As far as I know Dell and other vendors offer computers on installment payments. Isn't that a better choice than renting?

S11E08 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI:_Crime_Scene_Investigation_(season_11)

When "grad student" == "cheap labor", you know this is going to happen. Nowadays even academia can outsource. Just look at the overseas campuses built by MIT, Harvard, etc. The system is just fundamentally wrong. Professors today are no longer independent scholars but are largely driven by grants, and have students as slaves to work on these projects. Universities (==corporations) have incentive to expand the STEM program because that will equal to more grants, meaning more $$$. With that amount of STEM grads being churned out each year, you are pretty sure the job market will not look great.

Especially when the current job does not match your level of capability. I graduated in 2009 (the worst possible time) with a PhD in EE and joined a large software company as an entry level QA. The pay was pretty good for that level but did not at all match my capabilities. I got a pay level promotion that amounts to 6% increase in salary. It was a joke. After the "promotion" I still make less than people who join at same level as my after-promotion level. It will take 7+ years within the company for me to advance to senior level. I left in 2010 to join another internet company as a Sr. dev, making a 50% more salary.