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Ph.D. student faces difficult choices

Ashley Busch is an ASU Graduate student studying Archeology, but her student costs have become increasingly too hard to handle. With a baby on the way, her and her husband have had to turn to the government for help. (photo by Dominic Valente)
Ashley Busch is an ASU Graduate student studying Archeology, but her student costs have become increasingly too hard to handle. With a baby on the way, her and her husband have had to turn to the government for help. (photo by Dominic Valente)

Ashley Busch is an ASU Graduate student studying Archeology, but her student costs have become increasingly too hard to handle. With a baby on the way, her and her husband have had to turn to the government for help. (photo by Dominic Valente) Ashley Busch is an ASU Graduate student studying Archeology, but her student costs have become increasingly too hard to handle. With a baby on the way, her and her husband have had to turn to the government for help. (photo by Dominic Valente)

Six-figure paycheck.

It's the light at the end of a seemingly endless and perpetually winding tunnel of long sleepless nights and and even longer sleepy days for most Ph.D. students.

Yet, for better or worse, Ashley Busch is far from most Ph.D. students.

Busch started her journey at ASU like most Ph.D. students, wide-eyed and excited at the prospect of learning, teaching, mastering her field and, in the end, getting paid well for her years of hard work.

Now, more than seven years later with at least two to go before she graduates, the 30-year-old mother-to-be finds herself with a lengthy to-do list, which begins with applying for Medicaid and food stamps.

"I was young and naïve, and no one sat me down and said, 'In a few years you are going to need money, and not just because everyone needs money, but because you are going to want to start a family,'" she said. "If I could do it again, I would have made a different choice."

The Road A double major scholarship student at North Carolina State University, Busch graduated with degrees and research experience in both archaeology and civil engineering.

After graduating, Busch said she passed her test to become an engineer, but the next day she found out she was accepted at ASU and would be fully funded for a Ph.D. in anthropology with a focus in archeology.

"I made the choice to go be an archaeologist, which was probably one of the stupidest choices ever," she said, "because it means no money."

Busch said the Ph.D. program was still new at ASU when she entered, and she was told that it would take about six years to graduate. She said no one who entered the program when she did has graduated yet and that the average graduation time is about 10 years.

Uncertain of whether or not she will graduate any time soon, Busch has begun exploring other options for a job that will pay a "normal living salary."

The basic salary for a graduate student in the humanities is about $16,000 a year, Busch said. Additionally, a form must be signed stating that you are not allowed to work another job, and Busch said the pay rate declines as students get further into their programs.

"It's a live-by-the-skin-of-your-teeth existence," she said.

The Skin of Your Teeth

Fellow graduate student Angela Huster entered the program the same year as Busch and said the two have developed as friends and co-workers in their seven years.

Huster said Busch is always optimistic and outgoing and said she has "very unique skill set" and strong work ethic, which includes always providing supplemental material for her students as well as fellow teacher's assistants.

"Ashley has always been a TA that goes above and beyond for her students," she said, "and she is a wonderful, engaging teacher who will continue to bring anthropology alive for students at whatever level she ends up teaching."

Huster said she has had to make sacrifices in order to continue her studies, including not being able to afford a car, and can understand some of Busch's frustration.

"It has been an eternal balancing act," she said. "Graduate students are always making tradeoffs about what they can afford on the salary they are earning."

Huster said many graduate students hit a wall at about six or seven years and begin to ask themselves if it is all worth it, especially those who are female. She said Busch's pregnancy has probably provoked even more "soul searching."

Busch said she loves anthropology and archaeology, and she believes that the work is extremely important but also extremely overlooked.

"It's sad because no matter how interesting or how important understanding our history actually is, no one really cares," she said. "It's a sad reality to face after you have been studying something for a decade or more."

A Hobby In the spring 2013 semester, Busch taught two lab classes and was in charge of the online correspondence for the online version of a class, which included more than 400 students. She said graduate students are expected to spend about 20 hours a week on teaching-related activities, but she often spent more than 30 hours a week.

To try and make ends meet, she was also working 20 to 40 hours a week at Pop Culture Paradise, a comic book shop near campus.

"During that time I pretty much didn't eat or sleep or do anything," she said.

When she was an undergraduate, Busch said she lived a similarly hectic life and needed a hobby.

"Everyone was like, 'read a book,' but I was already reading enough books to drive me crazy," she said.

Busch said the person she was dating would take her to comic book shops, and she began picking up comics while she was there.

"Eventually I got addicted to reading those five or 10 minute stories," she said. "They were enough of a distraction to help keep me sane. It's just great amusement."

She said working at Pop Culture Paradise eventually led her to begin playing Magic cards, which was "a guaranteed three hours of social interaction" with added bonus of winning cash prizes.

Working at the comic book store also led Busch to meet her fiancée, psychology graduate student Dalton Alexander.

The two met about one year ago and immediately hit it off, said Alexander.

"I asked her to lunch, then I asked her to dinner, and I think everyone knows where the story goes from there," he said.

Alexander said he admires Busch because she is "a total infogeek" who possesses a vast amount of knowledge in fields of study that are quite different from his own.

Being so knowledgeable in such different fields allows the couple to "educate, support, protect and enlighten" one another, and Alexander said they constantly have new and interesting topics of conversation.

"I study and understand how people breathe and walk today, whereas she studies and understands how people breathed and walked yesterday," he said. "She understands the first 20 chapters of the book and I understand the next 20 chapters of the book, and we can talk at length about what the last 20 chapters will be like."

Alexander said he looks forward to bringing a child into the world with Busch and hopes the couple will be able to make use of their 20-plus years of education to give their child a great life.

"She is a very special person to me," he said. "I know nobody is perfect, but she is pretty darn cool and pretty darn perfect to me."

Let Down

The University is forcing Busch to take the next six months off of teaching to catch up on her research, leaving her with no funding, no income and no health insurance.

Busch said she said she is not sure whether or not she will return after the six months, because she will already have her child and is afraid she will not be able to afford to continue her education.

She said has been hired for a part-time teaching position at Paradise Valley Community College, but is only allowed to teach nine credit hours in the fall 2013 semester and will only make around $700 a month.

"I feel absolutely let down by academia," she said. "I feel like I could be homeless yet be insanely well educated, and that seems ridiculous."

As a learning disabled child and the daughter of a "very poor" single mother, Busch said she is used to hardship, and manages to somehow take life's shots in stride while remaining positive and optimistic.

"Nothing has ever come easy," she said. "This is just one more stepping stone, and it is not going to kill me."

Reach the reporter at npmendo@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @NPMendoza


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