<p>I am currently a high school senior applying to colleges. I am putting on my applications that I wish to double major in economics and political science. This I am 100% certain about. What I am going to do with those degrees, however, is what I am uncertain about.</p>
<p>I have my graduate education narrowed down to a few options: law school, economics PhD, or political science PhD. So obviously I'm either interested in being a professor or being a lawyer. However, the problem occurs when I turn on the computer and read the news. I constantly see stories about how law school graduates are flooding the markets and that lawyers are having to do jobs that don't necessarily require that $200,000+ J.D. burning a hole in their pocket. On the flip side, I see the same kinds of stories talking about professors. Apparently there are too many PhD holders and too few full-time faculty positions. I don't want to work as an adjunct at three different universities.</p>
<p>Are both of these career paths as overpopulated and competitive as the media makes them out to be?</p>
<p>Additionally, I'd love to hear from people that are actually lawyers or professors. How do you like your jobs? To me, being a professor would be a dream come true if it paid twice what the going wage currently is. And a job as a lawyer would be a dream come true if I didn't have to work myself into insanity.</p>
<p>I have more pros and cons to each, which I will elaborate upon later, but at this time I want to start by getting the answer to the question: should I be worried about getting a job as a lawyer or a professor due to limited positions available and a flooded market of graduates? Should a lawyer/professor with a degree (JD/PhD) from University of Florida be just as worried (as far as job prospects go) as a graduate from Princeton, Stanford, etc?</p>
<p>Over his/her career, each tenured faculty member at a research university mentors and supervises dozens of graduate students to completion of PhD degrees. Obviously, this is much more than the number of PhD graduates needed to replace the tenured faculty member when s/he retires. This means that the “excess” PhD graduates have to find other jobs:</p>
<ul>
<li>Faculty at other four year colleges (LACs, master’s degree universities, etc.).</li>
<li>Faculty at community colleges.</li>
<li>Faculty at high schools (need teaching credential).</li>
<li>Non-university research jobs (e.g. think tanks, research for government policy makers like central banks, staff jobs for politicians or political parties, etc.).</li>
<li>Industry jobs (finance seems to be a likely place for PhD economics graduates).</li>
<li>Other jobs, possibly not directly related to major.</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition, you don’t necessarily have to get your PhD right away. In fact, I personally would not get a PhD unless it was paid for by someone else, or I knew I could do it otherwise without debt.</p>
<p>Awesome! That makes me a little less worried to dive into an economics PhD program. I know that there are multiple avenues for me to explore as far as employment is concerned.</p>
<p>If I am interested in industry jobs in economics / finance, how much will a PhD help me? Would it be more beneficial to just get a master’s degree in economics and then try to find a job? Or does the PhD simply open more doors? How much would a law degree help with economics? Having an economics master’s or economics PhD + a law degree for applying to corporate finance jobs?</p>
<p>One thing that I would spend some time researching are colleges where finance sector firms recruit actively and heavily. On-campus recruiting is probably one of the best factors for getting into that industry and they can give you strong guidance on what kind of degree you need. Some of my friends who were Econ majors did not need grad school to get into business consulting at firms such as Deloitte and Accenture, but I am not sure if most firms would preference candidates with masters’ degress or phDs. </p>
<p>Most reputable PhD programs offer significant majority of their students financial support (tuition, stipend, and often medical insurance) through fellowships, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships. </p>
<p>My general advice would be, do not attend a PhD program which does not support you. </p>
<p>^Yes, do not attend a PHD program that does not support you financially and make sure to choose a top program in your field and/or a "big name"for grad school.
Top14 JD programs may also offer funded opportunities to lure the best applicants away from MBAs.
Overall, there are more jobs for JDs from top programs than for PHDs from top programs.
Before you worry about this though, get through college. I know you’re ambitious and able, and since odds are you’ll make it through at NCF academically at least, but from there you can go to law school or grad school. Just keep the door open to see what you’d love to do and if you haven’t decided, work a little before you decide.</p>