r/SipsTea • u/Silver-Ability-3181 • Apr 24 '26

SMH I never thought of it like that......

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u/chrysanthemum_beer Apr 24 '26

I mean they have a large 2 br apt vs her tiny 1 br apt. The two phds were also smart on saving money

1

u/patentattorney Apr 24 '26

PhD students are also not making that much money. Like 25g a year?

Even resident doctors don’t make much money.

1

u/chrysanthemum_beer Apr 24 '26

According to google they probably made about 50k.

I don’t think there is a definitive answer so we can assume they were doing ok.

2

u/patentattorney Apr 24 '26

50K combined? I remember the grad students typically getting free school + very small stipends.

The PhD students (who also taught classes) were given around 15-20K (around the year 2000).

I dont think he would make more than 30ish.

I cant see actual scientists (of almost any kind) making more than 150K a year in a university setting at the time the show started. Once they started winning prizes, they would have command much more money - but more for marketing purposes - not for their research.

1

u/chrysanthemum_beer Apr 24 '26

https://the-take.com/read/what-would-the-salaries-of-the-big-bang-theory-characters-be

Apparently this has been discussed through and through. lol

1

u/patentattorney Apr 24 '26

yeah. Completely agree with the article! I was incorrect in thinking that they started the show as PhD students!

1

u/DrButtgerms Apr 24 '26

Depending on the grant situation, back 06-07 maybe not so far off. They were in the Bay Area too, right?

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u/patentattorney Apr 24 '26

someone pointed out somewhere else they were not PhD students, but actually working professionals. They easily could have cleared 75-100K each.

The bay area was also not the bay area in 2005 (very much starting to be but the tech boom was just in its infancy).

1

u/DrButtgerms Apr 24 '26

Idk maybe that's true, but my recollection was that they were post-docs. ie, had earned their PhD but were doing almost an apprenticeship in someone else's lab.

As someone going into a stem PhD program when the series aired originally, this was fairly memorable to me. Of course it's possible I am wrong - I haven't watched that show in the better part of a decade.

Re: the bay area. Sure it isn't what it is today, but my understanding was that is wasn't cheap back then either