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I guess it depends how you measure ROI? People usually do PhDs in an area that interests them; if they then go on to an academic or research position, it's poss
by vilya 15y ago
I guess it depends how you measure ROI? People usually do PhDs in an area that interests them; if they then go on to an academic or research position, it's possible for them to spend their entire career pursuing their own interests. That sounds like a pretty good ROI to me, regardless of salary!
- lurker17 15y agoA very small fraction of Ph.D graduates land professional research positions.
- hugh3 15y agoIt's not "very small", it's just significantly below unity. In, say, physics, I'd say that somewhere around 50% of PhDs wind up, long term, in professional research positions. That's 30% in academia, and the remaining 20% in government/military/commercial research labs.
- geebee 15y agoyeah, I much agree with lurker. I wish I had more data about this, but I suspect the percentage of PhD graduates (let alone people who enter PhD programs) that actually end up in the situation you've described is pretty low. Also, I just can't agree with a good ROI "regardless of salary". Salary can be lower - quite a bit lower, but there is a limit to the size of the gap. Graeenspun and the RAND study I referenced mentions this - that the financial sacrifice has gotten too great, even for the "winners".
- vilya 15y agoI was really just trying to make the point that there is more than one kind of return on an investment. Money isn't the only motivating factor.