Personal Finance for PhDs’s seminars, webinars, and workshops consistently receive very positive feedback from hosts and audiences.

From Hosts

“Emily’s talk has been a huge success at Washington University. Her presentation is engaging, informative, and useful to our graduate students as they begin to think about their financial as well as their professional lives. She was generous with her time, staying to answer everyone’s questions after her talk. I would highly recommend inviting Emily to speak to graduate students and post-docs at your institution!” – Rachel Pepe, Operations Manager, Liberman Graduate Center, Washington University in St. Louis

“Emily’s presentation was extremely popular among our graduate students. Her knowledge on financial planning as a graduate student was informative, thorough, and engaging and our students gained valuable information that they can use to plan their personal finances. Emily was also great to work with and stayed longer to make sure all of the students’ questions were answered. We look forward to working with her again come tax season!” – Brittany Leclerc, Operations and Enrollment Management Specialist, Graduate School, Brown University

“Emily is uniquely positioned to answer questions specific to graduate students and postdocs because of her experience as a PhD-trained scientist. This makes her examples directly relevant to our trainee population, and in combination with her extensive knowledge of personal finance planning and options, allows her to suggest methods and goals that are both realistic and achievable. This was reflected in student comments at and after the event, which identified her contributions to their knowledge as important for motivating them to make immediate changes and spur on conversations to further their own financial planning. Further, Emily is extremely professional and easy to work with, making her an outstanding presenter. If you think you have a local expert that knows it all, consider the added benefit of bringing in Dr. Emily Roberts for PhD and postdoc audiences! Her personal knowledge and expertise makes a huge difference in helping to translate this knowledge into action for our trainees.” – Beka Layton, Training Initiatives in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (TIBBS), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“The feedback was incredibly positive, with many students thanking us for bringing [Emily] in to talk about such an important topic.” – Beth Overman, Preparing Future Leaders, North Carolina State University

“Inviting Dr. Emily Roberts to speak to our members and other graduate students was a fantastic choice. Her presentation was informative, relatable, and achievable for our student body. Although graduate students experience a rocky financial journey, Emily’s talk was directed to meet all types of financial well-being, and provide easily digestible steps to achieve financial goals. Her enthusiasm in answering all the questions from attendees and her empathetic understanding of everyone’s unique situation demonstrates that Emily has a deep passion to help others with their financial journey. Working with her to plan this event was a breeze, and we received tons of positive feedback. We plan to invite Emily back again, and can’t recommend her highly enough to other graduate students and programs!” – Ellen Bloom and Steve Voinier, College of Engineering EmPOWER, University of Delaware

“Emily’s talk was very popular and well received among Georgia Tech students who continue to be concerned about finances. The breadth of the talk has provided our students with a solid foundation from which to build a reasoned financial plan to alleviate their financial stress. We hope to bring her back to our campus for in-depth talks on some of the concepts introduced in ‘The Graduate Student’s Guide to Personal Finances.’” – James Black, Special Projects Coordinator in the Office of Graduate Studies, Georgia Institute of Technology

“Emily’s talk on graduate student personal finance is thorough, insightful, and a must for all graduate students.  Although some may be reluctant to consider their finances at this stage in their career, Emily’s presentation is both reassuring and a call to action at the same time.” – Teresa Dillinger, Manager, Professional Development Programs, Graduate Studies, the University of California at Davis

“Inviting Dr. Roberts to discuss taxes with students was an excellent investment in our community. Many students struggle with and feel heightened stress during tax season. Her expertise and presentation was extremely helpful and gave students the advice they needed and helped address a major concern and source of stress in our community.” – Meagan Hamblin, Fellowship Mentoring Chair, Stanford Biosciences Student Association, Stanford University

“Emily is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the personal financial planning that many graduate students are struggling with. Topics covered in “The Graduate Student’s Guide to Personal Finance” are exactly what we were looking for and people loved the seminar – we received extremely positive comments! Being a event host aiming to organize professional development workshops for peers, I couldn’t be happier to work with Emily and build up such environment for people to learn how to manage/use our money wisely.” – Chen-Yi Wu, Professional Development Coordinator, Marine Laboratory, Duke University

