This Grad Student Bought a Home at the Start of His Doctoral Program

This Grad Student Bought a Home at the Start of His Doctoral Program

From Personal Finance for PhDs by Emily Roberts

February 9, 2026 · 37 min · Season 23 · Episode 3

About this episode

Ethan Muller shares his experience of buying a home as a first-year doctoral student and discusses the financial and emotional aspects of home ownership.

In this episode, Emily interviews Ethan Muller, a first-year doctoral student in theology at Villanova University. Ethan and his wife purchased their first home outside of Philadelphia at the start of his six-year program. Ethan shares the details of his and his wife's financial profile, their emotional readiness to become homeowners, and their plans for the home once he finishes his program. After local mortgage lenders were unable to work with him due to his student status and 9-month stipend, Ethan connected with Sam Hogan, who knew exactly how to make the lending process much faster and easier. Ethan and Emily close the conversation by discussing which other PhD students should consider home ownership.

People in this episode

Host: Emily Roberts

Guest: Ethan Muller

Topics covered

  • home ownership
  • graduate student finance
  • mortgage process
  • emotional readiness
  • PhD student advice

Keywords

  • graduate student
  • home buying
  • mortgage
  • PhD
  • financial profile
  • home ownership
  • Villanova University

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Villanova University, Sam Hogan

Places: Philadelphia

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