<p>If your degree was actually worth more at the bachelor's level, like say engineering, mathematics or accounting, would you have gone back to do a master's or doctorate's? I know there are some people doing grad school for the pure love of the subject, but mostly, for liberal arts majors, its something thats required these days to just live more comfortably, isn't it?</p>
<p>I don’t understand what you’re saying. Going to grad school is even more worth it for engineering and accounting (assuming you don’t have enouch credits to sit for the CPA), from everything I’ve read the pay increase is higher.</p>
<p>What happens frequently in the biomedical sciences is that getting a Phd decreases the number of jobs out there for you. This is of course balanced by the fact that the jobs available are higher paying, more autonomous and generally better jobs.</p>
<p>Actually, for a lot of engineering fields the PhD is not really that valuable. The increase in pay after the degree rarely does more than match the pay lost during the degree program. The exception is that there are some jobs that are really only open to PhD’s, mostly professorships and research jobs, and in general reaching the top levels is easier with the higher degrees. But that can take a long time to realize - 10 years after a PhD you may be wondering why you bothered.</p>
<p>I guess I’m in it for the love of the subject. And the hat.</p>
<p>You think an MS in engineering is worth less than a bachelor’s? Really?</p>
<p>Anyway, I eventually want a PhD in computer science. There are fewer PhD-level CS jobs than there are BS/MS-level jobs, but there are still lots of them, and they’re the sort that I want. If everything then falls through and I can’t get a job anywhere, there are other things that I could fall back on and still be happy.</p>
<p>In the last two companies in which I have worked, a newly hired holder of an MS is goung to make a little more than someone with the BS who worked during that time. The difference is that the BS holder was working and making 2-4x what the MS holder was as a grad student. In the long run it does pay off, as higher positions are increasingly dominated by MS holders, but it takes a while and is no guarantee.</p>
<p>I think the OP was referring to a hypothetical situation. IF the MS/PhD was worth less money, would you still go to school for it?</p>
<p>For me, that’s a yes. I feel that attaining a PhD in my field (biomed research) is the most efficient way to reach the intellectual freedom I would want over a large range of projects.</p>
<p>PhDs, in many situations, can be worth less on a discounted returns basis than simply working your way up the ladder with a BA. Depends on the field, though.</p>
<p>Of course not. Although I love my field and I do want the Ph.D, if it wasn’t going to be worth it both financially and career-wise, why would I slave away for 5+ years, giving up the majority of my social life and the option to live with my fiance and near my family, on less than $30K in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S.? Particularly if I could do what I wanted to do with a BA that I earned virtually for free? Pshaw. There’s not that much love in the world.</p>
<p>juillet,</p>
<p>Tell that to all the people get PhDs in humanities.</p>
<p>UCLAri: LOL, I know!</p>