

What is a PhD Really Worth? - rflrob
http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2011/110421/full/nj7343-381a.html

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cyrus_
1\. You learn how to think rigorously about complex ideas in graduate school.
Believe it or not, that is valuable in any career.

2\. You are free to work on projects that are ridiculously ambitious in
graduate school. Show me a VC willing to fund a (tech-sector) project with a
ten-year R&D cycle (actually, if you're out there, contact me!)

3\. The academic culture is quite nice for folks of a naturally intellectual
persuasion. The business culture is rife with lax ethical practices and hand-
wavy belief systems that, for a certain type of person, can be draining to
deal with. Academia has some of this, but its not even close to being of
comparable magnitude.

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bgalbraith
tl;dr - we learn how to get by with less...

Thanks Nature, I'm glad that the main value you see in our spending 4+ years
in advanced scientific study amounts to building a healthy respect for free
food.

In pure economic terms, yes, the PhD seems almost always the wrong option. I'm
curious about other factors such as general wellbeing and quality of life.
Though chasing nonexistent tenure track positions while hopping from postdoc
to postdoc probably isn't all that great.. Straight to industry for me.

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FaceKicker
You don't get a Ph.D. for the money...everyone knows that. You get it so you
can be a professional researcher (if that is in fact what you want).

