got mine in chemistry in the mid-90s at an Australian university. i got it because i wanted to be a 'scientist' and that was how you got started - no-one in my

got mine in chemistry in the mid-90s at an Australian university. i got it because i wanted to be a 'scientist' and that was how you got started - no-one in my family knew @#$#@ about university. i liked being in the lab and being part of 'science' as an endevour. i got ground down by the post-doc cycle and it's incredibly hard on your significant others as you tend to move city/country chasing the full-time gig. eventually i got tired of that and moved on to other things. upside: when you say you don't understand what someone is saying, the person tends to assume they are not being clear, not that you can't keep up - this can be a super-power in some group dynamics. downside: it takes a long time and you're poor with little hope of recovering those 'losses' - having said that, the UK/Aus/NZ system is that it is typical that you finish in 3 years and there's a scholarship somewhere so you aren't going into a lot of debt - lot's of people end up in their late 20s with little to show for it except some blurry memories and photos of thigns they did. i'm the same except i get to call myself Dr if i care to - i would not be relaxed if i had a 7-figure debt to repay or i was in my early/mid-30s when i graduated. the only thing i would pass on to someone young is: if you want to do one do it, but don't go into (outrageous) debt and don't let it go on past your mid-20s and if that means not going to Stanford/MIT/etc then you might need to think about that. personally, i think a career in science is like a career in music or sports - nice work if you can get it but it's more of a crap shoot than most people will admit.