3 ms·

Was the PhD worth it in your opinion?

cherryteastain 3y ago
From a purely economic standpoint, difficult to say. I was able to build skills that are very in demand in certain technical areas, and breaking into these areas is notoriously difficult otherwise. On the other hand, I earned peanuts for many years. It'll probably take some time for it to pay off. That said, never do a PhD for economic reasons alone. It's a period in your life where you are given an opportunity to build up any idea you would like. I enjoyed that aspect very much and hence do not regret it one bit. On the other hand, I also found out that academia sucks so I now work in a completely different field. Unfortunately it's very difficult to find out whether you'll like academia short of doing a PhD, so you should always go into it with a plan B in the back of your head.
- mckn1ght 3y ago
  I feel this comment. I did a masters with a thesis option because I was not hurting for money with TA and side business income, so figured I could take the extra year (it was an accelerated masters). Loved being able to work in that heady material, but disliked some parts of the academic environment. Was glad I could see it with less time and stress than a PhD. Even so, I still never say never for a PhD, but it’d have to be a perfect confluence of conditions.
- godelski 3y ago
  > On the other hand, I also found out that academia sucks I also found that I don't want to be a good academic, but a good researcher. Most importantly, that these are two very different things.
jgeada 3y ago
Hard to say whether economically a PhD always makes sense, but it certainly can open doors that are otherwise firmly closed.
- randomdata 3y ago
  Well, sure. Everything you end up doing in life will open doors that would have otherwise remained firmly closed if you did something else instead.
  - hutzlibu 3y ago
    "Everything you end up doing in life will open doors that would have otherwise remained firmly closed" Oh no. It is also quite possible to do things, that will very firmly close doors, that were open before, or making sure some doors will never open .. (quite some doors are also not worth going through)
    - randomdata 3y ago
      Of course. In fact, it is widely recognized that in a poor economy PhDs can be in an especially bad economic place as any jobs that are available deem them "overqualified".
dahart 3y ago
What does worth it mean? FWIW PhDs are really more or less required if you want to teach at a university, or do academic research, or do private/industrial research. Most companies that hire researchers look primarily for PhDs. The other reason would be to get to have 5 years to explore and study some subject in depth and become an expert, but that tends to go hand-in-hand with wanting to do research as a career. If you don’t want to teach college or do research, then PhD might be a questionable choice, and if you do it’s not really a choice, it’s just a prerequisite. The two sibling comments both mention the economics isn’t guaranteed - and of course nothing is guaranteed on a case by case basis. However, you should be aware that people with PhDs in the US earn an average of around 1.5x more than people with bachelor’s degrees, and the income average for advanced degrees is around 3x higher than people without a 4-year degree. Patents are pretty well dominated by people with PhDs. There’s lots of stats on all this, but I learned it specifically from a report by the St Louis Fed that examined both the incomes as well as the savings rates for people with different educational attainment levels, and also looked at the changing trends over the years, and the differences by race. Statistically speaking, the economics absolutely favor getting an advanced degree of some kind, whether it’s a PhD or MD or JD or whatever.

From a purely economic standpoint, difficult to say. I was able to build skills that are very in demand in certain technical areas, and breaking into these areas is notoriously difficult otherwise. On the other hand, I earned peanuts for many years. It'll probably take some time for it to pay off. That said, never do a PhD for economic reasons alone. It's a period in your life where you are given an opportunity to build up any idea you would like. I enjoyed that aspect very much and hence do not regret it one bit. On the other hand, I also found out that academia sucks so I now work in a completely different field. Unfortunately it's very difficult to find out whether you'll like academia short of doing a PhD, so you should always go into it with a plan B in the back of your head.

mckn1ght 3y ago
I feel this comment. I did a masters with a thesis option because I was not hurting for money with TA and side business income, so figured I could take the extra year (it was an accelerated masters). Loved being able to work in that heady material, but disliked some parts of the academic environment. Was glad I could see it with less time and stress than a PhD. Even so, I still never say never for a PhD, but it’d have to be a perfect confluence of conditions.
godelski 3y ago
> On the other hand, I also found out that academia sucks I also found that I don't want to be a good academic, but a good researcher. Most importantly, that these are two very different things.

jgeada 3y ago

Hard to say whether economically a PhD always makes sense, but it certainly can open doors that are otherwise firmly closed.

randomdata 3y ago
Well, sure. Everything you end up doing in life will open doors that would have otherwise remained firmly closed if you did something else instead.
- hutzlibu 3y ago
  "Everything you end up doing in life will open doors that would have otherwise remained firmly closed" Oh no. It is also quite possible to do things, that will very firmly close doors, that were open before, or making sure some doors will never open .. (quite some doors are also not worth going through)
  - randomdata 3y ago
    Of course. In fact, it is widely recognized that in a poor economy PhDs can be in an especially bad economic place as any jobs that are available deem them "overqualified".

dahart 3y ago

What does worth it mean? FWIW PhDs are really more or less required if you want to teach at a university, or do academic research, or do private/industrial research. Most companies that hire researchers look primarily for PhDs. The other reason would be to get to have 5 years to explore and study some subject in depth and become an expert, but that tends to go hand-in-hand with wanting to do research as a career. If you don’t want to teach college or do research, then PhD might be a questionable choice, and if you do it’s not really a choice, it’s just a prerequisite. The two sibling comments both mention the economics isn’t guaranteed - and of course nothing is guaranteed on a case by case basis. However, you should be aware that people with PhDs in the US earn an average of around 1.5x more than people with bachelor’s degrees, and the income average for advanced degrees is around 3x higher than people without a 4-year degree. Patents are pretty well dominated by people with PhDs. There’s lots of stats on all this, but I learned it specifically from a report by the St Louis Fed that examined both the incomes as well as the savings rates for people with different educational attainment levels, and also looked at the changing trends over the years, and the differences by race. Statistically speaking, the economics absolutely favor getting an advanced degree of some kind, whether it’s a PhD or MD or JD or whatever.