 programs in the database, 438 publish a stipend at all.
Questions this ranking always raises
What is the average PhD stipend in the USA? Across the 265 programs that publish a 12 month figure, the median is 40,000 dollars and the middle half runs from 34,000 to 47,137 dollars.
Are these stipends taxable? Generally yes, apart from amounts applied to tuition and required fees, and tax is not always withheld. Our guide to PhD stipend after taxes works through the take home maths.
Can international students receive these stipends? Yes. Funded offers at these levels are routinely made to international students, and for them the stipend is usually the entire income, since visa conditions restrict outside work.
Holding an offer from a university on this list? Run the letter itself through RealPay Calculator before you celebrate the headline, and if you are weighing two offers against each other, send them over for an honest comparison.
Sources: the PhDStipend database of 798 programs at 100 universities. Ranking basis: the best published 12 month stipend per university, of 265 programs that publish a 12 month figure. Rents are recorded city averages for a one bedroom home; rent share is the average rent divided by one twelfth of the annual stipend, before tax and other costs.