<p>Hey, so I'm hoping to get some opinions from grad students about higher education and how important it is is living a good life. If you could answer any or all of my questions, I would be very appreciative!</p>
<p>Do you think education is essential to living well?</p>
<p>What benefits are you expecting to get out of your continued education? E.g. job security? Higher pay? Emotional rewards? Etc...</p>
<p>Are you happy with your decision to go to grad school?</p>
<p>If you are not happy now, do expect your decision to bring you happiness at some later point?</p>
<p>What are the downsides of continuing your education?</p>
<p>Once again, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions!</p>
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<p>No I do not. It certainly opens lots of doors, but it isn’t even close to being essential to living well. For example, neither of my grandparents have a college education, yet my grandfather started his own insurance adjusting business based on experience he got as a carpenter VERY well. That is just one example though.</p>
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<p>I expect to be able to get a career that is a lot more interesting and cutting edge by doing research, something that is very limited when one only has a Bachelors. I will make a little more than otherwise, but that is just icing on the cake. The real reason is that I have a passion for research in my subject.</p>
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<p>1,000,000% yes!</p>
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<p>N/A</p>
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<p>The downside is that I am now making (through my stipend) roughly a third of what I would have been making had I accepted one of the jobs I was offered out of undergrad, and with that extra money, I probably would have been married by now.</p>
<p>^ Don’t worry, having “Dr.” before your last name is a huge wife-magnet ;)</p>
<p>Haha, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that I have a girlfriend of 3 years and if I had a $60k+ income, I could have afforded to buy a nice ring and pay for a wedding by now instead of having to slowly save up.</p>
<p>You’ll get there eventually! Best of luck, it sounds like you really love her :)</p>
<p><em>cue the collective ahww’s</em></p>
<p>Do you think education is essential to living well?
Essential? Nope, not even a bit. Quite the opposite in fact.</p>
<p>What benefits are you expecting to get out of your continued education? E.g. job security? Higher pay? Emotional rewards? Etc…
Continued independence in my day to day work. Access to administrative positions in the future with their attendant comfortable pay. Reputation in my field as an expert.</p>
<p>Are you happy with your decision to go to grad school?
Sure. Of all the choices I could have made when I chose to go to grad school, this was one of the better ones.</p>
<p>If you are not happy now, do expect your decision to bring you happiness at some later point?
I am happy now and if I weren’t I would immediately consider other alternatives. I hate to say it, but things don’t get better. In grad school you have job security, a community of peers, defined role, potential for anything, privilege within the university. See how many of those things carry through to postdocs.</p>
<p>What are the downsides of continuing your education?
Lost income from doing something more profitable, delay in family planning, delay in retirement savings, crazy work hours, potential for abuse.</p>
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<p>Nope. Not at all. </p>
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<p>I’m expecting to be able to get the job that I want. I suppose the job security might be a superlative of it, but its definitely not for the higher pay, I think I’ll most likely be making less. I went to grad school to pursue a career in research and I’m probably not going to be able to do what I want without a PhD.</p>
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<p>Most definitely. I mean, sometimes it’s frustrating to see some of my college buddies pulling in more money than they know what to do with, but such is life. I actually love what I do in school.</p>
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<p>The time commitment is pretty huge. ~5 years for a PhD is no small undertaking and it really alters the way you go about your young adult life. Buying a house or raising a family just isn’t in the cards right now financially.</p>
<p>Thanks so much everyone! I really enjoyed reading your responses. You’ve been very helpful :)</p>
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<p>no. plenty of people enter the trades and will make twice as much money as i, as an academic, could ever dream of, and they’re also really interesting, well-read people who get to have fun after 5 pm. so definitely no.</p>
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<p>benefits? i study something i think is important. i would be working on/towards similar issues outside of graduate school (as a journalist, my first “career,” or in an NGO), so this is merely a different way to do a lot of the same stuff. the individual research is very rewarding. the rest sucks. higher pay and job security do not exist in the social sciences.</p>
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<p>yes, but. yes, but i wish i could pick my program up and plunk it down on the west coast somewhere. yes, but i wish i wasn’t so far from my friends. yes, but i miss having a life.</p>
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<p>in two years i can move and finish my dissertation from anywhere. in two years i’ll be done the time-consuming coursework and get my life back (a little). so yes, the things i dislike right now will hopefully be gone soon, and then i’ll just have the good parts.</p>
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<p>i left a pretty exciting job to enter grad school. it definitely feels worth it when i’m working on my research. it definitely doesn’t feel worth it when i’m doing coursework. the job i left pays better than my graduate stipend does, and i was in an exciting city close to my friends, who are my surrogate family. i’ve lost my social life and i now have to count pennies to get by (the end of the month is tough). i don’t really care about money overall, but i’d like to have enough of it that i didn’t worry about my rent check bouncing each month. my stress levels have gone way up here, even though/especially knowing that so few people will read what i write here anyway.</p>
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Define “living well”
It depends what an individuals goals are. It also depends on what level of education you are talking about. It also depends on the individuals natural capabilities.</p>
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Increased marketability. Greater options. More disciplined thought. Sharper skills and a refresher on old skills. Networking and incite from others. Ideas and inspiration.</p>
<p>I’m self employed but If I need to look for work and MBA will make me more employable at my level (C-Suite or Upper Mgt.). Also increased employability at throw away jobs like PT work, consulting, teaching, etc.</p>
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Yes. This is a 2nd try after I dropped out of Law School. I don’t regret Law School either. I’ve already made use of my new “think like a lawyer” mojo.</p>
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N/A
Time from my work and tuition but all investments require some risk. The amount of risk you take is directly proportional to the amount of your possible returns.</p>
<p>To all the people responding: I’m curious what all your areas of study are? Thanks again!</p>
<p>Aerospace Engineering</p>