Again, and I don’t mean to be abrasive, but drinking Mountain Dew is a happy funtime wacky thing? Most of the geeks I know seriously do drink a TON of that stuff.
Such as cookies from the aging hippie ladies in the next campsite over. (Actually, that one was annoyingly over-exaggerated.)
I’m not talking about “geeks” I’m talking about people who do this for a living and have a SALARY, which is the theme of this thread (or the idea for it.)
In my experience people in academia usually prefer to get their caffeine from coffee, tea, or Diet Coke, but I don’t see anything particularly absurd about a few preferring Mountain Dew.
I see quite a lot of myself in Sheldon Cooper, and I finally understand why people find me so damn annoying.
Thanks for clarifying, I was actually talking about the physics, astronomy, and chemistry “geeks” that I work with at the college at which we all teach. I’ve seen a number of them drink Mountain Dew as their preferred drink.
I get from the tone of your reply that you’re insulted in some way, and I apologize if my confusion contributed to that feeling.
Hi All. I know I’m late to the party, but I just wanted to chime in. The living situations of Raj, Leonard and Sheldon all seem plausible, although the show has never clearly stated any job titles. I’ve never heard Sheldon addressed as “Professor”, for example, and if he indeed had that position, you can bet that he would insist on being addressed properly.
Howard, on the other hand… I have a hard time buying that he was forced to live with his mom and cannot afford a new car. He "only’ has a master’s, but even an engineer with a B.S. can make a pretty good salary compared to many other STEM disciplines. If you google the average salary of an engineer at JPL, you get a figure of around 90K per year. A lot of positions there pay over 100k. No way he should allow Bernadette to be calling the shots financially.
And BTW, where exactly does she work? For a major metropolis that is home to Cal Tech , UCLA and USC, Los Angeles is virtual desert when it comes to pharmaceutical companies and biotech. There’s Amgen in Thousand Oaks (actually kind of doable for her, but it is a hell of a long commute from Pasadena - if she’s calling the shots, she’d just insist that she and Howard move to a closer location), and Allergan in Irvine (again, a long commute). Other than that, there is virtually nothing here except for a few very small companies here and there and some companies that make generic drugs.
Bernadette is calling the shots because she’s his replacement mommy.
Okay, a question first. Would someone who works at JPL go to CalTech to eat lunch every day?
I’d say Howard works at CalTech. He’s got the same Uber Boss as Leonard, Raj, and Sheldon. And none of them have teaching jobs. Not regular ones. They may do a special or fill in, but that’s about it. They’re researchers (Science Staff?). Sheldon might get paid on a higher scale because he has 2 doctorates. The thing about Howard’s pay is that even though he’s a mere MS in ME, I’d suspect with the the projects he’s done for NASA (there was that shelf thing, the toilet, and whatever it was that he went to the ISS for), NASA paid for his work. I don’t know if they paid the university or him, but maybe mechanical engineers get paid on a different scale than theoretical physicists?
As for the other three, I guess “Publish or perish” seems to apply.
I know quite a few couples where the person who manages most of the money isn’t the one making most, or at least isn’t always making most; the criterion is usually either “who is best at money”, “who hates money subjects less” or “who has most trouble accepting the other’s decisions”.
You don’t get paid more or less based on how many pretty papers adorn your love-me wall, unless you count needing a certain configuration thereof in order to get the job.
There was an episode where Leonard and Penny go over Howard and Bernardette’s for dinner, and Bernardette tells them that she makes “so much more” than Howie. Howie says “You didn’t have to say so much more”, and a huge argument ensues.
There are at least a couple other episodes where it’s made clear that she is making significantly more money than Howie.
Absent from the discussion so far: Amy and Stuart. Stuart has (or had) his own comic book store and repeated references are made to him living in the store and how broke he is. But what would the rent be on a Pasadena comic book store?
And how much does Amy pull in? I don’t remember any real clues about her salary or living situation, although she lives alone and has what looks like a smallish but decent apartment. So what do neurobiology researchers who are willing to take chimps home with them make?
Just because Howard makes a lot of money doesn’t imply he has a lot of money.
He, as well as several other characters, spend a phenomenal percentage of their income on comic books, collectibles, etc.
Howard could have come into the marriage with a huge pile of credit card debt.
There is a Law&Order episode…ironically, “Big Bang”…of a theoretical physicist accused of murder by mailbomb.
His wife bemoans the fact he must supplement his income by moonlighting as a doorman at an apartment building because he can’t support his family doing the work he loves.
That’s probably not realistic. Physicists might not be as well-paid as engineers, but a physicist should certainly be able to support a family without need for moonlighting.
I still don’t get is how Leonard and Sheldon need a roommate but across the hall in a waitress manages in a smaller apartment.
Just how big are Penny’s tips?
Oh, tips. I misunderstood. Never mind. 
The address they claim to live at (2311 N Los Robles) doesn’t actually exist and the nearest places to it for rent are houses. I used to work on Los Robles, but a couple miles south of there.
However, someone did a search based on the images from the Howard and Bernadette wedding episode, and figured out that [URL=“http://www.apartments.com/brookmore-apartments-pasadena-ca/mgksg8h/”]this building was the one used. It currently has a studio for rent at $1275 a month.
Nice job – except, that building only has 4 floors.
I’m thinking of college loan debt. What is out of state tuition for a BS and MS at MIT? Sheldon probably got lots of scholarships and both of Leonard’s parents were probably faculty at Princeton.
Ranger Jeff writes:
> What is out of state tuition for a BS and MS at MIT?
“Out of state tuition” makes no sense at MIT since it’s a private school, not a state one.