“Emily is a great speaker who has clearly done her research. Her comprehensive talk offered a helpful framework for developing individual financial goals and then provided an impressive overview of what graduate students (or anyone first figuring out their finances!) need to know to get there. ” – Amanda Davis, President of the Graduate Student Association, University of Rochester

“Emily’s “The Graduate Student’s Guide to Personal Finance” was a hit among graduate students at UAB. Many students were excited to attend the workshop, and we only wished we had more time to continue digging into the material. Emily provides a comprehensive overview of personal finances from the perspective of someone who has lived it. By sharing personal experience and communicating financial information clearly, Emily empowers students to take control of an often stress-inducing part of graduate life.” – Haley Medved Kendrick, Professional Development and Leadership Committee Chair of the Graduate Student Government, University of Alabama at Birmingham

“Not only was it informative, it was inspiring as well.” – Irene Jasper, Personal Finance @ Duke, Duke University

“Dr. Emily Roberts was very professional and attentive to the questions and interests of our audience. She knows what she’s talking about and cares about making it understandable to all grad students. The students who attended especially found the overview of saving and investing valuable.” – Victoria DeLeo, Science++ Co-Chair, Graduate Women in Science, Pennsylvania State University

“It’s clear that Emily really knows her material, and it was inspiring to see someone who has navigated graduate finances and come out on top.” – Kathy Myers, President of the Biological Sciences Council, University of California at Los Angeles

“Emily spoke to our Path to the Professoriate program geared towards demystifying graduate school for first year PhD students at Berkeley. Not only were students excited to gain her valuable insight on the important topic of personal finance, but they valued the fact that she was approaching the conversation from her lived experience as once being in their shoes.” – Denzil Streete, Chief of Staff and Assistant Dean for Diversity, Graduate Division, University of California, Berkeley

“Emily’s talk on Personal Finance for PhD students was very well received by the graduate students at Mayo Clinic. Not only was Emily comprehensive, professional, and inspiring, but she went above and beyond to personalize the presentation to our particular stipend-receiving audience and answered all questions thoughtfully.” – Emma Goddery, Co-Chair of Student Life and Wellness Committee, Graduate Student Association, Mayo Clinic

Emily’s workshop on personal finance for PhD students was very enthusiastically received by our graduate Neuroscience students. Emily is clearly very knowledgeable in the area of personal finance and her approachable presentation all contributed to the success of the workshop. – SandraJean Grasso, Assistant Director, Graduate Neuroscience, Boston University

“Emily was extremely knowledgeable regarding various financial strategies for students planning to attend graduate school or entering the workforce. Her presentation was professional and her communication style was appropriate for our audience.” – Heidi Bird, Assistant Director, Office of Career Services, Harvey Mudd College

“Emily gave an amazing presentation on understanding and preparing taxes for graduate students and I highly recommend working with her. Prior to her giving a seminar to our students, she learned all about our crazy and complicated stipend system which goes to show her thoroughness.” – Cheryl Friedman, Graduate Program Coordinator, The Scripps Research Institute

“Emily’s visit at the University of Kentucky was a wild success and drew both graduate students and postdocs to come learn about personal finance, an often overlooked topic of discussion. Not only was the feedback from trainees overwhelmingly positive, as a host, working with Emily was a breeze!” – Joseph Lutz, Director of Postdoctoral Affairs, University of Kentucky

From Trainee Attendees 

“This is a great topic for grad students of all years.” – a student at North Carolina State University

“Emily [is] an amazing speaker! Clear and concise. The outline/flow of the talk was very well structured and simplified finances well.” – a student at the University of California at Los Angeles

“This is an amazing experience for students. We NEED this!” – a student at Case Western Reserve University

“I liked how [Emily] had recently been in grad school and so was able to give trusted advice.” – a student at the University of California at Davis

