> Certainly a few, but if the past is any indication the universities are geared up to vastly overproduce No kidding. 90% of my cohort (who finished a PhD) wen

> Certainly a few, but if the past is any indication the universities are geared up to vastly overproduce No kidding. 90% of my cohort (who finished a PhD) went on to jobs outside academia, and my impression is that that’s pretty typical. > So why not cut the number of students in half and use the savings to boost the stipends? Easy, because then you have to hire more faculty. Even if you could pay faculty as little as grad students (you can’t—because they have other options), universities get away with failing to pay payroll taxes (social security, Medicare, unemployment insurance) for grad TAs because they are not classified as “employees”. Grad TAs also have essentially no benefits (no 401k, no vacation time, no sick time, crappy health insurance, etc.) Faculty are also likely to actually take their labor elsewhere if you jerk them around and treat them like minimum-wage retail employees (as many universities do to grad TAs): You will show up to your assigned sections (which may change at short notice). If you have a conflict, you need to find another TA to cover your time—and you will need to have the switch approved by your boss. One you have earned your PhD, who is going to teach a lab or recitation section part time for $20/hr under those conditions when you can earn literally 10x that figure in industry, and be treated like a king (relatively speaking)? In short, this whole thing makes more sense when you realize that graduate students are nothing more than cheap labor for universities.