

Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time - georgecmu
http://www.economist.com/node/17723223?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/the_disposable_academic

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therobot24
The article seems to whine more than the grad students they refer to, claiming
a lack of earnings, cheap labor, and whimsical prospects for a job. Yes it's
cheap labor, yes it's hard work, and yes it can be a grueling experience, but
if money is the only reason in pursuing a PhD then yea it's totally not worth
it.

I guess i'm biased because i'm in the process of getting my phd, but doing a
phd has push me to my mental limits, learning and doing more than i figured i
would ever be able to do. Comparing this with a masters degree seems like
apples and oranges in terms of expertise, motivation, and general knowledge of
the field. Anecdotally, from most of my experience when i view/work with/take
classes with/talk to/interact with masters students i generally see three
types of people:

1) those who are using a masters to get into a phd program

2) those who just want to raise their salary in industry (already in industry)

3) those who are having trouble finding a job so they go back to school

Each of them are interested in expanding their knowledge and solving hard
problems, but somehow all three types seem more overworked than many of my
colleagues who are in the phd track. Of the three types, (2) makes the best
partners for projects and often know their stuff pretty well. Though, with
exception for the work that goes toward a research lab (masters student
working with a professor), again, from my experience, the quality of the
assignments, projects, and papers (sometimes including conference) from (1)
and (3) is just completely lacking. Often showing that the student really does
not have a grasp of what exactly they are doing. Then i look at any second
year phd in the same class/project (because lets face it, as a first year it
takes time to get your feet wet) and i'm often blown away by some of the cool
stuff they can come up with (even as just a class project outside of their
research). This may have been a bit overdrawn to state my point, but the most
valuable thing you get out of a phd is a solid understanding of the topics
you're interested in. Over worked with low pay is just the price you pay to
get it - even if you spent all your time at home doing coursera and open
source projects, you're pretty close to being in the same boat.

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asafira
I'm surprised this isn't getting at least a few more upvotes, but I think it's
an article that lays down a lot of facts and doesn't just lay down a couple
and them embellishes them with some strong subjectivity.

Does anyone have a solution to this mismatch between the needs of those in
industry and the needs of those in a lab?

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mheathr
I agree that the article is well written for the scope the author targets,
however I think it is disingenuous to group all PhD fields into the same
demographic as the return on investment for pursuing that degree is not
equivalent for each area.

Further, using only monetary reward as a metric for PhD utility is not
reflective of the reasons why people pursue a PhD.

Even excluding monetary reward and the fact that a PhD is often required to do
original research in industry (and receive a position as a professor at a
university), the people pursuing a PhD are doing so because they are obsessed
with the area they are studying and want to have sufficient knowledge to
expand the available information known about the field.

The article is overly dismissive of knowledge being considered as its own
reward among the demographic and eschews the trait to focus only on monetary
reward, and as a result the conclusion is nonsensical by concluding that the
smartest individuals in their areas of interest are habitually irrational
actors.

An individual has to reach the giants to be able to stand on their toes so to
speak and getting a PhD is often a requirement for even being given a chance
to do so.

A more damning reason to not pursue a PhD is that the hours are insane and
academia is increasingly less available as a career path, which for a lot of
fields is the only option for employment that will utilize the specialized
knowledge for a PhD holding individual.

