<p>So, I'm a college junior currently majoring in physics but I want to switch to computer science so that I can graduate on time, and also work for a year to earn money as a software engineer before going back to grad school for a PhD in either artificial intelligence or biomedical engineering. Something with computers.</p>
<p>I'm afraid I'll get stuck in industry because I would like the salary too much and not want to pursue graduate education. </p>
<p>What's the starting salary like for someone with only a couple of months of CS internship graduating from a good UC in the bay area? Would it be bad to earn money for a year, and then go back for a PhD in a related field?</p>
<p>Please help!</p>
<p>Starting salary for a CS major will be between 50-85k. Average probably around 65k. It would not be bad to earn money for a year, then come back for a PhD. But if your heart is really set on the PhD, then you wouldn’t <em>want</em> to work for a year. you’d want to jump right into it!</p>
<p>Which makes me believe maybe, you want the PhD for what you perceive as “prestige”?</p>
<p>A lot of people take a year or two (or even more) off between undergraduate and graduate school. It can help define your interests, give you some time to learn how to live on your own, allow you to save a little, and give you a breather from academic life before embarking on what will probably be the more intense intellectual period of your life. Although JamesMadison is correct that you need passion to enter a PhD program, people who wait a couple of years are not necessarily less passionate than those who enter straight from undergraduate. In fact, the straight-from-undergraduate people sometimes apply to graduate school because they don’t know what else to do.</p>
<p>Choosing when to apply to graduate school is an individual decision. While it may be difficult to give up the salary, you will be willing to do it if you really want that PhD. You will know.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses.</p>
<p>I think part of the reason I want to be making money is because of the state of the economy, especially in California, and also because in general everybody around me seems to complaining about money and I get the sense that to succeed, you really need money!</p>
<p>I know this is very superficial of me, but another main reason to work is because I want to buy fancy stuff, drive a nice car blasting music, eat good food at restaurants and spend money with my friends on the weekend, and pretty much show off. That would make me feel so good! I just feel like this would be a good one year break from the dullness of academia, where I can truly develop my personality and find out who I truly am, while also building social skills at work and on the weekends at nightclubs. </p>
<p>After that, I plan on returning to grad school for a PhD utilizing my computer science skills, and get involved with artificial intelligence, or the other wave of the future, obviously becoming more serious while also satisfying my intellectual needs.</p>
<p>What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Speechless at what? ^</p>