Losing out on an early five years of investing is huge. A ~$30k/yr stipend is not going to be enough to do anything with. > But there are ways for making up fo

Losing out on an early five years of investing is huge. A ~$30k/yr stipend is not going to be enough to do anything with. > But there are ways for making up for the lost pay; I do know of a few Data Science Managers who earlier dropped out of their Phd and earned good sums. Isn't this supporting my claim that a PhD is a bad deal, if people decide they are better off completing the program? I've also heard the story so many times. Once people have a good idea they realize that completing a PhD is just getting in the way. Instead of researching and studying for ~5yrs they leave and start a company/building a product.