Why do so many people continue to pursue doctorates?

[YankeeFan]

10 years, a lot of debt, and no job.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

Opportunity to spend more time with parents is tough to pass up.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Why do so many pursue law degrees?

Only 20% Of Recent Grads Say Law Degree Really Worth It - Law360

 

[JC]

How much debt is it if you plan on defaulting on your loans?

 

[Dick Whitman]

10 years, a lot of debt, and no job.

Because people are told from a young age to pursue what they love and "the money will follow." And, of course, no one believes that they will be the one on the outside looking in for a job. They have all been academic successes to this point, and fully expect it will continue.

 

[cjericho]

Do they love just going to school forever and racking up debt?

 

[LongTimeListener]

My boys have this picture (as I think a lot of people do) that Ph.D. means you're at the top of the field. Fortunately we have some very wise friends/family in the tech industry to tell them master's is where it's at for marketability, and that a doctorate is useful only to make academia a life.

Not everyone hears that kind of advice, though.

 

[CD Boogie]

Because tomorrow is promised to no one and you might as well do what you enjoy and work toward something. This isn't someone taking out a $100,000 loan to shoot smack. I think of my favorite college professor who wrote his doctoral thesis on the 18th century poet Thomas Gray. He wrote several books on him and made a living by teaching college courses. He never became wealthy, but he's spent most of his life engaged with subject material he loves, which is a huge reward in itself. I don't think anyone pursues a doctorate thinking it's going to ruin their lives. If so, they should just go the smack route.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Do they love just going to school forever and racking up debt?

"Yes" to the first question, and "they don't care about that" to the second question.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

Navigating the workforce is likely made that much more difficult if you put it off for a decade.

 

[JohnHammond]

Who pays to get a Ph.D? Anyway, if you do get a job in academia, you can wipe away your student loan debt in 10 years.

 

[Ace]

So people have to call me Doctor Ace.

 

[User 11148]

Because who wouldn't want my life?

 

[Dick Whitman]

Because who wouldn't want my life?

Good Lord, between this and the "Wright Thompson seeks advice from me" post, it's officially Humblebrag Hour around here! :)

 

[User 11148]

Good Lord, between this and the "Wright Thompson seeks advice from me" post, it's officially Humblebrag Hour around here! :)

I have, mercifully, not been following that.

 

[typefitter]

I don't think many people pay to do a PhD, do they? Not in Canada anyway. I lived in a grad residence in school, and my impression of PhDs was that they were in love with deeply weird things—I remember one was doing his thesis on Medieval birth control—and doing a PhD gave them several years of a pretty enviable lifestyle in pursuit of that strange passion. There are worse ways to spend your twenties than being paid to become an expert in something.

 

[typefitter]

Good Lord, between this and the "Wright Thompson seeks advice from me" post, it's officially Humblebrag Hour around here! :)

If you're talking about my post, I didn't say he came to me for advice. I said we talked about his story and he said he was going to get Tiger, which would have been his way to one-up me, because he knew I didn't get him in the past.

I mean, I guess I "advised" him that he wouldn't. Good advice, turns out.

 

[swingline]

A Ph.D. in almost any engineering field is golden because you can teach or be a titan of industry, especially in petroleum.

 

[LongTimeListener]

A Ph.D. in almost any engineering field is golden because you can teach or be a titan of industry, especially in petroleum.

Both of my in-laws who got their engineering Ph.D.s (big-time school) say they never made a penny more than they would have if they had stopped at their master's. But one is now in academia, so it helped there.

 

[swingline]

LTL, yes, that's pretty much true that a masters -- or, hell, even a bachelors -- in engineering can set you up nicely. The Ph.D. is mostly for academia, although I'm sure a lot of NASA folks have them.