Re:Advice for Prospective PhD Students
by BeetleB on Monday October 09, 2023 @01:59PM
(#37823229)
First off: SW is an outlier. The opportunity cost is a lot lower in most other STEM fields. And for a few, the net wealth is actually more with a PhD (see what jobs you can get with just a biology/chemistry undergrad, for example).
It is problematic to view it purely from the perspective of money. Consider the huge non-financial opportunity cost to not doing a PhD. If you get a PhD, you still have a chance of founding a business and becoming a multimillionaire. If you don't do a PhD, you'll almost certainly not get the benefits of the PhD ever.
I look at my friends who went straight to industry after their undergrad, and compare with myself and those who did a PhD, and there's a notable difference. If your advisor is not a slave driver[1], you'll have more time to introspect and be exposed to many perspectives/disciplines, at high concentration, than you have time for with a full time job. You can do it after work, but only if you opt not to have a life. It will takes perhaps 10 years of consuming all your non work time to perhaps match up 5 years of grad school. Pretty much no one goes this route.
Put another way: If your son discovered he had more earning potential if he never completed high school, would you say "Go for it!"?
[1] And contrary to what you read on HN, many are not.
It is problematic to view it purely from the perspective of money. Consider the huge non-financial opportunity cost to not doing a PhD. If you get a PhD, you still have a chance of founding a business and becoming a multimillionaire. If you don't do a PhD, you'll almost certainly not get the benefits of the PhD ever.
I look at my friends who went straight to industry after their undergrad, and compare with myself and those who did a PhD, and there's a notable difference. If your advisor is not a slave driver[1], you'll have more time to introspect and be exposed to many perspectives/disciplines, at high concentration, than you have time for with a full time job. You can do it after work, but only if you opt not to have a life. It will takes perhaps 10 years of consuming all your non work time to perhaps match up 5 years of grad school. Pretty much no one goes this route.
Put another way: If your son discovered he had more earning potential if he never completed high school, would you say "Go for it!"?
[1] And contrary to what you read on HN, many are not.