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Jill Parsons is pursuing her dream of obtaining a Ph.D. in biology at Columbia University. However, the dream comes with a price. The 25-year-old is navigating the high cost of living in New York City on a $49,522 annual stipend and is barely making ends meet.

Parsons recently told that she leans on her friends to get through tough financial periods. 

“I’m always blown away with how generous my friends have been to me during all of this, and I think that is the way that I’m really able to get through, especially when things get hard,” she said.

Her friends include people from her hometown of Milford, Connecticut, and from Williams College, where she studied biology in undergrad. Most of them now live in downtown Manhattan and work in banking or consulting.��

Parsons lives in Washington Heights and works 50 hours a week in a biomedical engineering lab, where her focus is on metabolism and nutrient biology in mice. She resides in Columbia student housing, pays $1,524 per month for rent and receives subsidized medical care.��

Minimizing costs throughout the day

Parsons rarely spends money throughout the day. She walks to her lab in Washington Heights and has a simple breakfast of yogurt and cereal. She packs lunch the night before and brings it to the lab.��

Parsons was a competitive ice hockey player at Williams, so she learned about nutrition and how to eat well to stay fit. She only buys groceries that she knows she will eat, mainly chicken, turkey and vegetables. She also buys fruit, popcorn and protein bars for snacks. Her grocery bill typically comes out to $35 a week at Trader Joe’s and $50 per week at Whole Foods or Morton Williams.��

Working out is important to her, but she has managed to minimize the cost. For example, her sister teaches at a yoga studio in the city and gave her a free membership. The weight-lifting studio in her building waived the annual $100 membership fee because she won a fitness competition there.��

Going out on the weekends

Her most expensive optional expense is having fun on the weekend. She goes out one night of the week and tries to keep the bill to about $100. 

When the night grows too late to take a subway back home, she sleeps over with friends. It “kind of feels crummy sometimes because you feel like you’re imposing,” she told the Times. “That’s really where it feels like the financial situation kind of weighs on you.”

Her friends also occasionally buy her dinner or cover her drinks. “They’ll be like, ‘Oh, you get the next one.’ And then I go to get the next one, and they’re like, ‘No, no, no, I got it,’” she said. 

For now, Parsons wouldn’t trade her situation for anything. She would rather work in research than clock in 80 hours a week in consulting or finance. “I think research is a lot of fun,” she said.