My school's CS grad students [0] currently get a net stipend of $17,664/academic year ($19,188 stipend minus $1,524 in mandatory fees) if they are either a teaching or research assistant. In my college town, that's a tight budget but doable with a bit of effort
However, given the state of even the CS intern job market, there's an interesting possibility where grad students could pretty easily make more in the course of a 10-15 week summer internship than they make over the course of an entire academic year (not counting the value of the tuition remission).
That's what I was paid in a high cost of living area. It taught me a lot about being broke and all the different types of leverage. E.g. if you can rent the 2bdrm in your name and then rent out a room you get more leverage. Too be honest I couldn't make the salary work and had to fund via credit cards and student loans as well.
I thought it was a scam that the university paid so low... that and their anti union activities.
However, given the state of even the CS intern job market, there's an interesting possibility where grad students could pretty easily make more in the course of a 10-15 week summer internship than they make over the course of an entire academic year (not counting the value of the tuition remission).
[0]: https://www.cs.purdue.edu/graduate/financial_support/assista...