Anonymous wrote:This very much depends on the field. I made $30k on fellowship with full tuition each year of my PhD. That's about what I would have made with just a BS in chemistry. And I certainly didn't finish my PhD making $60k. Job offers were over 6 figures.

Not to mention, you were likely finally doing the work you actually want to do. A BA/BS in chemistry is known for only giving you "grunt work jobs in a lab". In order to do the real work most desire, you simply need the PHD. Not many major in Chem and think, I want to spend my life making $30K being a grunt in a lab.

Anonymous wrote:Hmmm…cousin finishing PhD next month is starting a job at $275K.

In what field?

This very much depends on the field. I made $30k on fellowship with full tuition each year of my PhD. That's about what I would have made with just a BS in chemistry. And I certainly didn't finish my PhD making $60k. Job offers were over 6 figures.

Anonymous wrote:Hmmm…cousin finishing PhD next month is starting a job at $275K.

Extreme outlier.

I didn’t realize it. My hippy-era socialist PhD parents raised me not to think about money. I don’t think they even understood the concept of opportunity cost, or if they did, would have been ideologically against the entire premise.

I regret my phd now. I wish I’d trained as a nurse or teacher. I’ve become pretty cynical about the quality and influence of most psychological and social science research, which is my training.

Hmmm…cousin finishing PhD next month is starting a job at $275K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are a huge waste of time & money. Massive opportunity cost. If you have undergrad student loans, you will have a very difficult time paying them down during a PhD program. People come out at 29 making $60k if they’re lucky, when they could’ve started making that at 22.

BS. Salaries of public college employees is public domain. A freshly minted Econ PhD gets $170K at GMU... and there are a 100+ GMUs across the country. I realize this is just one field and there will be several fields where you may not even get a job.. but hte same goes for a basket weaving major coming out of Harvard as well..

Which is nothing when you take into account that those freshly minted Econ PhDs are 30 years old & spent the past decade making nothing.

Anonymous wrote:They are a huge waste of time & money. Massive opportunity cost. If you have undergrad student loans, you will have a very difficult time paying them down during a PhD program. People come out at 29 making $60k if they’re lucky, when they could’ve started making that at 22.

I have two friends who have PhDs and hold well-paying jobs in private/public sectors - wouldn't have the jobs w/o the PhDs. These are not STEM PhDs. One had grad loans, but rich parents so they were handled. The other was paid from MA on - not huge amounts of money, but lived modestly and covered expenses.

Anonymous wrote:Nope, everyone who goes into a PhD program is an idiot.

MYOB.

I do think most are idiots & unemployable in the real world

Do people who [do something that I wouldn't do because they have difference preferences than I do] realize that they are idiots?

Anonymous wrote:They are a huge waste of time & money. Massive opportunity cost. If you have undergrad student loans, you will have a very difficult time paying them down during a PhD program. People come out at 29 making $60k if they’re lucky, when they could’ve started making that at 22.

BS. Salaries of public college employees is public domain. A freshly minted Econ PhD gets $170K at GMU... and there are a 100+ GMUs across the country. I realize this is just one field and there will be several fields where you may not even get a job.. but hte same goes for a basket weaving major coming out of Harvard as well..

Anonymous wrote:They are a huge waste of time & money. Massive opportunity cost. If you have undergrad student loans, you will have a very difficult time paying them down during a PhD program. People come out at 29 making $60k if they’re lucky, when they could’ve started making that at 22.

Damn! You are smart OP and you don't even have a PhD!

😂 Do you think people only get PhDs to teach at colleges or something?

Nope, everyone who goes into a PhD program is an idiot.

MYOB.

They are a huge waste of time & money. Massive opportunity cost. If you have undergrad student loans, you will have a very difficult time paying them down during a PhD program. People come out at 29 making $60k if they’re lucky, when they could’ve started making that at 22.