Hehe. Maybe this is why PhD programs have difficulty attracting American students, but are able to attract students from abroad. Incentives matter…
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Graduate Student vs. Unemployed3 comments to Graduate Student vs. Unemployed |
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Copyright © 2012 Amol Kapila - All Rights Reserved |
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Wow, where do I even start nitpicking at this post? Let’s see… to get unemployment you have to work first… the average unemployment is not what the average 20-something who goes to grad school could hope for… doing a PhD provides a wealth of intellectual joy that you can’t buy with money (that’s right folks, PhD’s and love)… a PhD is an investment into a higher salary so that if you averaged out salary not just during the PhD but over the whole career I believe it pays to get a PhD (but not much – if you are trying to maximize your salary I believe it’s statistically best to get an MS or MBA, but aren’t you more than a statistics?… and I could go on but as my last point: to be officially unemployed you have to be actively seeking a job which is perhaps a similar amount of work and emotional-challenge as doing a PhD
. Disclaimer: this comment written by an electrical engineering professor.
I basically agree with the Professor’s points. The post was mean mostly as a joke. However, despite the potentially higher salary and joy of learning that come with getting a PhD, the poor pay and long hours do deter some people. Many just aren’t willing to make that investment.
It is interesting to note that Americans still seem to flock to PhD programs in the humanities (although I don’t have hard numbers to confirm this). So, maybe the poor pay isn’t deterring Americans from getting a PhD. Maybe, they just don’t like technical disciplines, and there is a comparatively larger and better crop of foreign students for departments to choose from. In retrospect, that seems like a more convincing explanation.
short haircuts…
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