If you and your partner both have PhDs...

[Anonymous]

We work in scientific research, outside of academia. If I look at colleagues' kids, at most half went into a STEM field. About 20% of colleagues kids have some form of special needs, such as ASD, and I feel for those families because their life is so tough. The kids who did go into STEM often went into a related specialty, but not the exact same speciality as either parent. In one case, the parent was in Optics but the son works in RF.

[Anonymous]

I am a PhD JD, my husband is an MD PhD.

Our daughter is very bright, and a good student in one of the best private schools.

It has never occurred to me to encourage her to get a PhD. I would not want her to become a university professor. That would not be the path to financial success or happiness.

My PhD was a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

I am the immediate PP. I should add that my husband wasted ten years as a medical researcher at a top university, working for a ridiculously low salary, spending nights and weekends in the lab, while cranking out one hundred scientific publications.

Now he works in private practice, earns x8, and has a better work-life balance. His PhD is completely superfluous now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn’t surprised to learn that both of Pete Buttigieg’s parents are professors.

As a PhD, all my grad school friends from 'flyover' places had professor parents. Not always true of those from cities. Anyways that is my sample size of 1.

In general with anything specialized, things don't fall far from the tree. Look at finance, politics, sports, and entertainment.