A doctoral program makes sense for someone who wants to spend the rest of his/her life studying something that can't be studied except in an academic context. I

A doctoral program makes sense for someone who wants to spend the rest of his/her life studying something that can't be studied except in an academic context. It makes sense for no one else. In particular, it is usually silly to do a doctorate if one's ambitions are to make money or succeed professionally in business/commerce/engineering. On the other hand, if those are one's ambitions, one generally doesn't have the sort of passion needed for research.