Short answer: No, Long Answer: Maybe. Select your graduate school and advisor very carefully. If you have an advisor of the entrepreneurial type, then go work

Short answer: No, Long Answer: Maybe. Select your graduate school and advisor very carefully. If you have an advisor of the entrepreneurial type, then go work for this person and get your PhD. E,g: Working for Robert Morris. Some very interesting companies have come out of grad schools: Google, Yahoo, Akamai, Teoma, etc. It helps to go into grad school with an open mind, get your Masters and at that point in time, decide if you want to go ahead with a PhD. As a general rule of thumb, this line from the movie Ronin, helps: "Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122690/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122690/quotes (4th quote from top)