“[Emily] was very knowledgeable and practical which made a difficult topic so much more approachable.” – a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

“This was awesome! Please continue every year.” – a student at Stanford University

“The talk covered a lot of topics which was extremely useful. I found it to be a great overall view of finances and it was extremely helpful.” – a student at the University of Rochester

“I thought it was honestly exactly what I was searching for in terms of content and presentation.” – a student at Duke University

“Extremely helpful and demystified many aspects of personal finance for me. [The seminar] also improved my confidence to manage my finances through grad school and beyond.” – a student at Pennsylvania State University

“Very great presenter, appealing slides, and wonderful pace.” – a student at Emory University

“Very accessible and very interesting/playful approach to finance.” – a student at the University of California at Davis

“Really clean and direct wisdom. Easy to access and a very directed talk to this audience.” – a student at the University of California at Los Angeles

“Dr. Roberts is very conversational and relatable, and was able to give specific examples about her time in graduate school – that really helped me!” – a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology

“The investment section was highly informative, and served as a good introduction. My thanks for Dr. Roberts!” – a trainee at Cornell University

“Very happy with the amount of well organized info in just one hour.” – a student at Duke University

“I found [the talk] very informative and it has inspired me to think about my own financial circumstances differently.” – a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara

“[Emily] understands grad students.” – a student at Case Western Reserve University

“The suggestions of what to do before going to grad school motivated me to get started now.” – a student at Harvey Mudd College

“[The talk] was very logical and particularly helpful to me.” – a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology

“10/10.” – a postdoc at the University of California at Davis

“Emily is very knowledgable – even about obscure tax law.” – a student at Duke University

“I thought it was really great to have a workshop like this. I already take care of my personal finances, but it was helpful to see how someone else did it as well.” – a student at Stanford University

“[Emily] had an excellent PowerPoint to go with her presentation, and she knew the material thoroughly. She was also extremely organized and easy to follow.” – a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

“The speaker was very knowledgable about the subject and lots of info was covered.” – a student at the University of California at Davis

“I like how [Emily] makes her points very convincing by sharing her own experiences in personal finance. I also like her approach of giving us some big picture view.” – a postdoc at Columbia University

“Really smoothly flowing talk. Everything was very clear and I loved that it was geared towards grad students.”- a student at the University of California at Los Angeles

“I found the entire program to be very useful as I am not well-informed about finances. The budgeting information was very helpful.” – a student at North Carolina State University

“Tax stuff… In the presentation it was very easy to understand.” – a trainee at Cornell University

“[Emily] is an excellent speaker and she knows from experience what she is talking about.” – a student at the University of California at Davis

“The talk was nicely tailored specifically for the needs and mindset of graduate students, and did a good job addressing different financial concerns that graduate students may have.” – a student at the University of Rochester

“Extremely informative.” – a postdoc at the University of California at Davis

“Incredibly useful, well presented, and took all the stress out of finances to look at it objectively, like scientists are good at handling, while recognizing the importance of personal values (but in an objective and logical way as it relates to finance).” – a trainee at the University of North Carolina

“[I] would have loved to go to this seminar earlier on in my graduate career!” – a student at Emory University

“Emily was very thoughtful about her word choice, which made her seem very knowledgeable about the complexities of financial advice.” – a student at the University of California at Davis

“Very informative. [Emily] covered a broad range of topics, made them applicable and understandable, and was a very engaging speaker.” – a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

“[Emily] articulated ideas and principles in a new and season-appropriate way. She provided resources and encouragement.” – a student at Duke University

“Went at a good pace and covered a lot of practical material. Practicality was [the talk’s] biggest asset.” – a trainee at the University of North Carolina

“The speaker’s presentation and engagement with the audience was spot on.” – a student at Duke University

“Excellent talk.” – a student at Case Western Reserve University

“AMAZING, INSPIRING, INFORMATIVE.” – a student at the University of California at Davis

“I loved it.” – a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

Articles

A Grad Student’s Guide to Personal Finance – Recap (North Carolina State University)

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