4 ms·

Generally people who want to pursue a PhD do not do it for the money. A PhD is about loving the field you're in and loving research.

by dlaz 18y ago

geebee 18y ago
True, but there comes a point where the sacrifices become too great. My father is a professor (albeit of Medicine, where salaries are actually pretty good). He easily bought a house in a great neighborhood in San Francisco. On our street, there was a retired cop and a firefighter, and a Communications Professor at SF State. A good friend of mine's father was a physics professor at SF State, and they owned a nice, spacious house in the Sunset. Another buddies parents were both public high school teachers, owned a house in the Sunset no problem(one was full time, the other part time). My brother is now a professor (tenure track) at SF State. He decided against renting his own 1br (too expensive), so he rooms with a buddy from high school (who teaches high school math). So these two guys in their early 30s, one of whom is a success story out of his PhD program, rent with a roommate -where their parents easily bought and supported families. You can say "well, that's the market at work", but then you lose your right to fret about the shortage of Americans in PhD programs in the sciences. Back when it meant you'll never be rich, but you'll be able to afford a modest house in the western half of San Francisco", I could accept the argument that it's not about the money. But nobody will sign up for 6 years of post-grad + another couple of post-doc for near financial hopelessness or banishment to tiny towns far from the coasts... Unless, of course, it's the only way to get legal residency in the US. Evidently, the US has decided to use this reality to staff PhD level positions in science and engineering - in spite of all this talk about getting Americans interested in math and science. Everything else is just pissing in the wind, as far as I'm concerned.

Generally people who want to pursue a PhD do not do it for the money. A PhD is about loving the field you're in and loving research.

by dlaz 18y ago

Generally people who want to pursue a PhD do not do it for the money. A PhD is about loving the field you're in and loving research.

geebee 18y ago

True, but there comes a point where the sacrifices become too great. My father is a professor (albeit of Medicine, where salaries are actually pretty good). He easily bought a house in a great neighborhood in San Francisco. On our street, there was a retired cop and a firefighter, and a Communications Professor at SF State. A good friend of mine's father was a physics professor at SF State, and they owned a nice, spacious house in the Sunset. Another buddies parents were both public high school teachers, owned a house in the Sunset no problem(one was full time, the other part time). My brother is now a professor (tenure track) at SF State. He decided against renting his own 1br (too expensive), so he rooms with a buddy from high school (who teaches high school math). So these two guys in their early 30s, one of whom is a success story out of his PhD program, rent with a roommate -where their parents easily bought and supported families. You can say "well, that's the market at work", but then you lose your right to fret about the shortage of Americans in PhD programs in the sciences. Back when it meant you'll never be rich, but you'll be able to afford a modest house in the western half of San Francisco", I could accept the argument that it's not about the money. But nobody will sign up for 6 years of post-grad + another couple of post-doc for near financial hopelessness or banishment to tiny towns far from the coasts... Unless, of course, it's the only way to get legal residency in the US. Evidently, the US has decided to use this reality to staff PhD level positions in science and engineering - in spite of all this talk about getting Americans interested in math and science. Everything else is just pissing in the wind, as far as I'm concerned.