<p>a PhD is also not some “other” type of degree that is held at the exclusion of a BS. A PhD has already gone through the BS process and must have gotten at least a moderately high grade and hands on experience. The self selection of PhDs alone would increase their average skill beyond that of the average BS holder.</p>
<p>I don’t know how to put it but I’ll just say this: A GCMS is the same instrument whether you use it for cutting edge research, or you use it for analyzing cake samples for QC. The exact same organic reactions are used in preparation of cutting edge drug research, and in everyday chemical plant operations. You don’t need specific experience in analyzing cake samples with a GCMS, to know how to do that, if you already used a GCMS to analyze cutting edge cancer drugs - the principles are the same. They don’t magically change when you go from a lab located at a university to a lab located outside the university. Electrical engineers can design supercomputers, but who says someone that can design a supercomputer can’t design an electric watch? If someone went through their PhD they’ll know how to apply their new cutting edge knowledge, to problems at the BS level, that someone at the BS level would struggle to do with equal experience.</p>
<p>PhDs don’t just take courses. They usually take only 7-10 in fact. They have hands on technical training that is paid for. Most employers will not give you the same depth of technical training, and especially not creative research/design, for the first 5 years. Who will put a new graduate on the design team of a new nuclear power plant? Who will put a new graduate on the design team for a new cancer drug?</p>