Two (somewhat contrary) things:
- It is true that a PhD is necessary to go into academia, that the number of places available in academia is **tiny** and that not everybody in the academic world is honest about that. However, it's not exactly a secret. So...
- Becoming an adult is about taking on responsibility for planning your own life. PhD’s are all about research, and that applies to researching your own options. The author of the piece provides no evidence that PhDs from MIT are struggling to find jobs- the survey cited notes that almost 12% of students who have yet to graduate are still looking for jobs. Not exactly a bloodbath. My still-in-undergrad collegekid, currently visiting unis to decide which PhD offer she will choose, is already well ahead of the author on most of the points raised in the article.
So, my take on this article is that it is a good wake-up call for people who have sleep-walked through the educational process, just coloring inside the lines and getting the marks to get to the next level- but not examining what they want, what it takes to get there, making the effort to go to the endless networking opportunities available to students at most well-ranked universities (much less MIT!), but just expecting it to happen. Sounds almost like ‘I’m about to get my PhD from MIT- where is the line of people waiting to offer me a job?!’